Got our train tickets to Sevilla, about a 3 hour train rain to the west. We left Granada about 11:00AM and got to Sevilla about 2:00. Along the way was some nice dramatic scenery.
A town outside Granada situated in front of a mountain peak, taken from the train.
Crossing over a bridge in the country side.
Olives, olives, olives, olives, olives...
We got to Sevilla after the nice train ride. It was neat a couple times as some olive farmers would be out burning brush or old olive trees or something, and you could smell the smoke and knew immediately it was olive wood.
We exited the station in Sevilla and decided to hoof it to the center of town and from there I figured I could find our hotel. We exited the doors and BLAM! It was about 95 degrees in Sevilla, by far the hottest we'd been yet. And we were roughly walking towards the cathedral based on barely seeing the bell tower when we left the train station. So we just started walking in that direction more or less, cutting down one little street, then another until just having to stop in a small plaza to rest on a shaded bench. We were both sweating and tired, already exhausted mentally and physically from the trip so far. This little square was lined with orange trees again, and I took a random pic here.
I always wanted to try eating one, never did.
In a few minutes a man strolled purposely into the plaza, and suddenly all the pigeons and doves and probably other birds swooped down to him in front of the little fountain. He cut open two full bags of rice and dumped them all over the ground to feed the birds, and they surely went to town on it all. We watched the goofy birds for a few more minutes before stomping off the little bit more before we got to the cathedral, literally stumbling onto it's front steps.
We sat and rested again, sweating like pigs, and decided we needed to backtrace up one little street we had just come down about a block or so and then veer to the left and head north for a couple blocks more. I think at times Lisa was exasperated with my direction finding, as I knew roughly were we should be going, and I think I considered finding it a part of the fun, while she usually just wanted to find it and all that. She was awesome with making me stop and ask for directions at times though..haha. Anyways, we finally found the little hotel, walked up two flights of stairs, and melted in the room for a while...no air. We rented a fan for the night, totally worth the 3 Euro!
That night we went to grab some food, and became more familiarized with the area. Had a few beers in a small corner "cerveceria". We were almost at our breaking point I think, and that night in our hotel room sweating away I think is when we were half-joking, yet half-seriously wondering how much it would cost to change our plane tickets to go home right then...
Plaza de la Encarnacion a couple of blocks from our hotel, went here to the bank to use the ATM. I called it a big crazy space waffle.
Messed up pic of jamons hanging from the ceiling of the cerveceria...and the ice cold beer taps there on the bar.
We slept, and then changed rooms for the next night. We went and got a bus ticket to head to Portugal the next morning after, and then rambled through town towards the center again. First we walked alongside the Guadalquivir River, which runs from Sevilla to the sea. This river used to be much more navigable, and many of the famous Spanish ships leaving to explore the New World left from this stretch of river in Sevilla (also why many of the Spanish in the Americas were from southern Spain).
We shopped for a few souvenirs, had some ice cream (where Lisa forgot her glasses sitting on the bench, and she didn't remember 'til we were far away), and generally wandered around. We finally found our way into the area around the cathedral again.
A street on the very center of Sevilla, with tram approaching.
We sat in front of the cathedral and people watched for a little while. What we sat on the steps of I think was the Archive of the Americas...the building in which all the records of the Spanish exploration and control of its possessions in the Americas were kept.
Scroll right to see all this big pic.
A huge panorama of the cathedral, supposedly Columbus's final resting spot.(They dug him up three times moving him all over.)
The main entrance. Note the tiny people, haha.
The Alcazar of Sevilla, which is still a royal palace. Directly across from the cathedral.
Tiles on the wall of the "Royal Alcazar".
The Giralda bell tower next to the cathedral. This 343-feet-tall tower was originally a minaret for the mosque, which stood on the same spot (built in the late 1100s). The inside is a spiraling ramp, instead of steps, so a horseman could ride to the top to do the call to prayer.
This little street was so tiny, groups could really only file through single file one way.
We then passed through a tiny side street, did a little more souvenir shopping (I think I bought Dusti her keychains here) and then tried to find the place where we decided to see a flamenco show. We had seen the Casa de Memoria listed in our guide book, and the young guy working our hotel desk said it was a good place to go, and for 15 Euro we figured it would be a good way to see some supposedly authentic Spanish flamenco music and dance. We went to get our tickets early to come back for the evening show because this was also recommended since they only have about 90 seats per show in the venue (which is a courtyard of a big fancy house from the 1400s). We stopped and ate some tapas at a little joint around the corner, watched a bunch of people going to a wedding at the little church next to the patio and chilled out before tromping our way back to the hotel.
While resting in our room, we could hear a BOOM BOOM BOOM get closer and closer, but in these old medieval towns it's hard to tell where it's coming from. Eventually, it got close enough to figure out it was passing right down below our balcony. We watched the parade go by for a few moments, before I even thought of trying to catch it on camera, but here is the result:
That was really cool, and it was maybe some foreshadowing to a great evening at the flamenco show.
I didn't really know what to expect for this flamenco show. I thought maybe it'd be a nice way to see some of Spanish culture, but I figured it would be all touristy or something. We were really at a low point in the trip, just from fatigue mainly, but dutifully made our way to the Casa de la Memoria again. It seems this place is run as an institute of sorts to promote flamenco culture and preserve it, something like that. Well, we weren't allowed to take any videos or photos until the very end, but here is someone else's video of the place (not the same singers or dancers we had though, but similar):
Here's another shorter one:
I wish I knew the exact songs our group did, because it was awesome! The guys were out first, just playing the guitar, and the singing and clapping, and once they were into it pretty good the girl came out and started dancing, but much slower than these show. It was weird because it actually hit me pretty hard, it was like seeing history play out right there in front of me. Hundreds of years of tradition preserved and performed so that people that watch it are themselves transported back in time. Our trip had been nice so far, but tiring. We had almost thought about calling it quits early, and too hot Sevilla almost broke us. BUT, then we made it to the flamenco show on our last night there, and it was like the high point of the flood, the hump-day of the entire trip. The show was an emotional mid-point to the trip and helped make coming this far so worth it, and promising more to come.
