My
second stop in Spain was in Seville. Where Madrid was spent visiting museums,
we spent much of our time in Seville viewing historical land marks and walking
the streets in the more historic part of town.
Experience:
I grew
up just North of San Antonio. In down town San Antonio they have carriage ride
tours of the area. When I was little, I would beg my mom to take me on the
carriage rides, to which my mom would reply, “Leah, that’s for tourists”. So,
when I saw carriage rides in Seville, I begged my husband to take me on one, to
which he too replied. “Leah, that’s for tourists.”
“But we
are tourists!” We have a right to do crazy things that cost too much money. How
more of tourist can I be? I was on a continent I had never been on before
(outside of the Heathrow Airport in London.
So my
spouse and I got on this carriage. These carriage rides are supposed to be
romantic but my husband made it a point to really make fun of me. When the
driver asked me if I would like to get up front with him, my spouse said, “No,
I want to get up there.” I think this surprised the driver a little. This left
me sitting in the carriage all by myself. We did get to see a lot of really
cool sights from the carriage though, some of which we would not have been able
to get around to with the short amount of time we had. One of these sights included the Plaza de España.
Sights:
The two main sights here is the
Cathedral and Alcazar. They are right near each other in the heart of downtown,
making sightseeing really easy. We were able to see the Cathedral of Saint Mary (Catedral de Santa María) from the
rooftop bar at our hotel. This was an amazing sight at night. We were able to
keep track of the time by the ringing of the Cathedral bells, which chimed the
hour. If we thought the Outside was amazing, the inside was even more awe inspiring.
The thing about Cathedrals, is that pictures will not do it justice. You have
to see the inside in person to truly get an idea of how great it is. The
Cathedral had been built in the 12th century, leaving me to wonder,
“How did they build something so grand so long ago?”
The second major thing that we saw
was Alcazar. This was a beautiful castle built by the Mores and later adapted
for the Christian politicians. The Spanish king still has a residency
there. The walls of this building were
intricately carved, with courtyards waiting for us just outside some of these
walls.
Hotel:
Our hotel, Hotel Dona María, was most likely one
of the most touristy places we could have gone to. It had a gorgeous view of
the Cathedral which was just on the other side of a city square. The rooms had
an old fashioned Spanish feeling, with wooden headboards on the two twin beds,
and a picture of the Madonna with child hanging on the walls, making us feel
like we had gone back in time.
Travel:
We got
in by train and went out by bus. Despite the fact that there had been a major
accident on the high speed train several months ago leaving from Madrid, we
still decided to get to Seville by high speed train. Now there are slower
trains that are much less expensive, but we felt that we might not get to
experience something like this again for a very long time. We had heard that
the Spanish trains were worlds above what you could find in the U.S. with
Amtrak, and while it is true that AMU is better, I wouldn’t call it worlds
better. We sat at a table in one of the last cars. They handed out headphones
and so we could watch the on screen movie (which was a newer American Movie).
If you want to get food on the train, you can, but don’t. The line to get my
food was long, and like the food in Amtrak’s dining car was overpriced and
unspectacular (which I wouldn’t have minded if I hadn’t waited so long to get).
The bus
ride out of Seville was fun, though there was no in transit entertainment. I
was instead entertained by the woman behind me who had snuck two tiny dogs onto
the vehicle in her purse. At one point the conductor stopped the vehicle pulled
over and marched to the back where we were. The woman was so scared that he
would spot the dogs kick her off. Instead he yelled at a teenage girl for pulling
down a shade that blocked his view out the back window, and I mean he really
laid into this girl. The girl just rolled her eyes and went back to sleep. I
want to give you a word of warning when here, the bus station is a little
creepy. You had to pay €1 to use the Women’s restroom, which according to
Arvind wasn’t true for the men’s. In the men’s restroom some man kept staring
at my husband’s business, and when he left the man followed him out. Arvind sat
down and smoked a cigarette, and the guy sat beside him, and just kept staring
at him. Finally, some woman who was asking for change but settled for a
cigarette came to the rescue and chased the pervert away with scolding so
veracious that it even scared Arvind a little.
Food:
While here, we mostly ate
tapas at bars. Much of what my husband got was ham. I tried getting things that
were more vegie based, like white beans, or a spiced spinach and chickpea dish
that seemed very Middle Eastern. One of the best dishes I had while in Spain
was at this little empty café called Bar Cuesta del Bacalao. The dish was a chicken leg in an orange/ orange
blossom sauce.
Seville is the birth place of
Flamenco dancing. This dance was developed by the gypsies that had ended up in
Spain. Many of the places where trying to charge €46 per person. The reviews
for these places were mediocre at best, warning people that these were simple
tourist traps. It took some digging but we finally found a good one that was
only €16 per person, called Casa de la Memoria de Al-Andalus. The male dancer was amazing. I had wished to see the male
and female dancer dance more together which only happened near the end of the
hour long show.
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