Andalusia, Spain - Seville 2
I ordered a set of churros, chocolate, orange juice, and coffee/tea(I chose green tea). J had a set of tostadas con tomate, tortilla (Spanish potato omelette), orange juice and coffee/tea (J had black coffee). Dipping fresh churros in chocolate was my dream breakfast in Spain. In fact my dream has already come true in Barcelona some years ago, which was wonderful and I wanted to repeat again.
The bar doesn't make thin star-shaped churros, also known as Churros Madrileños, but only thick churros, or Porras. They were fluffy but heavily oily! The chocolate sauce tasted ok but a little chalky. I think the churros (both Churros Madrileños and Porras) that I had in Barcelona tasted better. Or, is this like what people say - "Memories are often glorified."? Anyway, I didn't look for churros anymore, at least during the trip.
It was still too early for our pre-booked visit for the Real Alcázar of Seville. We stopped by at Parroquia de San Pedro Apostol, or the Church of San Pedro, which was open at 8:30am.
The 14th century Catholic church, renovated in the 16th and 18th centuries was in Gothic-Mudejar style. The Mudejar style was new to me. It's an architectural style that emerged in the 12th century on the Iberian peninsula, resulting from Jewish, Muslim and Christian cultures living side by side. It didn't generate a new shapes or structures like Gothic or Romanesque, but reinterpreting Western styles through Muslim influences.
Like the Church of the Divine Savior we visited the day before, the main alter and chapels were golden and the curved figures were polychromed. We started thinking it might be a Spanish thing...
We slowly walked toward the Real Alcázar of Seville, sometimes stopping to take a photo.
Eventually the Cathedral of Seville emerged in front of us!
Plaza Virgen de los Reyes, the central square of the city, surrounded by the Cathedral's symbolic tower, 'La Giralda', the Convent of La Encarnación and the Archbishop's Palace was beautiful!
Good morning, horses! Horse carriage tours seemed popular for tourists in the historic area of Seville.
The Real Alcázar of Seville was somewhere over there.
Finally we arrived at the Real Alcázar of Seville! The entrance, the Lion Gate was located on far right.
The Cathedral looked great from the Real Alcázar of Seville.
The Real Alcázar of Seville is the oldest royal palace in Europe that is still in use today. The original nucleus of the Alcázar was built in the 10th century as the palace of the Almohad governor, and today is used as the residence of Spanish royal family in Seville. The Alcázar, which consists of multiple palatial buildings and extended gardens, is often considered as the finest example of Mudéjar architecture. It was absolutely remarkable!
Step out to the gardens...
I could spend a whole day in the gardens by sitting down near a fountain, listening to birds, napping and looking up oranges.
Peacocks were hanging around the cafeteria in one of the gardens. The pretty birds naturally fit to the beautiful palace.
Go back to the inside… there were more rooms and patios to see!
We spent a good amount of time to explore the Real Alcázar of Sevill. It was definitely one of highlights in Seville. Next we visited the Archivo de Indias, or the National Archives of Spain which was located just next to the palace. The Renaissance building is home to the greatest collection of documentation about the discovery of and relations with the New World. Visitors are not allowed to touch those documents but can walk around one huge floor and see the 'documents of the month' exhibition.
One of the exhibited documents was a letter from a Japanese 'Shogun' in the early 17th century! I couldn't read it because it was written in old Japanese while the letter was supposed to authorize Spanish ships from 'New Spain' to enter Japanese ports. It was interesting to see the connection between Japan and Spain in this way.
Next we visited the Cathedral of Seville, which was located just next to the archive. The Cathedral was founded in 1403 on the site of a former mosque. With its five naves, it is the largest Gothic building in Europe.
It was certainly huge! The main alter was located in the central nave. It was massive and of course, golden!
I hadn’t known that Christopher Columbus was resting in the Cathedral before this trip. His coffin was held by the figures of the four kingdoms of Spain - Castille, Aragon, Navara, and Leon - during his life. The tomb was installed in 1899. Columbus was traveling even after his death. He died Valladolid, a city of northwest Spain in 1506. His body was moved shortly to be buried in Monastery of the Cartuja in Seville. Then the remains travelled across the ocean to be in a cathedral in Colonial Santo Domingo, now a part of the Dominican Republic. After a couple of centuries, his body had to be moved to Havana when Spain lost control of the Dominican Republic. When Spain lost control of Cuba, his body came back to Seville. There is a rumor that who sleeps in the coffin could be his brother… I hope he now rests in peace there (or anywhere).
