On The Road: Sevilla

Off to the south of Spain and a few days in beautiful Sevilla! We boarded an early-morning train to the laid-back, Southern Spanish city. We had just finished up a nice stay in Madrid (complete with a side trip to Toledo) and were zooming along past olive trees at more than a hundred miles an hour. The landscape changed before our eyes and it became drier and flatter.

Sunset over the River Guadalquivir

When we arrived in Sevilla, we left the small train station and grabbed a cab to our hotel, where we learned we actually didn't have a reservation. To be precise, we did have a reservation... just for a few days in the future. There was a long, animated discussion in Spanish that I wasn't following, but then Sergio informed me that, luckily, they had one cancellation and could accommodate us after all!

Beautiful streets of Sevilla.

Sevilla was a smaller, friendlier city, and terribly, terribly hot -- when we arrived, it was a scorching 32 degrees. After freshening up at the hotel (we had a funny room that looked into an interior courtyard), we struck out to find some lunch. Well-acquainted with late lunches and small plates, we wandered through Sevilla's twisty streets to find a cafe for a bite.

There are many advantages to a smaller town like Sevilla. It had such a laid-back feel, whether it was going into the shops or walking along the river. It felt safe and familial. That being said, it was a very different experience than other small towns we had visited... namely that it was a lot harder to find what we were looking for. We went to do some laundry in the middle of our stay based on a map in the Rick Steves book. We had to ask multiple people for directions along the way before we found it (it was several blocks off) and when we arrived, it was momentarily closed because the woman stepped out to run some errands (?) in the middle of the day. It turned out that it wasn't self-service, so we left our clothes and were told that we could return at eight that evening to pick up our clean clothes. I was so thankful to have Sergio as his Spanish-speaking skills saved us a number of times! The other main small-town difference was that there were fewer cuisine options and, because it was the south, the choices were a little different.  Don't worry -- there was plenty of jamon iberico for me to eat.

There are two main sites in Sevilla -- the cathedral, Catedral de Santa Maria de la Sede, and the large Moorish palace, the Alcazar. We decided to visit these after lunch and siesta one afternoon. It was unbelievably hot, so I was so thankful that I had packed lightweight shirts and skirts. I had a tank top but some of the sites wouldn't allow you to come in that scantily dressed, so I opted for a cotton t-shirt instead.

One of the main entrances to the Alcazar

Of all of the places we stopped on our trip, the Alcazar (pronounced "al - cah - thar," believe it or not) was one of my favorite stops because it was so different. I had really hoped to see the Alhambra in Grenada, so this was my little taste of Moorish Spain that I had desired. It was an incredibly overwhelming palace, the oldest Royal palace still in use in Europe! It is in a mudejar style, though it has been added onto more or less continually. There was a lovely audioguide that we shared together, but it came with the worst museum or palace map I had ever seen. It was incredibly confusing, especially considering that the palace itself was room after room after room clustered around courtyards and gardens and hallways and pools.

The mosaics and the decorated ceilings were probably my favorite part. It's a little overwhelming when you look at all of them. Because these were moorish made, they are only patterns and geometric designs because Muslims do not believe in depicting living things. It was easy to stop and just gaze at the walls and the ceilings. There are some people and animals in some of the rooms, but they were made out of wood and added many hundreds of years later.

Wandering around the Alcazar

Besides touring many of the palaces grand rooms, we were also able to walk through the extensive gardens, what was the former stables and quarters for soldiers, as well as walk along part of the original wall (the palace has expanded since then). The gardens were a nice relief from the hot hot sun! The Alcazar also had one of my favorite museum shops yet, including a whole slew of mosaic-themed cards and magnets. Because our luggage space was limited, we tried to limit our souvenirs to very small things that we could easily pack (postcards, magnets, and a few books). I always send postcards to family and friends from the road, so the other pleasurable part is deciding which postcard to send to which person.

We also really enjoyed the cathedral, within a stone's throw of the Alcazar. Who knew that the largest Gothic cathedral (and the third largest cathedral in the world, after St. Peter's and a cathedral in Brazil) was located in little Sevilla? Church was a big business in this part of the world, but you would want something very grand as the final resting place for Christopher Columbus! "Discover" the New World and, really, you'll always be thought of as a hero. Even though I am not Catholic, I found the cathedral to be very inspiring, if a little over-run by tourists. My favorite area was the cloisters with the ankle-breaking drainage ditches -- seriously, you had to watch your step or you'd twist an ankle -- and its orange trees. Sergio hoofed it up to the top of the tower. Not surprisingly, as with most churches in this part of Spain, it was originally a mosque. Once the Christians conquered this region, perhaps to rub it in they converted all of the mosques into churches as a very visible reminder that Christianity and their God was the one true God. It's a shame, really -- supposedly the mosque was beautiful too.

Tomb of Christopher Columbus

My favorite memory of Sevilla, though, was our dinner on our final night. We made our way across the river to a less-touristy part of the city and found a street-side cafe. The sun was setting, the wine was flowing, and we managed to get some wonderful tapas for dinner. It was odd because there was only one other American couple there and they were struggling mightily. The server was a bit cross, even to us, and after studying the menu for a long amount of time, they finally ordered and were incredibly disappointed with the results. It was a situation where I was unsure whether or not to help out. There have been times when I'm traveling abroad that I must have looked so sad or lost that someone just jumped in to help me, and it was always appreciated. We let this couple dine in peace, though, with their mayonnaise-covered potatoes. I hope they had better luck the following day!

Our trip in Spain was almost finished -- now it was off to the airport very early to catch our flight to beautiful Barcelona! Enjoy a few more Sevilla photos below!

xo
Sarah

Gardens in the Alcazar

Sergio's view from the cathedral tower. I sat that one out :)

Horse carriage near the cathedral