Let's be Seville

Seville is a wonderful city with a varied history and bicultural influences that, to the uninitiated (like us), surprise and delight at every turn. And there are a lot of turns, especially in the labyrinthine old city.

We stayed again at an Ibis hotel. You may remember my uncomplimentary assessment of this chain's charms in a past post, but either it is growing on me or my standards are slipping, because they are not that bad. Close to downtown, yet with parking, and at a low (for Europe) price, they fit the bill, so to speak.

On our first night, we took bus #28 to downtown and walked a few minutes into the beautiful core, finding ourselves in the Santa Cruz plaza. We were hungry and looking forward to enjoying some Spanish specialties...unfortunately, we had to settle for overpriced and undercooked pallela served by disgruntled and feuding waiters. It was a disappointed welcome to the city.

The following two days were spent exploring the city. This included stops at two of it's most famous sites: the Cathedral and the Reales Alcázares (the royal palace).

The cathedral (Catedral de Santa María de la Sede) is big. So big, in fact, that it takes hours to see properly and leaves you exhausted and in desperate need of coffee. Or reveling in the glory of God.

The cathedral is built on the site of a mosque that existed here during the time of the Moors. Not surprisingly, the cathedral incorporates some elements of the old Mosque.

These elements include the Giralda, an impressive 100 metre bell tower that once functioned as the mosque's minaret, as well as a gate and exterior wall that exhibit distinctive Islamic designs.

 

This is the view of the cathedral from the Giralda, which we climbed during our visit by way of 34 ramps.
 

The cathedral is not only known as being one of the largest (bigger than the Notre-Dame in Paris), but also for hosting the remains of Christopher Columbus.  There is some dispute about this - it may be remains of his son or not at all.  This is a detail of the Columbus tomb, featuring one of four pall bearers.

The Alcázares Reales de Sevilla is the royal palace, once a Moorish fort that has been expanded over hundreds of years. The upper apartments of the Alcázar are still used today by the royal family as their official Seville residence.

The structure is expansive and is one of the best remaining examples of Mudéjar architecture, a style employing Islamic architectural influences.

The Mudéjar style is a symbiotic architectural style resulting from Muslim, Christian and Jewish cultures living side by side. It emerged as an architectural style in the 12th century on the Iberian peninsula and is characterized by the use of brick as the main material. To enliven walls and floors, Mudéjar style developed complicated tiling patterns that have never been surpassed (thanks, wikipedia!).  It was really quite impressive.

Aside from our first, disappointing dinner, we enjoyed some good food in Seville. One lunch consisted of some weird, yet tasty, sandwiches (shredded ham, smoked ham, and creamed salmon with walnuts).

We also followed the lead of the locals and tried few tapas. We sampled several varieties of grilled fish (pijotes, salmonetes, salmon, squid, tuna, and an unnamed, yet delicious, scallop-like shellfish), chicken mini-sandwiches, potato salad, and olives.

We ended our visit with a Flamenco show, the famous musical and dance form that originates from this, the Andalucian region. Who knew, but there are both male and female flamenco dancers. We quite liked the one who wore a dress with a long ruffled train and whenever she moved she'd have to kick it up and out of the way!