How is it June already?!
It feels like time is speeding up and we're quickly approaching the end of our stay here! I'm starting to get nervous about leaving; I don't feel I've done enough yet!
The first weekend of June was a long weekend, thanks to a puente (bank holiday) on Thursday. We joined some friends and journeyed to the south of Spain-Andalucia. A and I have been embarrassed to say that we have lived in Spain for almost a year, yet we haven't truly seen most of the country. Sevilla is one of those cities everyone recommends seeing, so on Thursday morning, two Brits and three Americans got on a bus for 6 hours to check out this jewel of the south.
Sevilla was an important city during the Spanish Golden Age. The Moors possessed the city until the Catholics King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella reconquered the south. During the Spanish Golden Age, many dynamic changes occurred. First, there was the funding of Columbus to the New World, which ended up to be a success. Then, there was the successful takeovers of Sevilla and Granada from the Moors. Finally, the expeditions to the New World brought back immense wealth for the Spanish kingdom.
We arrived in the evening into Seville and were quite famished. I had heard about the oldest bar (founded in 1670) that has great tapas. We headed over to The Rinconcillo to try some sangria and spinach tapas.
The following day, we headed straight to the cathedral. It is the largest gothic cathedral in the world. I could only get part of the church in the frame! The cathedral was formerly a mosque; in the second photo shows the bell tower, which used to be a minaret.
Once we entered the edifice, we realized on our maps that Columbus's tomb is here! We were able to find it based on the large amount of people crowded in one area of the church.
Apparently, the tomb has been moved several times. At one point, it was in Havana, Cuba, but was later moved. The four statues carrying the tomb represent the four kingdoms of Spain during that time: Léon, Aragon, Castille and Navarre. There's some speculations as to whether the tomb truly holds Columbus's remains, but it's a fascinating monument nonetheless!
After the cathedral, we went to the Royal Alcázar. This was originally the palace of the first Caliphate of Andalucia (also known as the Moorish head of state). Of course, Seville was conquered by Catholic Royalty later, but it remained a palace for prominent leaders.
This is called the Admiral's Room. It is where Queen Isabella advised the trade from the New World. Amerigo Vesipucci carried out his role as Chief Navigator here and Magellan planned the first trip around the world. It seems like an unimportant room, but a lot of history took place here.
Here's a beautiful example of the Moorish architecture in the palace.
We later headed over to Plaza de España, a more recent edition to Sevilla (built in 1929 for the World's Fair) but a gorgeous site nonetheless! The structure is a semi-circle, decorated with tiled alcoves showing depictions of Spanish cities. Unfortunately, we were visiting during some construction, but we were able to take some nice pictures...
We decided to take a horse-carriage ride through the city, lead by an old man who could only point out to us the historical sites, but had no further explanations about their importance. We attempted to ask questions in our Spanish, but he merely repeated himself. So, here's a picture of the Torre de Oro, which is the Tower of Gold in English. When Spain was gaining riches from the New World, the ships would come to this port and unload the gold in to this building.
The trip to Sevilla was not complete until we attended a flamenco show! Fortunately for us, we were able to get some cheap tickets to a local show. Flamenco is generally a more typical dance in southern Spain. While it is possible to see flamenco in Madrid, it can be a bit pricey and sometimes hard to find. The best places are in Andalucía. The performance we saw consisted of a guitarist, a singer and the two flamenco dancers. The music and dance has such a unique style...I recommend looking at some online videos in order to get a feel for the ambience. I tried to take some pictures of the performers in action here.
It's difficult to squeeze all of our adventures into this post, but I think I have presented the most important points. I will try to post Granada soon, so keep checking back!
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