Seville was a bit of a turning point for us in a number of ways. Firstly (and perhaps most importantly), we figured out how to order coffee. It was simple, really – we only needed to ask for an espresso, and, on the off chance I remembered, which I never did, ask for it very, very short.
The second thing that made it a turning point was a sense of confidence that seemed to come from nowhere. Seville was where we began to sit back, relax, order tapas, and drink lots and lots of beer. In bars in Spain, as in Portugal, people drink 200 to 300 millilitre beers, around about middy sized, but you’re only charged a euro for them. This is handy in two ways – one, you can drink plenty and still be standing as you flit from bar to bar, and two, your pockets aren’t empty by the end of the night.
Our hunt for a laundromat one morning unearthed a loud, fast-talking woman who overcharged us and made us feel like tourists (which obviously, we are) but it had who unforseen benefit of meeting a St. Ive’s boy with a South African tinted accent and declared that we, in turn, sounded like Americans. He wanted to ask the scary laundry lady whether his clothes were done but didn’t speak a word of Spanish. Armed with our new-found confidence, we did, or we were about to when he checked his clothes and saw that they were done. He put us on to a walking tour of the Alcazar, Seville’s main attraction, for the following day. It was to totally change our experience of Seville.
Wandering the Juderia the next day it seemed we would never find the famed Alcázar, but obviously we did or I wouldn’t even bother mentioning it. We caught up to the mostly American, 50+ year tour group led by a mid-20’s Sevillano (name). I avoid tours as a rule, basically because I’m miserly and feel they’re a waste of money. I think I have this underlying notion that they’re somehow the easy way out, out of what I’m not sure. Having never been on one prior to this I don’t know how on earth I could judge, but long story short the tour was fascinating. The guide knew his stuff inside out, and the Alcázar was incredible.
The Alcázar is actually three palaces in three very different styles. The history behind it is complex and explains why the building is even more so. It began in 913 and then in the 11th century when the Muslims were in power another palace was built. Seville was reconquered by the Catholics in 1248 and the Catholic Monarchs resided in the Alcázar until the 1492 reconquest of Granada. The stunning gardens were added later, so it has been a process of expansion over 11 centuries, making it a patchwork of intricate Moorish arches, gothic architecture, detailed plasterwork, tiled murals, whitewashed walls and Rennaisance ceilings. Its most famously associated with King Pedro I, known either as ‘Pedro the Just’ or ‘Pedro the Cruel’ depending on what you read. Stories abound about the various hideously cruel and inspiringly just things he did in his time.
Impressed with the tour, we decided to take another the next day, with the same guide but this time of the city. That night we had a general wander, down the windey paths punctuated by plazas. We got on a tram just for the hell of it and arrived at the Plaza Nueva, the very plaza we were supposed to meet our guide at the next morning. Turns out that the reason Seville has a tram is to connect the two halves of the non-existent metro, which they’ve been trying to build since 1974. The reason they haven’t succeeded s that every time they try they hit on some ancient Roman ruins and have to find a new spot to start digging.
We ended up taking two tours on our final day, one of the city and another of Seville’s Cathedral, supposedly the largest Cathedral in the world by floor space, although there are many claimed to be bigger. Obviously, everyone wants theirs to be the biggest. After using the decaying Mosque as a Church for years, the Sevillano leaders demolished it, apart from the spire which they kept. The story goes that even though there weren’t that many people in Seville at the time, they decided to build such a place that people would think they were insane. The enormous renaissance-style Catedral de Santa María de la Sedel is the result.
We ended our day by getting lost in the Juderia as per our guide’s recommendation. The extreme heat led to ice cream and then we picked up our bags from the hotel and headed through the train station. In spite of the heat we decided to walk, and then it was off to Córdoba.
