A weekend away in Seville
Trip Start
Jun 17, 2007
1
10
26
Trip End
Aug 01, 2007
Seville,
Spain
Tuesday, July 10, 2007
I arrived in Seville at about 6.30pm and after only one wrong turning, managed to find my hotel...Hotel Alcantara. Itīs a bit pricey (well, relative to the language school residence where Iīve been for the last 3 weeks anyway), but itīs really convenient and best of all, itīs got air-conditioning that I can control. (At the residence, the air-conditioning in the rooms appears to be controlled by a version of Big Brother who delights in turning it on in the middle of the night, waiting until you get up to close your windows to ensure efficiency, and then turning it off again!!). Once Iīd settled in, I decided to try and orient myself. Went for a bit of a walk through the Barrio Santa Cruz, which is the neighbourhood which surrounds Plaza Santa Cruz and which is comprised mainly of small, narrow, and windy little streets. Found myself in a really cute little plaza (plazas are one thing the Europeans do better than everyone else in the world!) with restaurants around every side. Had a really yummy paella for dinner accompanied by a really average 'ensalada mixte' (only lettuce, tomato, carrot and cucumber - all of which looked strangely dehydrated!). By the time I finished eating it was getting later but I had enough time to make it to the internet cafe to catch up on correspondence etc.
I didnīt have too many plans for Saturday morning, but I did want to see the two main sites of the Alcazar and the Cathedral (together with the Giralda). Got to the Alcazar shortly after 9.30am after a typically good Spanish coffee (only a short walk from the first Starbucks that Iīve seen since I left London!). The Alcazar has been home to the countryīs important rulers for centuries. It has the usual mixture of Moorish and Catholic architecture, but mostly has a Moorish feeling to it. This year seems to be my year for seeing Moorish architecture after my visit to Morocco earlier this year. All in all, the Alcazar is an amazing building - if you ever go, Iīd recommend the audio-guide - enough information to be interesting but not so much that it exceeds your attention span!
Next up on the tourist trail for me was the Sevilla Cathedral - only a very very short walk from the Alcazar. One of Sevillaīs most famous sights, the Giralda, is accessed from the Cathedral. The Giralda began its life as a Muslim minaret used to call everyone to prayer, but after the Christians turned up, it became the bell tower for the newly built Cathedral, which apparently is the largest church in the world (it even has a certificate to that effect from the Guiness Book of World Records which is displayed in the main part of the cathedral!). In contrast to the Alcazar audio-guide, the Cathedral audio-guide painstakingly (and painfully) describes every one of the twenty or so mini chapels within the Cathedral as well as the main altar and the chapterhouse and other more interesting things. Itīs informative, but I chose not to listen to descriptions of about 6-7 chapels as my attention span was diminishing...
Access to the top of the Giralda is by way of a ramp which has (more or less) 35 'floors' to it which is made more noticeable by the signs on the way up telling you what 'floor' youīve reached and was particularly noticeable this morning by the moaning and whining of the American teenagers who were being 'dragged' up there by their teacher. As far as īclimbable monumentsīgo, itīs not that bad a climb, and the view is pretty good when you get to the top. Made my way down and decided that it was time for a drink...
Found a table in the shade outside an Irish pub near the cathedral - felt fractionally bad about going to an Irish pub while in Spain, but it was close and convenient and shady...and soon became much more convenient when I realised that it was screening the Tri Nations rugby game between Australia and South Africa. So, I gave up my seat outside on the footpath, for a seat at the bar with the handful of other rugby supporters there. Made myself feel better about the whole thing by telling myself how hot it was outside and how I was much better off inside...which I was.. life isnīt bad when youīre watching rugby with a glass of tinto verrano in your hand. (Tinto verrano has been one of my discoveries of this trip - itīs a drink made with 50% red wine and 50% lemonade or soda water. Sounds bad, but itīs actually quite refreshing in the heat.) Unfortunately, the only thing that ruined my time in the pub was that the Australians beat the South Africans 25-17 after being 17-nil down after about 20 minutes.
After lunching in the pub, I decided it was time to do something else on the tourist trail and headed for the Museo des Bellas Artes. It was siesta time (i.e. time to be closed) for a lot of places (except for the Museum) and I assumed (correctly as it turned out) that the Museum would have a fairly effective air-conditioning system. In case youīre thinking Iīm becoming unduly obssessed with the presence, absence and/or strength of air-conditioning systems, you should know that the BBC forecast was that Seville would reach 36 degrees on Saturday and Sunday - so the quality of air-conditioning during the afternoon especially is particularly important. Not entirely sure why, but I was given free entry to the Museum (according to my book, thatīs only for those with EU passports...perhaps I sounded like a native Spaniard - ha ha ha!!). Was quite an impressive collection of mostly paintings and some sculptures by mostly Spanish artists.
Following a teensy bit of dithering, I ended up walking from the Museum to a well-known icecream place (via the air-conditioning system of the department store El Corte Ingles!), and then headed to a private mansion which is another great example of Moorish architecture and gardens, the Caso de Pilatos. I donīt think that I appreciated it as much as it deserves because between seeing the Alcazar today and the Alhambra for the second time on Thursday, I think Iīm becoming a bit desensitised to the detailed Moorish architecture.
Dinner ended up being a bit random but quite good. Ended up having tapas for dinner at a tapas bar (well, outside on the terrace if you want to be exact) near my hotel with a good book - ended up sitting there for about three hours. Very pleasant way to while away the evening. Managed to see another two wedding parties while I was there, bringing the grand total for the day to five different pairs (in general, it appeared that all of the men had done exceedingly well for themselves!!)
Sunday was a very early start due to a call from my parents. Managed to visit the bullring and a extremely well-decorated church/hospice for poor, old, sick people - has several paintings by the famous Sevillan artist Murillo. Ran out of steam in the heat and headed for some of the beautful gardens in Seville. However, due to the heat, I couldnīt really be bothered doing much else..which is not to run Seville down in the slightest, itīs beautiful, but I didnīt have the energy to do much else before my bus which was scheduled to depart at 5pm. Ended up changing my ticket to a 4pm departure (entirely in Spanish Iīll have you know!) and made it back to Granada by 7pm, well in time for the Ricki Martin concert (yes, thatīs right...more on that in the next entry...)
