Communidad de Andalucia: Seville
Although Seville is not the biggest city in Spain (it’s #4), it has a very “big” attitude and very big landmarks.
The train from Jerez takes just over an hour, and lands you about 2km from the old city. It’s a pleasant walk, fairly direct, and if you want to stop for a quick coffee or beer and tapas there are plenty of opportunities along the route.
The Cathedral of Saint Mary of the See is the largest Gothic Cathedral in the world, and overall the 4thlargest church. One of the features I found fascinating was that the spires are not uniform, but sport many different designs.
The cathedral also entombs the remains of Christopher Columbus. Around the Cathedral are many horse-drawn carriages, where you can get a 40-minute carriage-ride for 45E for up to 4 people. Also, there are many people hawking tours and Flamenco shows – one of which was a “Flamenco show and a boat ride” for 24E pp. Since most Flamenco shows started at 20Epp, that looked to be a good deal. We were told several times “Be there by 6 o’clock”.
We wandered off, enjoying the sites, especially the Plaza de Espana on the grounds of the park of Maria Theresa. The building was built as part of the 1929 Iberian-American World’s Fair. Each of the four bridges over the “moat” represents a former Kingdom of Spain, and the many alcoves highlight each region (including bookshelves that house regional works of literature and history). Stylistically, it is a blend of Art Deco and Spanish Renaissance. The impression is “wow”.
Currently, it is not only one of the top tourist attractions in Seville, but also provides many government offices, including one for immigration.
We had a coupon for free sangria “near the mushrooms”, provided by the Flamenco and Boat tour guy (and why would we pass up a free sangria?). It took us awhile to find it – and the restaurant was literally right below the mushrooms (a large modern art installment and park), but by the time we finished our dinner we had 20 minutes to get the mile back to the riverfront for the show. Alan led us on a very rapid “march” through the narrow streets of Seville, arriving at the waterfront a couple of minutes to 6 – only to find we could not board until 6:30. We were a little miffed.
We boarded at 6:30, then one of the dancers arrived late so the show did not start until just after 7. The show was lovely, only one female dancer, one male dancer and one singer (who was married to the female dancer and referred to her as “the woman of my dreams”- which I actually understood in Spanish) on a small stage. It was interesting, and the singer’s voice was beautiful.
Though I have a feeling they would be late to their next gig by the way the female dancer kept checking her watch. The night time boat tour was abbreviated due to the late start, but I did get some interesting photographs of the bridges and the Golden Tower.
We made it back for the last train of the day to Jerez.
Next stop – Cordoba!