We were back for just a day before heading to Madrid for our flight to Mexico, so we had to make the most of our time. To Pension Javier we went to secure a room (really important, we've found!) and then on to La Tapeteria next door for lunch where beer is just 1 euro. We grabbed a taxi (normally this goes against our preferred travel methods, but we've been lost miserably twice before in this city and couldn't spare the time) to Casa de la Memoria, the cultural center for Flamenco to get our tickets for that evening's show. There are tons of Flamenco options in town - this is the ONLY ONE you should consider. The other ones have food and drinks, yes, but they scream "tourist." If that's what you're going for, then great! You can get tickets at any hostel in the city. But if you want to see serious art, passion flooding from a small group of incredibly talented individuals in an intimate setting, then make no mistake - this is your show. We almost missed out - they sell out quickly - but we managed to land our tickets and grab another taxi back to the Cathedral.
The Cathedral de Seville is the world's largest Gothic cathedral and the third largest church in the world. This is the most impressive church I've visited to date, and my goodness, you need some serious time to devote to this marvel. We were short on just that, so since we had been inside on a prior occasion, we focused on the Giralda tower and the inner rooms of the church.
The Giralda was completed in 1198 and was once a minaret belonging to the city's mosque, but when the city was taken by the Christians, they added the top third and converted it into a bell tower, leveling what the earthquake of 1356 did not, to create this gargantuan church. We climbed the ramp up around the inner edges along with many others to the top, to see the city and through the windows as we rose, other parts of the massive church. The ramps were once stairs, converted they say because the watchman was unable to walk and had to ride a horse to the top of the tower every hour to ring the bell.
And then, there is the church itself. One could write for quite a long time about all the intricacies that can be experienced in this place, and indeed, some have. I loved the detailed wood carving, the massive marble floors, and the masterful paintings and alter pieces. I flew around, from room to room, taking pictures quickly and gawking until Derek hauled me to the next one. If the Palace wasn't the last thing on my list, I could have stayed all night.
Finally, we walked next door to get in line to see the Royal Alcazar, the oldest palace still in use in Europe. The castle was built over the first settlement foundations of Seville in the 11th century, and ever since then, every civilization and culture that has occupied the Iberian Peninsula has used the palace as the capital of its kingdom, and the architecture reflects it.
This is where Derek experienced "palace burn out." I didn't know it was possible, but as soon as we went in, Derek kind of listlessly looked around, bored out of his mind. I honestly wasn't that impressed either. I couldn't believe it - we're in Seville, Spain, in a palace, older than just about anything else we've seen, and for the life of us, we weren't impressed.
But, then we moved into the inner chambers and the upper levels of the palace and were overwhelmed once again with the ceilings, the walls, the courtyards - a mixture of mudéjar architecture and European design. It was odd to see symbols that we had seen in Morocco with family crests featuring lions and crowns the likes of which I saw in England years ago. Derek and I searched for what seemed like hours in the Patio de las Munecas (patio of the dolls) for a single doll face very carefully hidden right above one of the pillars.
The courtyards were lovely, but most impressive was the singing fountain, where on the hour, it plays 5 minutes of organ music. There are only 3 working fountains of this kind left in the world, and only one known person alive who can fix them, so it was a rare sight to see.
Derek got a pastry for dinner (it's the thing to do on vacation, apparently - this trend had better not roll over into real life!) and we got a taxi to the flamenco show. It was mesmerizing, but there aren't any videos, because it's not allowed. No harm done, though, watching it on a video wouldn't do it justice. The dancers moved with such precision, and so much passion that they poured sweat and somehow made it look elegant to do so.
We followed the epic show up with some gelato (naturally) and made our way through the streets to find ourselves our trip souvenirs - azulejos. We found ourselves some pretty ones with green and gold and blue and white. These tiles were in all three countries we visited, in all of those same colors, since they are traditional for the people that settled the peninsula and built the incredible cultural wonders that we saw. Then, we had a quick dinner at Bodeguita Tomate y Sal to get the paella I had wanted for days (it was disappointing - find paella somewhere else) and very inexpensive sangria (LOVE).
Our trip to Madrid the following day was rather long and uneventful, and we had a nice single evening in the city, enjoying the crowds that gathered for a few political demonstrations and the like. The architecture is amazing, but this city is a true city not unlike those in America - it is nothing like Seville. None of the cities in Spain, I am told, really mirror one another - they are unique in and of themselves.
