Seville and Granada

We have been told by a number of people that Seville is one, if not the most prettiest cities in the world, and so being only 200 kms away we thought 'Why not?' and if it was worth spending some more time then perhaps we could spend a night in a cheap ‘hostal’ if there was such a thing in Seville at Christmas time. So, armed with a picnic breakfast and lunch and a plastic bag of ‘nightly essentials’ we took off on what was one of the sunniest and warmest days we have had.  We stopped before getting into the Cuidad Centro (is our Spanish getting good or what!!) as we were driving past some fairly interesting stuff which was built for the 1929 American Expo (wrong year for an American expo!!).  Here we found the museum in the Parque de Maria Luisa which was rather a spacious park where locals came to exercise, play and  feed the white pigeons with seed bought from a little kiosk. There are lots of gardens and fountains, pavilions in different styles and buildings that are now embassies, museums and a police station.  The biggest was Plaza de Espana which is a huge semicircular building which is meant to symbolise Spain welcoming the tourist with open arms.

Walking into the central city we passed the Hotel Alfonso XIII.  The guidebook said it was the city’s grandest hotel ‘worth a look inside – no one minds as long as you aren’t dressed too outrageously’.  So, we walked up with our plastic bag containing our toothbrush and other bare essentials and the doorman raced down to take our luggage and welcome us to the hotel - only kidding - he apologised for being in the photo as he ran down the stairs.  Not far from the Alfonso we did find a reasonably priced ‘hostal’ in a little cobbled street. Across the block from our ‘room for a night’ was the Old Tobacco Factory which inspired Merimee to write the opera Carmen – to us it didn’t look much – but then we haven’t seen it with cigar makers walking through the doors morning and night Carmen and her friends standing outside hoping for a tobacco scrap to make a cigarette (women weren’t allowed to work for money- but they did manage to get known as ‘fast woman’ - unfairly they say).

The Cathedral was also not far away, and we stood in one queue waiting to enter.  After a while I wandered to the front just to check and found it was actually a queue to see an exquisite 'Belen' (nativity scene).  Then around the corner there was another queue - this time to the cathedral?  No another Belen.  Third time we entered the doors of the largest cathedral in the world - built on an old mosque – with the tower of the mosque (the Giralda) still in place.  It is in this building that the tomb of Christopher Columbus (Christo Colon) stands and where the trip up to the top of the tower is by slope rather than stairs.  The story has it that the slope was for the donkeys  – not sure why – but it might be so that they could carry bricks during construction – there is nothing to interest a donkey at the top except some bells which chime regularly and a nice view of the town.  The Cathedral was big, and it did house some treasures and some very large engravings of Mary and Jesus -  another testament to the richness and power of the church.

But it was across the road that Harry and Denise were truly amazed and found something to put on the Top 10+ list.  Across a cobbled stone path is the Alcazar – a fortified palace occupied by rulers since the Roman times. Money from olives, dyes and sugar helped to make this a place where we could wander for hours just like the Spanish royalty used to do (but we missed out on the food, massages and hot pools).  Like most of the large buildings around here it started off as a Moorish fort and is an example of mudejar architecture (12th to 16th century). The pictures say it all.

So, the  Alcazar joins a very distinguished list ... The Kiwis 'Must See and Do Things'

1. Mt Kau Kau, Wellington
2. Cathedral, Milan
3. Giant Causeway, Northern Ireland
4. Newgrange, Ireland
5. Quantock Head, England
6. Food, Poland
7. Tower, Glasgow
8. Cemetery, Milan
9. Cycling in the Snow, Amsterdam
10. Walking the Cliffs of Dover, England
11. The Pavilion in Brighton, England
12. Waffles, Brussels
13. Hawkstone Park, England
14. Scara Brae, Orkney Islands
15. The Bridge Teashop, Bradford on Avon
16. The Alcazar, Seville

Seville is home of the Tapas – and we did try to find a few bars where there was space for us to sit and eat.  But the locals seem to stand at the bar, eating and drinking, and there doesn’t seem to be a way for others to push through to purchase and then sit.  So, we gave up and had some nice meals at restaurants where many serve half portions – sort of double tapa size.  We also wandered to the hospital de la Caridad – which shouldn’t have been hard to find but was. This was where in 1674 Don Miguel de Manara set up a hospital to look after the dying and the destitute. Today we think it is a home for elderly gentleman as there were a lot sitting in the square chatting and smoking.  Anyway Don was the inspiration apparently for Byron’s Don Juan.  Having difficulty recalling the story we later read up about it ... Don was coming home from a wild orgy and he had a vision that he meet a funeral procession carrying his corpse.  This was a memorable moment for him as he repented (no more orgies for Don) and joined the Brotherhood of Charity whose job it was to bury the bodies of vagrants and criminals.  He later set up the hospital.  Funny, when I was reading the story I was reminded of Robbie Burns perhaps it was just the riding home on a dark wet night...Inside the chapel were some paintings by Murillo which were worth looking at – the larger than life paintings depicted the story of Jesus.

Seville is also tile country and many buildings have wonderfully coloured doorways, window sills and street names painted on tiles.  Triana across the river is the place to go and so we spent a few hours wandering around this ‘up market’ area looking through doors into entrance halls, ceramic shops (I didn’t see anything I really liked – pity as I was willing to buy), little chapels and restaurants.

Another day we drove to Granada - and we expected some similarities to Seville eg Cathedral, Alcazar, tiles and tapas.  We eventually found our way into the centre (having taken a few wrong turnings due to road signs not reflecting the number of closed streets due to a new tramway system being installed). We walked up the hill to the Alhambra (Alcazar, fort, church, garden all in one).  This is a pretty popular place, the number of visitors are limited to 8,100 a day!! We waited an hour for a ticket and then an extra 1.5 hours to get into the garden and palace (glad it wasn't peak tourist time). Perhaps we were tired, spoilt by seeing Seville, or both, but the place didn't have that WOW factor for us although it was a very good example of Moorish architecture.  My treat was to see an exhibition of Matisse paintings (friend and foe of Picasso) which we spied as we were waiting for our entry time into the Alhambra (good things come to whose who wait patiently!!).  On the way back to the car we stopped for dinner at a Turkish restaurant where people were sitting on low stools, in dimly lit rooms, smoking a hookah - one of those single stemmed tall pipes which people share.  I wondered if they were actually smoking tobacco as some of them looked very dreamy and relaxed but perhaps it was just the atmosphere and good food.