Flamenco, Toros and Palaces (Sevilla)

The overnight train from Bilbao didn't give us any time to go exploring again in Madrid as we needed to catch our train to Seville. It was raining when we arrived in Seville and we lost our bearings and walked a couple of kilometres away in the wrong direction before someone told us that we should be heading in the over direction. Our backpacks and us eventually made it to our hostel where we dropped our bags off, freshened up and then headed out for some food and some sightseeing.


After a tip-off from Tina, we found El Rinconcillo, probably the oldest pub in Spain (founded in 1670). A quaint pub with excellent tapas and beer.


Check out the hams!


Because of the rain, we weren't too fussed about sightseeing so we basically checked out the shops. Let me just say that if you're ever looking for shoes or boots, Spain is the place to go. They have shoe shops everywhere. They've also got sun shades over the streets. Too bad they let the rain through though.


We'd read in the Lonely Planet about this bar near our hostel called the Carboneria Bar. Its a popular place where the locals (and tourists who know about it) go for decently priced drinks and free flamenco shows. The food selection wasn't very big though, but that's about the only gripe we had. Well, the flamenco dancer wasn't as nice to look at as I'd have liked, but she performed well enough. Not that we could tell, but if the locals go, it must be alright.








The next day the weather cleared up nicely and we headed over to the main touristy part of town. This is the Giralda, the symbol of Seville.

It used to be a minaret of a mosque, but the Christians tore most of the mosque down and built up the Catedral de Sevilla, which happens to be the largest Roman Catholic cathedral in the world. Its also famous for having the tomb of Christopher Columbus, although it is heavily debated whether its his body in there or someone else's.




Note the orange trees! They're everywhere. Because its not the right season, the oranges are all green.


This is the Reales Alcazares. We could see how busy the cathedral and castle were so we decided to go over to the Plaza de España and wait for all the tour groups to finish up.


This is a cool building we saw on the way to the Plaza de España. Can't remember what it was but it looked nice.


Like Portugal, there is a lot of cool tiling, although the Spanish ones seem to be more elaborate. The Plaza de España is a semi-circle bordered by semi-circular building (housing governmental offices) with two tall towers at each end. Also reported by Tina was that this is also Naboo's Theed Palace in Episode II. This is one of the two towers at the Plaza de España.




There's also a massive fountain in the middle.














This is the Torre Del Oro (Tower of Gold) near the Guadalquivir River. It's not actually gold and there's lots of boring theories as to how it got its name (which I won't bore you with).


This is the Plaza de Toros de la Maestranza, one of the finest and oldest bullrings in Spain. It's also the location where Bizet's Carmen met her fate.


We did the tour and learnt all about bullfights (corridas), what constitutes a win and what trophies the matador gets (ears and tail), what happens to the bull after the fight (they kill it and eat it if the matador wins), and what happens if the bull kills the matador (the bull and the bull's mum is killed - she dies so that she does not produce another 'killer'). They have a cool little museum, an ER hospital room, and a chapel there too.




After the tour, we headed back to the touristic quarter and visited the Reales Alcazares. It was the royal palace of Pedro the Cruel, who got his Moorish slaves and workmen to construct his fort in the (Islamic) mudéjar style.

An inscription on the main door of the Patio de Montería declares that "The highest, noblest, most powerful all-conquering king, Pedro I, King, by grace of God, of Castile and León ordered these gardens, palaces and gates to be built, which were done in the year of our Lord fourteen hundred and two". However, the Moorish slaves may have got the last laugh as the Arabic motto "wa la Ghalib ill-Allah" (there is no conqueror but Allah) is repeated everywhere.


There's just so much to see inside and you can't help but admire all the detailed work that had gone into it and how its lasted so long.










After the Reales Alcazares, we headed next door to the Catedral de Sevilla and made our way straight up to the top of the Giralda for some choice views of the city.


That's the Patio de Los Naranjos (Patio of the Oranges) down below.


When we got back outside to the Patio de Los Naranjos it started to bucket down and we had to wait a few minutes until it eased up.


Feeling peckish again, we found this awesome little bar off a side street where they had the most delicious churros con chocolate. They made the churros on the spot and the chocolate sauce was spot on.


We went on another tapas crawl that night for dinner. This is the Bar Giralda just near the Cathedral. It was a more upmarket place and most people were dressed up rather nicely. Beers were nice and the food was rather good too.


This was the best place we went to in Seville. It was called Bodega Santa Cruz and it was packed and spilling out onto the street. The waiters were all characters. There was the loud and funny old boss dude, the tall quiet guy, and the weird looking weasel guy. Excellent food in a fantastic atmosphere.


We had a great time in Seville. It would have been tops if it wasn't for the rain and carrying our heavy backpacks a few k's in the wrong direction. Seville is a great place.