Southern Spain Day Three - Sevilla

Monday, December 28th

Sevilla, or to us in the US Seville, is the largest city in Southern Spain and one of the largest in the country, and it was the main tourist stop for our trip. Now I must mention that up to this point we'd had really great weather. It was a little bit wet when we arrived on Saturday, but it did clear up by the time we really got going, and the whole time it was pretty warm. It was literally sunny up to the point that we pulled into the parking garage. We pulled in and spent about 5 minutes parking and unloading, and by the time we walked out it was pouring. And it literally didn't stop raining until we left the city limits the next day. It was really odd, and fairly miserable, but the city was still very nice.

After finding our hotel and dropping the bags, we enjoyed some tapas for lunch and then headed off for the sites. Our first stop was the cathedral, which is the main site of the city. It is the third largest cathedral in Europe, which is interesting since it is tucked away in this place that most people don't really visit.

As it turns out, this was a very important region for Christianity in Spain. This area was once controlled by the Muslim Moors, but King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella took it as their personal mission to win over the area and convert everyone to Christianity. They fought for several years and eventually conquered the area, and afterward moved their capital here. It was actually here that the king and queen agreed to fund Columbus' search for a western route to Asia that resulted in the discovery of America. Columbus is actually buried in Sevilla's cathedral.

The place was enormous. The ceilings were the highest we'd seen (I'm fairly sure the cathedral officially has the largest volume of any in the world). It was set up much like the other cathedrals we've visited, but it was on this grand scale. We poked around and saw the Columbus tomb and a few other sites in the place, including the impressive treasury, before deciding to go back out and brave the weather.

Sevilla is known for its shopping, so we decided to head up to the main shopping area to spend the afternoon. Unfortunately, it was rainy and mid afternoon, so we were wet and all the locals were gone to siesta, so most of the shops were closed. Turns out that many places are closed from around 1:00 to 4:00 for siesta, and then just stay open much later at night. It ended up being fine, because most of the shops were either designer places or stuff we can find in London, so not really anything we'd have been interested in if it was open.

After this failure we stopped into Starbucks for some delicious drinks and dry ground. We were literally all pretty much soaked through, so this was a nice relief. After drying out and feeling reinvigorated by caffeine, we headed over to a little nun-bakery to pick up some goodies. There is this little shop near the cathedral where some cloistered nuns bake cookies and other treats for sale, and they were delicious!!

To end our site seeing day, we thought it seemed like a good idea to go on one of Rick's "walks" through the city. It took us through the main parts of town, through some back streets where we popped into small shops, and showed us some of the many orange trees that line the streets of Sevilla. These were all planted for their shade, and carry fruit for most of the year, but the oranges are apparently very sour and not at all tasty, so we avoided the temptation for a free snack. The walk was nice, but would have been infinitely better if it were dry.

Finally around 5:00 we went back to the hotel - feet squishing all the way - to dry out a bit before heading off to the evening festivities - a Flamenco show.

Flamenco dancing originated in Sevilla, and many bars have nightly shows (mostly for tourists, but still good). This is dancing where just one person kind of twists their body around and occasionally does some crazy "machine-gun" footwork, while crazy-fast guitar player and singer back them up. It is really hard to explain, so we've attached some videos (that we were not supposed to shoot) for your enjoyment. Hopefully this works as it is our first attempt...

We really enjoyed the show. At some times it was a bit cheesy, but it was still fun and we were really glad we went.

After the show was over at around 9:30, we headed out for an early dinner (most people in Spain don't eat until at least 10:00) and then went back to the hotel to crash.