Lioness at the gate

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The alarm buzzes annoyingly and we both turn over. But this wont do, we have 9.30am tuckers to visit Seville Alcazaba and we have been told to arrive at least 20 minutes early to clear security and to make sure that we don’t miss our time slot…if the clock says a minute after 9.50am we will be denied access with no refund on our tickets!

We shower and eat a hurried breakfast then its off through the relative cool of early morning on the route we have come to know quite well. Passing the Cathedral and the Archive of the Indies, we arrive at Lions Gate at precisely 9am. We are the first to arrive, closely followed by a Filipino gentleman and his two American friends. We have started a queue.

Hmmm, looks like we didn’t need to be here half an hour early then after all? Yes, we did the Filipino assures us…you will be amazed how quickly this queue will grow! Turns out he’s an old hand at the game, having visited many times…he has lived all over, but more recently in Alicante. He just came to show his friends the place. We can’t have been chatting more than 5 minutes and I look round to see a massive queue behind us.

The Lion’s Gate is open but they are not letting us in. Instead an aggressive uniformed woman is grumbling very loudly at us in Spanish. She us lugging out metal bollards and we get the gist…we have to move back! Everyone in the long snakey line shuffles back…and as if to make her point, she gets an extra ‘no entry’ strap to make it clear that she’s in the inside and we are on the out! With that the harridan disappears banging the huge wooden door shut behind her.

Ten minutes have passed and the lioness is back with two more bollards. As if ten was not enough! She gestures at us to shift and we all edge back again. We can no longer see the end of the queue. It’s 9.25am and our lioness has disappeared behind the thick wooden doors again.

At 9.30am precisely- and seriously not a second either side of it - the wooden doors are opened and a cheerful chappie saunters out wishing us all a ‘bueno dia’. Tickets are scanned and passports waved through (they don’t even open them to check) and our bags are in the scanner. Ian is setting all the alarms off with the buckle on his belt whilst my metal hip has no effect in it whatsoever.

So we are inside, and the first to enter today so we just have chance to take a few clean photos before the crowds burst through. I’d hoped to find the ‘patio de las doncellas’ (handmaidens patio), said to be the prettiest, before anyone else but no such luck! Never mind, its certainly not as packed as the Alhambra.

The Alcazaba is similar to Alhambra; same moorish influence, built at a similar time, and rebuilt / reused by Catholic princes. Not surprising then that the interior rooms feel the same as Alhambra, although the Alcazaba has more public rooms that were ornately decorated. They also make more use of water - there are far more fountains and pools. Alhambra is situated on a high rocky outcrop, with imposing walls. The Alcazaba is on level ground, so its walls appear far more substantial and, because of the different cultures and timescales of build, there are concentric rings of walls.

On leaving the building centre, we pass through the moorish walls to the early Catholic gardens, a Catholic defensive wall, later Catholic gardens, followed by another set of Catholic walls. As each set of walls were added, the earlier walls became less defensive and more decorative/functional with balustrades and balconies giving views of the formal gardens.

The Alcazaba is certainly impressive, and, after more than 2 hours, very busy. When we leave, we see a long queue to buy tickets, and an even longer one to enter, once they had tickets - we are both glad that we bought ours online.

Our ticket states that it also entitles us to visit four other places…a pity that two of them are permanently closed!

We are very near the university (former tobacco factory) and today the gates are open. We are allowed to enter the central building comprising a couple of open air quadrangles. We are not allowed beyond the second…a cornered area filled with statues - we saunter through, what a pity we can’t read Spanish! :-)

At the far end we exit on to the street right beside the river - just where we needed to be. A little further on and we have reached a river bridge. We cross it to get sone nice views across the water.

Continuing on this side, we reach the Triana area where we locate the second closed venue and a pottery museum. We are convinced this will turn out to be a ceramics gift shop, but pleased to find that it is a proper museum. This fills in another interesting hour learning about the history of the clay and the potting process. Our tour takes us all round the old factory and then to an exhibition above. Ian says that there appear to be a lot if unused sewerage pipes…its an interesting idea for wall decoration.

Now, completely drained, we will have to leave the final destination till later. Thats one good thing…everything stays open till 8pm here! We make our way back to the accommodation for lunch and siesta.

Its 6pm and we decide to stir. We still have our ticket to visit the Antiquarium. No this has nothing to do with fish…well maybe a bit…its a museum of 2AD Roman remains. We’re not raising our hopes but we have nothing better to do this evening.

It’s still muggy outside but we don’t have far to walk as the Antiquarium is located in the basement of the mushrooms edifice…just 10 minutes ish walk away. Why? Because thats where the remains were discovered! They have nit been moved, they are completely in situ. The remains were discovered when they began to dig the ground out to build an underground car park fir the building. Obviously the car park idea was abandoned!

We really like the ambience of the little museum. We are led around on glass walkways, allowing us to see the under as well as t9 the sides. As we enter we hear water dripping and Ian has major concerns as to:

a) Where is it coming from? and

b) Is the roof about to fall in on us?

Presumably this has been checked? But Ian points out major corrosion on the ironwork holding up the edifice above. Hmmm, I don’t think its going to collapse today but I do hope they are keeping an eye on it!

There are many well preserved building foundations and mosaics as well as object findings such as pots and even fish bones…how an earth they can identify the fish is beyond me.

As we leave there is a long queue of people waiting for the lift to go uo to the upper levels…I’m still not tempted to join them!

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