This city is the home of the Sevilla orange, Flamenco, and from where Columbus set sail and his final resting place.
The city is a maze of tiny streets and lanes, small plazas, tile covered patios and whitewashed houses with wrought-iron balconies covered in flowers.
Unlike the Valencia oranges, the Sevilla oranges are bitter and are used only for vitamins, perfume and marmalade.
We met up with our local guide, Isidoro, for a tour of the city. We started with the Parque Maria Luisa, the home of Sevilla’s first international expo in 1929. Sevilla began building their pavilion 11 years before the expo, and what a grand site it is.
Sevilla’s Santa Maria de la Sede is the third largest church in Europe after St. Peter’s at the Vatican and St. Paul’s in London, and the largest Gothic church anywhere.
As you look through the wrought-iron Renaissance grill, you see the largest altar piece ever made, 65 feet tall, with 44 scenes from the lives of Jesus and Mary.
Remember that most people were illiterate and the mass was in Latin, so this was how the stories of the Bible were told.
Still within the church, we were off to see the tomb of Columbus. Columbus was very well traveled, even in death (1506). First, he was buried in Northwestern Spain (Valladolid) where he died, next to a monastery in Sevilla, then to the Dominican Republic in the Caribbean, then next to Cuba, then finally to this magnificent Cathedral.
His tomb is carried by 4 pallbearers, representing the four regions united by the marriage of Ferdinand and Isabella - Castilla, Aragon, Leon, and Navarre.
You may wonder how they were sure this was Columbus. In 2006, DNA samples confirmed that this was Columbus. His wishes were that he be buried in this church where his son was a priest and the city from where he had set sail to America.
We were captivated by much of the architecture in Spain. Here are but a few samples of the many wonderful sites we saw.
As we wandered the streets, we have seen and enjoyed many street performers and musicians. Many of our blog followers know that Sonya is captivated by these people and finds it hard to resist taking some candid captures of them.
The Royal Alcázar
This is a 10th century Moorish palace that still functions today. As we visit this place, the chandeliers were lit up, which means that the current King (Felipe) will be visiting in the next few days. The core of the current structure was built by Muslim workers for a Christian King, so it contains a curious mixture of symbols, including the clam shell, which is the symbol for Saint James (Santiago), the patron saint of Spain.
That evening, we were off to the Bar called La Hoseteria Del Laurel, the place where the writer, Tirso Molina (pen name Gabriel Tellez), was inspired to write the story of Don Juan, and actually set the story in this very restaurant. We had a great evening of tapas (appetizers) and music. This is a well known restaurant in the area - even Julio Iglesias has frequented this restaurant!
Sonya and I danced a cha cha to La Bamba. Gord and the ladies danced the Macarena. One of our travel mates from Calgary (Bruce), seeing Gord and me up dancing, asked, “What, you can’t get Oilers tickets?” And yet another round of Volare was sung by all.
On the way back to the hotel, we started singing, much to the amusement of the locals and some of our travel mates. Many of you will remember the Irish Rovers song, “Wasn’t That a Party! IT WAS!
The next morning we were off to Jerez, the Spanish name for Sherry. We stopped at one of the Sherry producers to be “educated” on the intricacies of making Sherry, and what an education it was. Without getting into too many details, it is a tightly controlled procedure. It must be all natural, with no additives. Even the casks must stay in the same place, except for repair or replacement when necessary. You will see below, that the casks are all painted black. They do this in order to easily mark the contents and to quickly spot leaks. These casks are made of oak from Missouri because they have the correct porosity so that the flavour of the oak soaks into the sherry! As well, these casks last for 50 - 100 years, after which they are sold to whiskey producers who need the benefit of both the oak and the sherry to flavour the whiskey! See, we did learn a few things!
Well, of course, you have to taste the Sherry, even though it was before 11 am - but only 3 types!
It is a heck of a way to start a day, but I would not want to do that too often!
After that we were off to Cadiz, one of only two Atlantic ports in Spain.
From here, Columbus set sail on many of his voyages. Looking out over the Atlantic (behind us), you can evoke images of ships preparing to leave for long periods of time, loading them with enough food and supplies to make the crossing to the new land!
In the evening we went to a Flamenco show. This is an extremely complex dance, with the performers clapping or tapping to different beats of the 12 part music bar. Alberto, our guide, referrred to this as superior mathematics, since most music is 4 or 8 notes to the bar.
The origins of Flamenco music and dance are lost, however, it seems to reflect the cultural melting pot nature of Spain’s Jewish and Arabic influence. Gypsies have always been at the heart of the Flamenco. The Flamenco is more than a dance with technical proficiency, it is a dance with SOUL!
Emilio, shown here, demonstrates the machine gun footwork of the Flamenco atop this small table. He is not only the principal dancer of the show, but also the director. On busy nights, such as ours, they perform the same show four times. What is really amazing is that two of these shows are running almost simultaneously, just 10 or 15 minutes apart. These shows are so tightly choreographed that dancers have to run up and down the stairs to get to their next part, often with less than 1 minute to spare! And to think, we wear our fitbits in order to try and get our 10,000 steps in a day! These dancers accomplish that in less than two hours!!
Oh, one more thing, our guide, Isidoro, told us that they do not get frost, and they have not had snow since the time of Napoleon Bonaparte. I told Sonya to start watching out for good properties!
That’s its for now - see you in Portugal!
Boa nuite!
DGSP
