31 Mar

Our only full day in Sevilla! One of our first orders of business for the day was finding an internet café to properly write home and check our mail. This took some time, but afterwards we got down to some real sightseeing. The first stop was the Catedral. This cathedral is the 3^rd largest in Christendom and the building that really puts Sevilla on the map (though, according to http://www.andalucia.com/cities/seville/cathedral.htm, this church is the largest in the world; I’ve seen both St. Paul’s and St. Peter’s and I’m not sure if I can verify or disprove the claim). As I expected, the interior was simply beautiful. Gothic in style, the tall, sweeping vaults are designed to overwhelm even the most irreligious visitor. We spent a good amount of time walking around and listening to the information on our audio guide (we found that these guides are nice to have if you have no prior knowledge about the place you’re visiting). The reputed tomb of Christopher Columbus is also here. As befitting a national hero (even though he wasn’t Spanish!), old Chris gets a fabulous, dark, impressive tomb of wrought iron. The main altarpiece of the Catedral is one of the most stunning works of art I’ve ever seen in a church. In gold and silver, the key scenes of the life of Christ are told from holy conception to birth to death and resurrection. And those panels are just four out of literally hundreds! The entire piece stands at least 20 feet high and a strong set of gates guards it. Beautiful!

After we left the interior of the Catedral, we headed for the Giralda tower in the courtyard outside. The courtyard itself was quite beautiful. It is called the Patio de los Naranjos, which means the Courtyard of the Oranges. Indeed, orange trees were arranged symmetrically around the courtyard. As always, I was tempted to pluck one down but they were forever out of reach.

The climb up the Giralda tower was quite unusual in that there were no stairs but instead what was essentially a ramp that winded round and round until you finally reached the top. Talk about being handicap friendly! Apparently, Pope John Paul II delivered an address from the top of the tower to the people of Sevilla in the early 1990s. Faithful followers wheeled the Pope all the way up to the balcony that provides one with an incredible view of the city. After shooting many pictures, we trotted down and out. On the way up, I could swear I recognized someone from UNC, but before I could make a positive identification, she had already gone well past us on her way down. Who knows?

The Catedral done, we headed to the famed Alcazar (fort) of Sevilla and toured around it for a while. It was nice but not as nice as the Catedral so we did not spend too much time here. We were feeling pretty hungry so we went in search of food. We came across a tapas bar that was supposed to be pretty good, but the wait was awfully long. I began to despair that we would ever get a seat at the bar (there were about 8 stools for 15 people!) and then miraculously two seats opened up. Mom and Dad sat while I stood until a third opened and we all got comfortable. Being vegetarian ain’t easy in most places (except India) and here it was especially difficult. We tried to explain to the guys behind the bar that we eat no meat, but it wasn’t getting through real clear. To our immensely great fortune, there was an American couple next to us who were extremely friendly and helpful. The woman was adorable. She recommended a few dishes and so we tried them. One was called ‘pisto’ which is basically eggplant and onions done in this delicious way; sort of a stew, nice and hearty with a good amount of flavor. Usually pisto is covered with jamon (ham) but the nice lady ordered it ‘sans jamon’ for us. She also recommended this almond and garlic soup which turned out to be one of the best dishes I’ve tasted in a long time. None of us have ever had this combination before and it was fabulous. I think we just ordered dishes of these and along with a glass of red wine for Dad (I just took a sip) and some of the crispy little pieces of bread they had, we had a delicious and satisfying meal. Turns out the couple had children who attended North Carolina schools (one was at Davidson, I don’t remember the other one) and the woman herself attended NC State. They’d been traveling in Spain for a couple weeks and she knew a fair bit of Spanish. We ended up finishing our meals at the same time and we thanked them profusely upon leaving the restaurant. Talk about luck! I’d been hoping to sample some tapas for a few days and we were happy to have enjoyed some in such an agreeable manner. Sevilla is quickly becoming my favorite city.

From the restaurant we walked to the Plaza de Espana (pretty much every Spanish city has one of these). It is quite an impressive square with a gorgeous fountain in the middle where some tired Brits were taking the time to cool off their feet. We walked along the sides to admire the arches and nice architecture of the buildings. On a wall at the base of the buildings and going all the way around the square is a set of ceramic tile murals for the cities of Spain. Each city gets a little square where its name is written and its most famous sites are depicted. Very appropriate decoration for a ‘Plaza de Espana,’ don’t you think? It is also here that George Lucas chose to film part of his recent Star Wars trilogy. In a scene in Episode II where Anakin and Padme are standing on a pretty bridge overlooking some pretty scene, they are actually standing on a bridge in this square. The bridge was beautiful but the water beneath it not so much, so I don’t blame Lucas for using some CGI for this scene. When we were nearly done, I politely approached one of the Brits and asked him to take our picture. He greeted me with ‘Hola’ before finding out very quickly that I spoke perfect English. We may look Hispanic, but we certainly don’t look Spanish (they’re too pale for us). He kindly obliged and took a couple really nice ones.

From the Plaza we walked through some lovely gardens on our way back to the apartment. Mom and Dad were a little tired so we decided to rest for a bit, eat dinner, and pack some before heading out again at night. My appetite was back in a big way and I enjoyed some more Indian food from home. A nighttime stroll sounded really good so we left to find the Catedral and just see some of the Barrio Santa Cruz at night. What a great decision! The Catedral was lit up beautifully and to our surprise, we saw a huge crowd of people lining a street next to it. We felt like some gelato for dessert so we quickly popped into a café/restaurant to order some and head back out onto the street in time to catch whatever it was the people were waiting for. I remembered that Semana Santa (Holy Week) was rapidly approaching and that Sevilla celebrates the occasion in a big way. After some time, a sort of bier was carried out the doors of the Cathedral with a statue of Christ kneeling on it. Minutes later, a priest or other religious figure placed a cross onto the shoulders of the Christ statue. That being done, a procession of altar boys and small children as well as adults with tall white candles and long staffs began moving along the walls of the Catedral. Like everyone else, we watched them for a while until they turned the corner. Figuring there wasn’t anything else to see (and eager to get away from the crowd), we left the scene and decided just to circle the church before heading back to the hotel.

As we entered the square between the Alcazar and the Catedral, we saw the procession once more, except this time we were much closer and the crowd wasn’t so bad. Excitedly, I began taking pictures while we speculated what it was all about. A teenage girl next to me glared at me after a time before she approached the statue and crossed herself before leaving. What an idiot I am! Here I was, clearly a tourist, talking rather irreverently during an important religious procession! No wonder she was upset. I immediately shut up after she left and stopped taking pictures. Happy, and very pleased with the city of Sevilla, we walked back to our hotel to do some final packing and to get some rest. We would be renting a car the next day so we had to be extra alert! Cheers!