Day 7 - 9 May, 2006: Seville
We got terribly lost this morning just trying to get into the center of town to find a parking space. We got caught up behind a delivery truck in the narrow warren of single lane roads/alleys in the old part of Seville. It was a nightmare. After much consternation and not a small amount of back-seat driving, we were finally able to get back out onto a main street and find our way to the same parking lot that we found on Sunday.
Today we saw our first good example of the Moorish influence on southern Spain. The Alcazar was enormous, with an equally enormous walled garden with all sorts of different flora. The stone carvings were very intricately made and had a likeness to Arabic script. Honestly, all of the carvings and geometric abstract frescoes were a little over the top for my taste, but then I'm not a 13th century Moorish aristocrat, either.
One of the other main historical sites in Seville is the Cathedral; reportedly the largest Gothic building in Europe. It was a beautiful building; not unlike the other Gothic cathedrals and churches we've seen in our travels. The stone work and stained glass was exquisite. The wood carvings on the choir and clergy pews was amazing; each pew having a different "character" carved into the armrest. The must be having some issues with structural aging, since several of the giant pillars had some sort of reinforcing collars attached to their bases.
After the history lessons, we went in search of the Barrio Santa Cruz (Seville's Jewish Quarter) and some lunch and shopping. We had a nice lunch at an outdoor cafe; and proceeded to peek into most every ceramic shop there. The girls knew they wanted to buy something, they just couldn't decide what. There were many different styles of pottery; some classically Andalusian; some much more modern. Ultimately, Angela decided on a couple of bowls. It was during this time that we saw several flyers for various Flamenco shows around town. Since Seville is renowned for its Flamenco dancers, we called one and made reservations for the 9:30 show. That would give us some time to have a nice leisurely dinner beforehand.
We had an awesome dinner of paella (what else) and sangria at a restaurant that had a great outdoor seating section on a small plaza in the Jewish Quarter.
I gotta say; I don't really like Flamenco. To me, it's just a bunch of foot-stomping and finger-clapping. The vocals for the music sounded like some sort of bird dying. We were under strict instructions from the proprietor to not take any photos until the final dance, but this one guy with an SLR camera and a very long telephoto lens decided to get a little shutter-happy about half-way through the show. This wouldn't have been a huge deal, except the flash he was using lit up the small room like the sun. I literally watched the dancer stumble and get disoriented. The 2nd to last dance was a dude. He looked a little like a cross between Will Ferrell and Tim Robins. He was dressed completely in black; black pants, black shirt, black sportcoat. During the course of his dance, he started sweating profusely. I had a real hard time not laughing. At one point during his dance, he took off his jacket, and I swear I thought he was going to twirl it around and throw it into the crowd "stripper" style. Suffice it to say that I could have just gone back to Carmona after dinner and been no worse for wear.
Today we saw our first good example of the Moorish influence on southern Spain. The Alcazar was enormous, with an equally enormous walled garden with all sorts of different flora. The stone carvings were very intricately made and had a likeness to Arabic script. Honestly, all of the carvings and geometric abstract frescoes were a little over the top for my taste, but then I'm not a 13th century Moorish aristocrat, either.
One of the other main historical sites in Seville is the Cathedral; reportedly the largest Gothic building in Europe. It was a beautiful building; not unlike the other Gothic cathedrals and churches we've seen in our travels. The stone work and stained glass was exquisite. The wood carvings on the choir and clergy pews was amazing; each pew having a different "character" carved into the armrest. The must be having some issues with structural aging, since several of the giant pillars had some sort of reinforcing collars attached to their bases.
After the history lessons, we went in search of the Barrio Santa Cruz (Seville's Jewish Quarter) and some lunch and shopping. We had a nice lunch at an outdoor cafe; and proceeded to peek into most every ceramic shop there. The girls knew they wanted to buy something, they just couldn't decide what. There were many different styles of pottery; some classically Andalusian; some much more modern. Ultimately, Angela decided on a couple of bowls. It was during this time that we saw several flyers for various Flamenco shows around town. Since Seville is renowned for its Flamenco dancers, we called one and made reservations for the 9:30 show. That would give us some time to have a nice leisurely dinner beforehand.
We had an awesome dinner of paella (what else) and sangria at a restaurant that had a great outdoor seating section on a small plaza in the Jewish Quarter.
I gotta say; I don't really like Flamenco. To me, it's just a bunch of foot-stomping and finger-clapping. The vocals for the music sounded like some sort of bird dying. We were under strict instructions from the proprietor to not take any photos until the final dance, but this one guy with an SLR camera and a very long telephoto lens decided to get a little shutter-happy about half-way through the show. This wouldn't have been a huge deal, except the flash he was using lit up the small room like the sun. I literally watched the dancer stumble and get disoriented. The 2nd to last dance was a dude. He looked a little like a cross between Will Ferrell and Tim Robins. He was dressed completely in black; black pants, black shirt, black sportcoat. During the course of his dance, he started sweating profusely. I had a real hard time not laughing. At one point during his dance, he took off his jacket, and I swear I thought he was going to twirl it around and throw it into the crowd "stripper" style. Suffice it to say that I could have just gone back to Carmona after dinner and been no worse for wear.
posted by Matthew Belk at 10:34 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home