Seville- cathedral and Flamenco

Well, the cathedrals are beginning to blurrrrrr. The one today is the 3rd largest in the world and has lots and lots of silver and gold decorations,




but none of the muslim architectural designs because THEY tore the mosque down to build this cathedral, rather than recycling and incorporating the first building. The minaret is still here, converted to a bell tower and the courtyard continues, but the church was razed and a new one put in its place.

But let me back up---the tour of Seville on the bus was mildly interesting, if a person cared about the “Exhibition of 1929”, or the later “Exhibition in the 1990’s” We saw the buildings erected for those events by various countries, and found out their current functions. Our tour guide, Isabel seemed to know her facts, but she was talking about things that (I am guessing here) the majority of our bus load of folks did not care about at all.
We did see the cigarette factory where the fictitious Carmen of opera fame might have worked. And we saw the Corrida (bull ring) which is also part of the story. At one point in the city, we even saw a statue depicting this operatic character
We saw the oldest Bridge in Seville built by Eifel (builder of the tower in Paris)

The word Albero means golden sand ---which is used in bull rings and also for decoration in yards and patios.

The walking tour was much better because we got an up close look at the gardens, the houses and got to feel the two types of tile. Arabian tile is one color at a time and is not smooth, where Renaissance tile has a mixture of colors and is smooth. We learned that the leaves of an orange tree can tell the edibility of the fruit. Orange trees with single leaves have sweet fruit, but the double leafed variety is bitter and are only used for perfumes, etc.

We saw VERY narrow streets, where two umbrellas had a hard time passing each other without one giving way to the other. I DID MENTION UMBRELLAS DIDN’T I?

It has been drizzling all day with moments of harder rain, but nothing to compare to the deluge we experienced in Toledo. Umbrellas were out in force. Back to the streets, we looked into patios, courtyards and most of the residences are two story. This is a protected area where the facads of the buildings MAY NOT BE CHANGED. When the houses were first built, the family usually lived upstairs in the winter (few windows) and downstairs in summer-- for the breezes. These houses usually have two front doors--- A sturdy wooden one for protection from winter weather and a wrought iron door for summer to keep the occupants safe, but cool.

We did see Washington Irving’s house when he lived here. (He wrote Tales of the Alhambra- which we will see in Granada)


I used to have a clever and instructional card game called Authors. Rather like “Go fish” except that the cards had pictures and information about authors such as Shakespeare, L.M. Alcott, J. F. Cooper, R. L. Stephenson and yes, Washington Irving-- so in my mind’s eye I can picture what he looked like at one point in his life

As we walked we were joined by two guitarists singing and playing. They followed us until we got to a shopping area where they “passed the hat” for coins. This also happened in a restaurant yesterday. Some guy just pops in, sings and plays his guitarra and passes among us for a tip.



Getting back to the Cathedral- the 3rd largest in the world—which took 120 years to build. It’s official name is the Santa Maria Cathedral. Services are held every day morning and night, with afternoons designated for tour groups Not knowing much about the parts of a Catholic cathedral “high altar” “choir” “sacristy” “Apse” “nave” I probably did not get as much out of the explanation as others might. This one was probably larger in space as the cathedral described yesterday, but did not have the interesting architecture, or the charm. It was really gaudy and big and cold. Our guide explained that various areas of the church are in different conditions of repair. With materials coming from all over the world, they “weather” at different rates and must be cared for differently. We did see an enormouss silver altar which must be hand polished monthly. We saw 2 men with soft looking clothes rubbing as we walked by.


Columbus’s tomb was rather impressive. Four large human figures, representing 4 parts of Spain, were holding a coffin on their shoulders. In the coffin, lie the bones of the explorer, Columbus.
The story goes, that he was buried 3 places before being finally brought to this cathedral to be honored.



We entered a really interesting round room with a carved and decorated ceiling which was supposed to have wonderful acoustics. I finally moved right close to the guide who was talking about the room. Not sure I ever heard what it was called.

We saw the oldest “relics” of the Cathedral which were a small ivory Madona, and the keys to the city which was liberated in 1248 by Ferdinand (not Isabella’s but another Ferdinand)

It was interesting, but after seeing several huge Cathedrals, I’m not sure I need to see any more.



We left the Cathedral in a pouring rain and walked several blocks to the Flamenco “theatre” where tonite we will see a performance. A lovely young dancer and her interpreter explained about the costumes and instruments for Flamenco. She told us that children as young as 3 years old begin training to become Flamenco dancers and that it usually takes from 7-10 years to become “professional”. It was very interesting and she is quite accomplished from what we could tell.



After our questions were answered, we went next door to experience a typical “Tapas” lunch. We had one of these meals when we went to Scotland (not sure why) and it goes like this. Small portions of various dishes are passed around at the table. No one orders, but the waiter just brings what is prepared. We had a “Russian salad” of onions, bell peppers, chopped tomatoes and something fishy with a vinaigrette type dressing. I thought parts of it were particularly tasty, but others did not like it a bit. That is the way with food, can't please everyone. The vegetable offering was spinach. (I prefer my spinach raw to cooked) We were kind of expecting dessert, but none came. The bus picked us up to return us to the hote.. Under different weather conditions, we might have stayed to look around, but not today. Besides almost all of the shops were closed for siesta. Generally, people in Spain eat lunch at 2pm and close their businesses from 2-4 for Siesta.

And speaking of siesta, I’m thinking about inaugurating one around here very soon.

Shopping courtyard where I did buy a Lily present today and it’s CUTE!
More later.