Allie in Spain (and Ireland): Sevilla: What's the difference between here and New York?

Yet another fabulous weekend of traveling in Spain. Although I am enjoying exploring the various regions of this uniquely diverse country, I'm getting pretty exhausted with the whole tourist thing. I'm looking forward to spending the next few weekends in Madrid (no travel plans until Julie's and Dan's wedding, but that may change.

This past weekend was a program excursion to Sevilla, or as it's known in the English world, Seville. Sevilla is the capital of the autonomous community of Andalusia, and the 4th largest city in Spain. It is often considered to be the the cultural, artistic and financial capital of southern Spain. It boasts famous native artists like Velazquez and Murillo. It was also seen as the gateway to the New World in the 16th century since the river Guadalquivir is where many expeditions left from (Columbus is allegedly entombed there). It is also famous for it's fervor for bull-fighting and flamenco dancing.

Now, this was a program trip, so that means there were 80 college students all traveling together. While I appreciate the fact that the program organizes and pays for these trips, this is not my preferred method of traveling. Being in a group that large can be obnoxious and exhausting, but we make the most of it regardless.

So, we left Friday morning and took the AVE (Alta Velocidad Española, or high speed train). This name is also a play on the Spanish word for bird - the train goes 186 mph and covers the journey from Madrid to Sevilla in 2.5 hours. Not bad. We arrived around 11:30, headed to our hotel to drop our things off, and then headed out for a sight-seeing filled day.

First, we headed over to the Cathedral. Yes, another beautiful Spanish church. This one, however, has some distinction. It was constructed from 1402-1519, after the the capture of Sevilla from the Moors, and originally it was a mosque. However, once the Catholics took over they began to convert it and it is said that the Christians bragged that they wanted to "build a Cathedral so huge that anyone who sees it will take us for madmen." So they built for 120 years. It is the largest Gothic Cathedral in the world, and the 3rd largest Cathedral in the world, behind St. Peter's in Rome and St. Paul's in London. Its set-up is a bit different than a typical Cathedral, since it used to be a Mosque, so it lacks the typical cruciform shape of a church. It's so huge, you don't really notice though. It seemed pretty similar to the Cathedrals I saw in Toledo and Granada, but the Spanish architecture style is definitely distinct from the French style, like what you see in Notre Dame. There's a much clearer separation for the royalty, the nobility and the peasantry in Spanish cathedrals. King Juan Carlos' oldest daughter, the Infanta Elena, was married in this Cathedral in 1995. You have to be royal to be married in this Cathedral.

One of the most significant features that Sevilla's Cathedral prides itself on having is the tomb of Christopher Colombus. There is, however, a bit of debate surrounding this subject. For whatever reason (bragging rights, I suppose), everybody seems to want to get their hands on this guy's remains. It seems that his body is scattered all over parts of the globe. The current debate is primarily between the Dominican Republican and the Cathedral in Sevilla (there's a much longer history, which I won't bore you with here). Apparently, the Spanish government has done a DNA test to confirm that it matches the mitochondrial DNA of his brother and they say that makes it valid (although it only actually proves that they have the same mother). However, there are only 150 grams (about 5.3 ounces) SO obviously something is missing. Hmm...kind of a morbid story. The remains in Santo Domingo have not been examined so who really knows. The one thing that is certain though is that Sevilla had significance for New World explorers which is why Columbus' son requested for him to be buried there.

After the tour of the Cathedral we went up the Giralda, a former minaret which was covered by a bell tower during the "Christianization" of the mosque. It is 340 feet high and has an amazing view of the city (for Dan Brown readers, it also plays a very significant role in Digital Fortress). It's accessible only by a series of ramps, which were built so that horses could climb the tower.

After the Cathedral, we took a little stroll through the old Jewish quarter (yes, another Spanish town with a long history of religious diversity) until we arrived at the Alcazar. Alcazar is a Arab-Spanish word for palace/fortress (recall the Alcazaba from the Alhambra). Construction began in 1181, and didn't really stop for 500 years. Like a great deal of Spanish architecture it's in the mudejar style (moorish, but with Christian influence). However, since it was built over such a long period of time, it has some heavy Renaissance influence as well. The garden was full of orange trees and smelled amazing (as is typical of Sevillan winters). The oranges are barely edible though, they're super sour and apparently only used in crappy English marmalade (direct quote from my tour guide). The Alcazar is the current residence of Spanish royalty in Sevilla.
Many of its features were similar to what I saw at the Alhambra, but it paled in size to the enormous Granadan fort. It was cool to see though, because it has great significance for the New World conquests. In 1503, the Catholic monarchs constructed a building to deal with regulating trade for the New World colonies, the Casa de Contratación (the House of Trade). Columbus met with Ferdinand and Isabella there after his journey to America.

