Spanish Spanish is quite different than Mexican Spanish. Mostly we can understand despite the accent, if we can get them to speak slowly. But the Castilian lisp takes some getting used to.
I ordered a cup of espresso at a little cafe one afternoon, and the barista asked me if I wanted a hookah. I was a bit baffled, so I asked him to repeat. "A hookah?" he asked again. It took me a long second to realize that he was asking me with a very pronounced Castilian lisp if I wanted "ahuca." Azucar: sugar.
No. No hookah for me, grathias.
Sevilla is a beautiful town very much built to human scale. There are no high rises, and the pace of life is relaxed.
It's very pedestrian-friendly. We took walking tours of the city that were quite informative. Unfortunately, the last day O got sick and missed the last tour.
The bull ring is still a going concern. Having a box here for the season is like having a box at the Met in New York--a marker of high status.
We toured the Real Alcazar, the royal palace of the rulers of Sevilla back when the city was the capital of its own country. Built for the Christian king Peter of Castile by Castilian Christians on the site of an Abbadid Muslim alcazar, or residential fortress destroyed after the Christian conquest of Seville. The upper stories of the Alcázar are still occupied by the royal family when they are in Seville.
The palace is a preeminent example of Mudéjar architecture in the Iberian Peninsula but features Gothic, Renaissance and Romanesque design elements from previous stages of construction.
When the palace was built, just after the Reconquest, the best architects and artisans available were Muslim, so the resulting structure is mainly built with Islamic design features.
The palace gardens are lushly planted and incorporate many beautiful water features.
Fanciful Italian tile works enlivens the interior.
Los Baños de Doña María de Padilla. These beautiful baths below the palace offer cool water for bathing, even when the weather is hot.
Legend has it that this little balcony is the one where Count Almaviva and Figaro courted Rosina in Act II of The Barber of Seville. Unlikely, since the opera was based on a French comic novel, but who knows, maybe Rossini was charmed by this picturesque location and so included it in his libretto.
Sevilla's warm Mediterranean climate brings forth a profusion of color even in early March. I'm convinced that the pleasant climate contributes much to the easy-going ambiance of the city.
Sevilla's Cathedral of Saint Mary is the largest Gothic church in the world. It was completed in the 1500s, at the peak of Sevilla's power as the main conduit for the wealth of Spain's colonial empire.
La Giralda, the cathedral's bell tower, was originally the minaret of Sevilla's main mosque.
It was built to resemble the minaret of the Koutoubia mosque that we saw in Marrakech.
The cathedral houses the grandiose tomb of Christopher Columbus as well as those of various Spanish royalty.
The builders spared no expense is making the cathedral as ostentatious as possible. Local tradition has it the the designers' guiding principle was "Let us build a church so beautiful and so grand that those who see it finished will take us for mad."
You might say they lost their heads.
And after all the miles of walking, they have gin.
The sun was setting as I walked back to our hotel. O was feeling a bit better, and it was time to rent a car and head for Málaga.
P.
