Tapas, Flamenco and Carmen: Seville Day 1 (27 Aug 2013)

Before leaving Granada, we wanted to check out the sculpture of Queen Isabella with Christopher Columbus. It apparently commemorates not the approval given to Colombus to explore the New World, but his support of the edict to expel the Jews (in 1492). Oh dear! Whatever, the statue is an important part of Spanish history and I’m glad we gave it some due!

En route to Seville (or, Sevilla)

Woo-hoo! Wi-fi access worked on our 2H45M bus trip to Seville. Not that we wanted to spend all our time with our noses in technology, but it was a good opportunity to catch up. Seville is still in Andalucia so the landscape was somewhat similar to that around Granada, but it was a little less hilly. There were still olive trees but we also saw many other crops, including corn and gorgeous fields of sunflowers. (If we’d been in a car we would have stopped and photographed those!)

Special things about Seville

Seville makes many claims to fame that we thought we’d share with you – they may or may not all be completely true.

• it is where tapas were invented. (Some say Cadiz.) Cyra took us, for lunch, to a little stand up bar, El Rinconcillo, which, having been extablished in 1670, is apparently the oldest tapas bar in the city and where they were created. Who knows? But the tapas sure were good and it had a wonderful (and historic) ambience. It was originally part of an old convent. I had always thought that tapas were the Spanish equivalent of Italian antipasto and Greek mezze, but Cyra explained that antipasto (and, probably, mezze) are small bites to eat while you wait for your main food to be ready, while tapas are very specifically small bites to eat when you drink. (Larger bites are called raciones)
• it is where flamenco originated, though again, like most things, flamenco grew out of earlier traditions (as we discovered a few years ago when we attended a concert by Nocha Flamenca and Soledad Barrio). Flamenco, as it stands, though, did originate in Andalucia. One of the few inclusions in our Intrepid tour was a flamenco concert. I must admit that I was expecting one of those tourist shows. Wrong. We went to a serious flamenco venue – Casa de la Memoria, Centro Cultural Flamenco. The performance lasted an hour, and is in a small venue in part of an 18th century palace which also retains elements of the original 15th century Jewish House, and the 16th-17th centuries. It was the real, the serious thing – guitarist, singer, and a male and female dancer. No castanets or fans in sight. (This post’s video will come from the performance … from 5 minutes at the end that we were allowed to photograph)
• Bizet’s Carmen – yes, I know she’s fictional – worked in the 18th century Royal Tobacco Factory in Seville, though the factory is now part of the University of Seville.

Our Seville orientation

After our tapas lunch, Cyra took us on an orientation walk of the main sights of Seville, which included the amazing mushroom or Metropol Parasol (built for the Guggenheim effect, that is, to draw tourists to Seville the way the Guggenheim Museum has drawn people to Bilboa), the Cathedral and the Alcazar (which most of us will visit on our free Seville day), some of the main squares (and shopping avenues), and ending up in the amazing Plaza de España in the Parque de Maria Luisa. This plaza is breathtakingly huge, and gorgeously decorated. It was built in 1928 for the Ibero-American Exposition of 1929 and is in Renaissance Revival style. It’s been used in two Star Wars movies. It is also – wait for it – now primarily used for government buildings. It is where, Cyra says, people go to collect social welfare payments. We people in the rest of the world should be so lucky.

By the end of this tour several of us were awfully footsore – Cyra left us to buy the bus tickets for our trip to Lagos. Len and I thought, initially, we’d get the taxi back – they’re cheap here – but, after resting for 15 minutes or so, we decided we could to the 12-minute direct-route walk back to the hotel. En route we gathered up three other foot-weary, Intrepid tourers. It can’t be that hard to get back we thought. Just walk down that main road until we get to Guadalupe, hang left, walk to the white church, and turn the corner to home! Well, somehow all five of us missed Guadalupe. Rather than go back, we decided to turn left and make our way back to where we should be. It wasn’t that easy! But, we did get back to the hotel, 35 minutes or so after we’d set out. Cyra apologised in the evening: she’d realised later that it was 12 minutes to Guadalupe, which would have meant about 20-25 minutes. Still, not 35 minutes plus. We all needed our hour or so rest before meeting in the foyer for the evening’s entertainment. This involved a 10-minute walk to the flamenco place, a 15-minute walk to the wonderful Spanish-fusion restaurant Cyra recommended for dinner, a 10-minute walk to see the “mushroom” at night, and then a 10-minute walk home. That doesn’t sound like much walking but our feet told us different. We wouldn’t, though, have missed any of it for anything.

BTW, just gotta add that the Michelin Guide reckons that if there were competitions for cities, Seville would win for most beautiful city and most Spanish city. I have only seen a little of Spain but Seville is pretty special.

Three-words

LEN: Very sore feet
SUE: Lanes, Parks, Jambon

and the stills…

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and the videos…

Panorama of Plaza de Espagna, Sevilla

 

Flamenco dancing exhibition, post show