After that, we had some free time in the afternoon, so I went with a couple of friends to get some coffee, which we are all completely addicted to by now. We stopped off in a pretty innocuous looking cafe where we encountered some middle-aged Spanish men who were very happy to see us. They proceeded to try and pull us into an argument about which one of them was more "guapo." Leonardo (DiCaprio, he insisted) swore that his mother said he was the most handsome. They also goaded us with questions about if the people were more attractive in Madrid or Sevilla, and what was the difference between New York and Sevilla. Oh jeez. They then tried to deflect their creep factor by saying that they wanted to set us up with the bartender. As he dropped off our check, he mumbled "you girls are way too young for me." Good to know one of them understood. I then proceeded to stuff my face with turrón ice cream. Turrón is one of my favorite Spanish foods thus far; it's sort of a honey, sugar, almond meal, often coated with chocolate and it's a Christmas tradition in Spain. Fortunately for me, my family eats it all year round.

Following that strange (although not really that strange as an American in Spain) encounter, we headed to a flamenco show, which was a lot of fun. It definitely made me wish I could dance, but I don't think I received that gene, unfortunately. That was the end of our plans for the evening, so we headed out for dinner. Without the convenience of a metro or internet access, this proved a little challenging. We wandered for a while and quickly discovered that what seem like quaint European streets in the daylight, seem more like creepy dark alleyways at night. We eventually found a tapas bar in Plaza de Alfalfa and then turned in fairly early so that we would be rested for Saturday.

Saturday, we woke up for breakfast at the hotel, and when we entered the restaurant, we were shocked and delighted by what we found: real breakfast. The Spanish idea of breakfast is a vat of coffee and some very small form of a carbohydrate to accompany it, and we've all pretty much accepted that by now. This hotel, however, had a full breakfast spread including scrambled and fried eggs, all types of fruit, pastries and BACON. It was great. We all ate like it was our last meal.

After this, we went to the Sevilla's main art museum, el Museo de Bellas Artes, which has the most important Spanish collection of Baroque Art, after the Prado. Although Velazquez was born in Sevilla, pretty much all of his works are housed at the Prado or outside of Spain. This museum did have a very nice collection of Murillo and other well known Spanish painters like Zubaránd and Valdés Leal. Beyond its religiously themed Baroque collection, it also has a fair spread of 19th century classicist work. It was no Prado, but definitely worth seeing.

Then, we walked down to the River Guadalquivir to get our tourist photos in. This river is beautiful and the weather was absolutely amazing. It was sunny and probably about 75. Perfect weather, and in February - imagine that. We then had free time for the rest of the afternoon. We wandered around Sevilla, past the Torre del Oro, a famous 13th century military watch tower. We also went by the Bull-Fighting Arena (Plaza del Toros), which is the oldest bull fighting ring in Spain (construction began in 1749).

Our next stop was the famous Plaza de España. It was originally built in 1928 as a display for the Ibero-American Exposition, set to take place in 1929. It is a prime example of the Renaissance-Revival style of Spanish architecture and is also described as being a combination of Art Deco and Neo-Mudejar. It is in the beautiful Maria Luisa Park, described as having a "Moorish paradisaical style." When the plaza was built, the entire Southern part of the city was redeveloped into an expanse of gardens and lavish boulevards so that the city would be more impressive for all the foreign visitors coming to the Exposition. Unfortunately, the world economy had its own plans and the Exposition ended up not being quite what the Sevillanos had anticipated as attendance was much lower than expected. Regardless, the Plaza is one of the prides of Sevilla (random fun fact: some scenes from Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones were shot there). After this, we slowly made our way back to the hotel, going in and out of shops. Around 7, we got back on the AVE to return to Madrid.

I really enjoyed Sevilla. I wish that I had had more time there because it seemed like there was a lot to do and it was beautiful. The weather was amazing, but I would imagine it must be killer in the summer (although, being from Arizona, I'm sure I could handle it). This is another place that I would definitely recommend for your future travels! More to come later this week on classes and life in Madrid...¡hasta pronto!