Spring Break: Seville, Spain

We had originally planned to arrive in Seville around noon, rent a car, and head to our AirBNB and spend

the rest of that day and part of the next morning in Seville.  Unfortunately, we bought the 10:30pm ticket

and not the 10:30 am ticket (which, of course, was non-changeable), so we moved the schedule around a

bit, made arrangements with our AirBNBs in Lisbon and Seville for late checkout and arrival, and made

the best of it.  Our flight from Lisbon to Seville was already late and then it was delayed; when all was

said and done, we landed in Seville at 12:30 in the morning. Seville was a surprisingly small and old-school airport, with the old-style flipboard showing arrival and departure times and definitely felt small and

intimate -- smaller than Riga’s small airport.  We grabbed our bags and headed out to get a taxi -- and

that’s when we met the Seville Taxi Mafia. There were about thirty people in line ahead of us (everyone

from our small flight basically), and only one or two taxis at a time were arriving to take people to town

(about twenty minutes).

It was 12:30am. At that hour there were no buses or public transport, so we lined up and waited for our turn. A half-hour later, we got to the front, only to be told that we would have to take two taxis at 30 euros each because they only allow four people per cab no matter how big the cab is.  We gritted our teeth and took two taxis into town for 60 euros ($70), met our very patient AirBNB host, and finally hit the bed at around 1:30 am exhausted.We woke up late, trying to sleep off the long night, and then got ourselves ready and out the door. Downtown Seville has a labyrinthine feel to it -- the buildings are about three or four stories, the roads twist in right angles in different directions, there are small squares here and there, and everything is shopping, shopping, shopping. 

This is a town that has embraced its tourism image. We found a little one-man diner that looked about right on one of the mini-squares, and ordered some sandwiches and burgers.

 It was on our way to eat that we were right in the heart of Flamenco land, where it originated!  All of the stores had Flamenco dresses or accessories for the full look.After we had eaten our lunch, we headed towards the Seville Cathedral (aka Cathedral of St. Mary), the 500-year old largest cathedral in the world and the resting place of Christopher Columbus and several kings.Getting in was more challenging than you might think.  Because of its size, it takes a while to walk around the cathedral, but we finally found the entrance and the enormous line to get in, and took our place.  We noticed that there was another entrance with no line for guides, and when a woman passed through our line advertising her services as an English-speaking guide who could get us in immediately for a reasonable fee, we jumped.  Maria took us straight into the cathedral and showed us around the enormity of the cathedral (that, per Spanish tradition, includes a converted mosque). The cathedral ceiling rises 42 meters and is so massive that it includes 80 chapels inside of it.  We wandered through its immensity and marveled at all of the treasure and art that the cathedral held. The entire church is lined with gold and silver (the main Altarpiece alone is 20 meters high and 13 meters wide and reportedly has 88,000 pounds of gold in it!), and a nearby tabernacle is made of 40,000 pounds of silver.  It’s hard to fathom that much gold and silver going into anything, and it was a testament to the riches of the New World and what they meant to Spain’s fortunes. Murillo was the artist of the cathedral and dozens of his paintings (including the massive Vision of St. Anthony), others from Goya, and hundreds of others lined the cathedral, and carved altars, chairs, organs, and busts were everywhere.

 Christopher Columbus' resting place:

We spent an hour in the cathedral, said goodbye to Maria, and headed to La Giralda, the 340-foot belltower for the cathedral.

The Giralda is a 900-year-old converted Moorish prayer tower, and has 34 floors designed using ramps instead of stairs so that a horse could be ridden to the top.  The Spanish removed the domed roof and added dozens of bells. The kids enjoyed running ahead up and down the tower pretty quickly, while Bri and I hiked up taking pictures along the way and enjoyed its expansive views of the city before descending to the orange groves in the shadows of the cathedral.We enjoyed the fountain and square next to the cathedral and grabbed some ice cream. We also used a public restroom where we were reminded that not all sewer systems can handle flushing toilet paper into them.  The first time I saw this was in Brazil almost 15 years ago, where we had to put all toilet paper into the trashcan in the stall or restroom.  Here it was the same.We decided to skip the long lines to get into the Alcazar and its gardens, and headed towards La Plaza de Espana.  La Plaza de Espana is a relatively new place in Seville, built for the 1928 Ibero-American Exhibition, and again was breathtaking and unbelievable. The space is an enormous circle with three-level building and large covered archways on one half and a canal with boats ringing the plaza.  We picked up some fans for the girls and I, some castanets for Thomas, and wandered the space, ending up in the shadow of the central building where flamenco dancers, singers, and a guitarist were performing. We were enthralled by the dancing and the music, watching the expressive dancing and enjoying the guitar and singer (sounded just like The Gypsy Kings guy!).

We loved watching the dancers.  The Flamenco dancer asked if there was a child that would like to join her, and the little girl followed her quite well!

 
So naturally after tipping the dancer, the girls started talking about how they wanted to become Flamenco dancers!  And of course, so conveniently on the exit street were vendors willing to help us out with that.  :)We walked back the direction of our apartment and saw a few more interesting things. ;)We made our way to our apartment, grabbed our bags, and waited underneath the Metropol Parasol for our taxi.  This is a giant wooden structure that stretches like a big mushroomy umbrella over La Encarnacion square and provided us a little shade.
We had ordered a taxi for five this time, but when the taxi arrived, he said he could only do 4 people in spite of our request. The Seville Taxi Mafia struck again!  We asked around and another taxista disclosed that this was what the Seville taxi union had agreed on and we wouldn’t find anyone who could take us all in one car. So we hired two cars at 22EU a pop and headed back to the airport.  Once there, we found our car rental terminal, boarded the shuttle, and finally ended up in a very comfortable Fiat van headed towards Cordoba, our next stop. Seville was beautiful and ancient but our experience with the taxistas (and more to come…) and some other local interactions left us feeling like it was a little chintzy with taking advantage of tourists.