We climbed up to the top of the bell tower, La Giralda. It’s the former minaret of the Almohad mosque but the top section was replaced in the Renaissance period. The tower was pretty high but it was relatively easy to reach the top because all the way up was slope, not stairs. The observatory was where all bells were set. When the bell rang, it was pretty laud.
The views from there were great! They gave us a very good idea of how the majestic Cathedral as well as the entire city of Seville looks like.
We came back to the ground level and continued to explore the Cathedral, including the Sacristy/Treasury and the Chapterhouse.
The exit lead us to ‘Patio de los Naranjos,’ the courtyard with a grove of orange trees. It was a lovely space. It would be perfect for a picnic.
The key hole gate between the orange tree patio and outside was a remain of the old Almohad mosque. It matched the Cathedral’s gothic parts beautifully.
We walked in El Arenal, west of the Cathedral, where used to be a district of munitions stores and shipyards.
You can see a flamenco dance on the streets in Seville.
It was time for lunch! We tried Bodeguita Romero, a traditional tapas bar in El Arenal. The bar doesn't take a reservation. We jumped into the bar when they opened the door for lunch. The place was packed in ten minutes! As tapas beginners, we ordered multiple dishes randomly based on the short descriptions on the menu in Spanish.
Papas Alinas (vinegrette potato salad) and Ensaladilla de Gambas (potato mayo salad with shrimps)
Salomrejo (cold tomato soup)
Bonito en Escabeche con Pimientos Asados (albacore tuna in brine with roasted red peppers)
Berenjenas con Miel de Coña (fried eggplant sticks with cane molasses)
Tortilla de Patatas (Spanish potato omlette)
Marinated sardine on toast
Croquetas de Jamón (ham croquettes)
Croquetas de Bacalao (salt cod croquettes)
Everything was delicious! Especially I liked Papas Alinas, which had a nice vinegar kick, Salomrejo, which was smooth and refreshing, and croquettes, which were so creamy. Somehow we accidentally ordered three potato dishes. We were still in a learning process to understand how to order tapas in an effective and efficient way.
After the enjoyable tapas experience, we walked through El Arenal and crossed a bridge to explore Triana, an area on the west bank of the Guadalquivir river.
We quickly checked out an indoor market. Ham, ham, ham.
We visited a ceramic museum. Pottery has been made in Triana since Roman times. The museum was kinda small. I thought the ceramic exhibition rooms in the Real Alcázar of Seville were much more interesting. There were a couple of ceramic shops around the museum. They sells pretty tiles but unfortunately we didn't have any house project that needs tiles right now.
While we explored in Triana, suddenly I was drawn to something like whipped cream!!!!!
I still don't know what they were because various lovely sweets in the pastry shop distracted me. Pasteleria los angelitos de santa isabel is specialized in traditional Sevillian pastry. Some were what I could guess but many were new for me. All looked attractive!
As usual, I wasn't decisive in front of those mysterious local sweets. J kindly picked one for me. It was Turquesa de Yema con Tocino, which was a kind of custard tart and tasted similar to one of gelato, Crema Catalana that I had a day before. Yum! J had a walnut cookie for himself and also bought two of chestnut pastries for sometime later.
We walked more in Triana.
The Iglesia de Santa Ana is the first church built in Seville after the Reconquista in 1248. We couldn't see the inside because the Gothic-Mudéjar church was closed at that time. Perhaps, next time.
We walked along the river and Torre del Oro on the other side (El Arenal) was getting close. Built in 1220, the Moorish tower was a part of the walled defenses, linking up with the Real Alcázar and the rest of the city walls under the rule of the Almohads. There would be another tower across the river to prevent ships from sailing upriver by stretching a chain between the two towers. A simple and bold method.
The tower houses Museo Maritimo, exhibiting maritime documents and antiques as well as ship models today. It was a nice little museum.
We also climbed up to the top of the tower. It was so breezy! We enjoyed the views from there very briefly, went down to the ground level and continued the city walk until we felt tired.
To be continued...
