Sevilla - Part II

We then headed to the Catédral de Sevilla, which is the 3^rd-largest church in the world (behind St. Peter’s in Rome and St. Paul’s in London). Construction took over a century and it was built atop a former mosque with its clock tower replacing a minaret (sounds familiar). Emilie had already been inside, so she decided to take a break from the sightseeing in exchange for a comfortable chair and a snack.

Since I had bought the Sevilla Pass, I didn’t have to wait in line and got to enter through a back entrance that is reserved for guided tours. I actually ended up being the first one let in (the church had been closed all morning) and it was a bit eerie being in there completely by myself.

The cathedral was indeed massive and I did my best to take pictures before other people came in. Given the size, it almost felt like there were different sections and it was really hard to get the full perspective of how big it really was.

 

I think the highlight for me was Christopher Columbus’ tomb, which I had no idea was inside the cathedral.

There were also some very nice paintings, though I unfortunately can't remember the artists and couldn't find them during my brief search on the Internet.

 

After I finished exploring the cathedral itself, I went up the Giralda Bell Tower. It took a while to scale the 300+ vertical feet (34 floors of ramps) required to get to the top, but the resulting view was worth the effort. You could see the Alcázar, the top of the cathedral and the Plaza de Toros (arena for bull fights).

The Giralda has apparently served as inspiration for a number of buildings in the U.S., including the Ferry Building in San Francisco and the Wrigley Building in Chicago.

The next major stop was the Plaza de Toros. Perhaps for the best, there wasn’t a bull fight on Saturday and we instead simply took the tour. It was actually very interesting and provided insight into the ritual, history and logistics of bullfighting in Spain.

 

Even though there weren’t any bulls around, just being in the area where the bulls run in to the ring and the chapel where the matadors pray before each “fight” really got my heart going. It made you realize the gravity of the circumstances.

There were a number of bull/cow heads on the walls in the museum, the most interesting being the one of the mother whose son killed one of the most famous bull fighters in Spanish history. The populace was so devastated by the matador’s death that not only did the bull have to die, but so did his mother.

We then walked along the Guadalquivir River to the Plaza de España and by this point it was absolutely boiling out.

The plaza was built for the 1929 World’s Fair and is bordered by a large semi-circle complex that serves as government offices. I liked the architecture of the building and thought the alcoves in front with tiled designs for all the provinces were very nice. The row boaters in the moat out front also gave the plaza a relaxed feel.

 

In the evening we went to see a Flamenco show and arrived early to get a good spot. We were the second group there, so we got seats right in the center-front. That said, there were only two rows given the small venue size, so pretty much all the seats had great views.

The show ended up being fantastic, with the four performers – a guitarist, a singer, and two dancers – contributing to various group and solo performances throughout the evening. All of them seemed like they were giving every ounce of their passion to the performance and it was hard to imagine that they were able to maintain such a high level of intensity day in and day out.

After the show we walked around the old town a bit and found a restaurant with a nice outdoor patio for dinner. Emilie and I decided to go with paella (hers seafood; mine chicken) and both were great.

 

 

The restaurant choice ended up being perfect except for one minor thing – no credit cards accepted. And since we didn’t have cash, the only option was for me to search for an ATM. Further complicating matters, we were in the heart of the old town where the streets form an intricate maze that I presume even locals struggle to navigate late at night after a couple of drinks.

I did my best to memorize my route and followed the waitress’ instructions to the nearest ATM. Unfortunately, it was nowhere to be found and I had to ask others…two separate times. And with each instance, I got further and further away from the restaurant (assuming that I wasn’t going in circles).

Finally I found an ATM, but it soon became apparent that I took a few too many turns to properly retrace my steps. And after asking a number of locals who were convinced that no such restaurant even existed, I finally resorted to calling Emilie so she could have the waitress speak with a waitor at another restaurant that I asked to help me find the way.

In the end, they were able to direct me to the restaurant following a good 20 minutes of wandering. The waitress was so impressed by my efforts (apparently she thought that I was just going to leave Emilie stranded…) that she gave us a free digestif. Emilie liked it but I thought it was terrible.

On the walk back to the hotel we ended up retracing my steps a bit and I tried to convince Emilie that I wasn’t crazy / incompetent. Here’s a picture that I took along the way of the Giralda.