Hello Everyone,
Seville is where Carol is doing her story for Virtuoso Life magazine. It’s where we had to stay in the 5 star hotel for three nights. Hotel Alfonso XIII was very nice, but at only €250 per night, it didn’t quite match our previous 5 star standards. Oh well, we managed anyway. 😉 (Just kidding, or course)
Spain is in an unusual time zone. It is located as far west at Great Britain, but uses the same time zone as Germany. As a result, the sun doesn’t come up in the morning until about 7:30am and doesn’t go down until about 9:30pm. The mornings remind me of winter in Seattle, but the evenings are more like summer in Seattle. It’s very disorienting for your brain when trying to get over jet lag.
We started our visit to Seville with a walking tour of the old town and the area across the river called Triana, which was originally the poorest part of the city. Triana claims fame for inventing Flamingo dancing and being the location for the 15th century Spanish Inquisition. We visited the alley tunnel where they brought the poor “souls” up from the river to be tried and tortured into submission. It’s a dubious thing to be famous for. Original Flamingo supposedly grew out of the poor cultures here and their survival desperation. The original version of it involves more songs of despair and tap dancing, than the more modern version I was used to; man-woman dancing and twirling with the sound of castanets. The modern version is performed on the streets while the original version is relegated to small private theaters and hardcore preservationists of the art. We attended a couple of the traditional shows. The tap dancing footwork was truly amazing. I’ve never seen anything like it. I included a short video of the modern street version in the photo gallery if you would care to take a look, but the traditional shows would not allow filming during the performances.
During the 16th century, Seville was the trading capital of Europe, with regard to trade with the Americas. It had recently conquered the Moors and had the port and the ships to provide easy access to those trade routes. The specialty of Seville has been ceramics since Roman times, because the clay used was very accessible in the river mud. Ceramic tiles line all the historical buildings, old and new, and the Moors used ceramic tiles extensively in the Alcazar (the royal palace). As the industry grew it was pushed across the river to Triana, because the fumes from the wood fired kilns was to toxic in the prime areas of the city. At the end of our walking tour in Triana we stopped at a ceramics school to take a lesson in glazing ceramic tiles. It is more difficult than it looks. Some photos of it are in the gallery. At the time, the only way to walk across to Triana was over “The Bridge Of Boats”, 13 barges tied together with planks between them for people and goats to cross. Even at 50 miles from the Atlantic Ocean, the Guadalquivir River, that runs through Seville, is subject to significant tidal movements. Those movements as well as local storms caused regular failures on the Bridge of Boats. [It kind of reminds me of our floating bridges in Seattle.] Eventually a permanent bridge was built in 1852. I’m a bit surprised that the Romans didn’t build a bridge here like they did in Cordoba, since they settled this area as well.
The two most significant buildings here are the Cathedral and the Alcazar. The cathedral dominates the skyline and can be seen from most anywhere in the old city. It was built on the site of a former mosque and its bell tower (until recently the tallest building in the city) was built on top of the minaret. The third largest church in Christendom (after St. Peter’s in Rome and St Paul’s in London), it is huge, with many separate sections. The Alcazar, the royal palace, was built by the Moors and is completely covered by ceramic tiles and Moorish carvings, a couple of photos of which I included in the gallery. However, there are two other more “infamous” buildings in Seville today. The first is a new tall round red skyscraper that intrudes on the historical skyline. It is mostly disliked by the locals and is nicknamed “The Lipstick” building. The second, The Metropol Parasol built in 2005, is more tolerated by the locals because it doesn’t intrude so much on the skyline. It is more affectionately known as the Mushrooms. It’s site, in a poorer part of town, was originally supposed to be an underground garage, but when they started to dig the foundation they discovered a Roman ruins there and had to abandon the project. Eventually the city hosted an international competition to decide what should be built on the site and the Metropol Parasol was chosen. Some interesting photos of it are in the gallery.
After three days at the 5 star Hotel Alfonso XIII we had had enough. So, we moved from €250 a night to Pensione Cordoba at €60 per night. Too much luxury can dull your senses, you know. This one is more our style. No elevator, unreliable WiFi and we carried our luggage up to the third floor. Good for the muscles and joints. I’m feeling better already. The proprietress was a nice young lady who we talked to every time we came and went. Only on the third day did we find out that she had an identical twin sister that worked there too. They looked exactly alike and we had no idea which conversation we had with which one at what time. Yikes! We were seeing double!
Those of you who have been reading my travelogues over the years know how I like to sample the ice cream where ever I go. It’s always been good in Europe, so I was expecting it to be good everywhere here also. Well, the first one I picked had really bad ice cream. So, I had to go to another place and get some more, right away, just to restore my faith in European ice cream. I had to be lots more discriminating where I bought it in the future. Speaking of ice cream….. the beer is really good here. My favorite has been Alhambra, named after the Moorish fortress in Granada. I also discovered that they have a non-alcoholic version of it and many other beers. Now, a really serious beer drinker (which I am not) would consider that heresy, but on a hot day you can drink a lot more of it without forgetting who and where you are.
The buzz around Seville of late has been that the producers of A Game of Thrones, HBO, rented the old abandoned shipyards near the river, to film the upcoming season of the show. The young lady that took us on a Tapas tour, our first evening, told us that she had never watched the show and didn’t like it much anyway, but decided to binge on the entire first 6 seasons just to get ready for the upcoming 7th season filmed here. Now that’s dedication.
The last thing I have to report on here is something I have NEVER BEFORE seen in any other city. In some areas of the densely packed old town, where the streets are very narrow, they have trash receptacles that push the trash down to an underground conveyor that moves the trash to a central location for collection. Therefore, no garbage trucks have to drive through the old town to pick up the garbage. This sounds pretty extreme for garbage pickup, but I think it’s kind of a cool idea, don’t you (that is if you believe me). I have a picture of one of the receptacles in the photo gallery. Check it out if you think I’m pulling your leg. Im writing this travelogue on a train going 175 MPH toward Madrid. They got tech here in Spain!
Carol has an Interesting blog you might enjoy about the “Bakers of Seville” here:
https://carolapucci-tips.blogspot.com/2015/03/the-bakers-of-seville-await-curious.html
She also wrote an interesting blog about Seville in 2018 [after this 2017 trip] here:
https://carolapucci-tips.blogspot.com/2018/01/beyond-palaces-and-cathedrals.html
Next stop is the VaughnTown language school in Belmonte. We’re not learning Spanish, the students are learning English by listening to us talk for a week. I feel like I’m getting hoarse and I’m not even there yet. More from there next time.
Later…… your favorite travelers, Tom and Carol
Seville Photos
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