Hotter than the sun in the south of Spain: Numero Dos

So I decided I better get my butt in gear and finish posting about our southern Spain adventures before we go somewhere else and this thing starts getting more and more similar to my pathetic journaling attempts. Sevilla was our next stop and my personal favorite.

The night we got there we got to experience something that started in this area of Spain: flamenco! This particular style of dance involves intensity in the eyes and quickness of the feet. Our particular show was at a smaller venue and basically the only other people there were groups of Asian tourists. It did come with a delicious glass of peach juice (as opposed to the alcoholic beverages that freely flow here) I savored throughout the show (they also do not believe in free refills). The dancers made up for any thirst I was feeling that night though. I was thoroughly amazed at how fast they could move their feet (especially the guys) and keep their intense expression as well as master the castanets (twelve million times harder than they look). It was all very “Strictly Ballroom” Paso Doble-esque. My favorite dance had to be the one with the largest variety of dancers moving to the music of Carmen (an opera by Bizet in case you want to Wiki that one) in which they basically told the story of Carmen through movements. This probably stemmed from the fact that I just love that music, but we’ll pretend and say that it is due to the fact that the dancing was fantastically superior. Anyway by the time our festivities had come to an end we needed to hit the sack to have enough strength for the next day.




This next day was jam-packed with adventures galore! We set out on foot to a variety of destinations with our trusty director Landes guiding the way. Our first stop was the University of Sevilla, which along with the University of Alcala (the one we’re studying at) and one in Salamanca, is one of the three oldest in Spain (and probably the world, but don’t quote me on that). The halls had artwork and statues lining them as well as those sweet staircases you would see in old-style mansions that the girl would always walk down in her sweeping ballgown. This was definitely different on the inside than Alcalingua (building we go to), but I think that’s just because our interior is pretty new and I have not been inside the oldest part of the university. New goal: go inside the main building and see if they have intellectually stimulating art lining the halls to improve the minds of the students, or if I should be more impressed with the one in Sevilla.


Our next stop on our rapid-fire tour was the Plaza de España. This is the major building left from the exhibition at the Parque de Maria Luis, the 1929 Spanish American Exhibition. Today it serves as a government office building. Set into a curved wall are alcoves focusing on the characteristics of Spain’s 50 provinces, depicted in tile murals. Sadly when we were there half of the tile murals were covered with just pictures of what they look like because basically the whole plaza was under construction, but that did not stop us from seeing the amazing tile work there. My personal favorite would have to be the small fences enclosing the plaza and the bridge over the sad excuse for a stream. They were both made mostly with ceramic material and were painted in these bright colors and with amazing details for the designs. The south of Spain is known pretty well for their tile and work and now I can officially see why. But we did not get to stay there too long because we were on a mission and hadn’t even visited half the places we needed to.














The next place we went was easily my favorite place I have been so far during my entire stay in this country. If you ever go there prepare for your world to be rocked with some of the best Mudejar architecture and gardens in Spain, in my opinion. What is this place you might ask? Well it just happens to be the Sevilla Alcazar. Pedro the Cruel (so named because he wanted to marry this one really beautiful lady, but she was married. So he had her husband killed so he could marry her. She was so angry about this that she poured hot oil on her face to disfigure herself and then became a nun.) built this place in the 14th century from the original Moorish fort just north of the cathedral already constructed there. It is the oldest royal residence in Europe still in use; when the King and Queen visit Sevilla they stay here. It is a lot like the Alhambra (see post just before if you have no idea what this is) except, and don’t tell people that I said this because the Alhambra is supposed to be the gem of the south, I liked the Alcazar way better! This is the very place Ferdinand and Isabella welcomed Columbus on his return home from America.


Anyway the reason I liked this place so much was probably because 1. I love Moorish architecture officially 2. This architecture was way sweeter than the Alhambra and 3. The gardens rocked my socks off. So walking through the castle everything is so pretty and there were all these intricate wall carvings and fountains like we saw in Granada, but the colors here were more vibrant and beautiful. But the best part happens when you look up. Each room had a different ceiling and some were incredibly colorful, while others were dark carved wood and others had honeycombed ceilings of gold. The awesomeness did not stop there though, all of the doors and window shutters were this rich dark wood that was carved and then painted. The only problem was that half the doors were locked or entrances blocked off! Do you know how annoying that is? Especially when it’s just a chain where you can see the stairs or creepy tunnel on the other side and you want to know where it leads because it must be cool otherwise it wouldn’t be blocked off (I know they save all the really good places for the royals).








We finished exploring the castle part pretty fast and thought that basically our tour was over, until we came to some gardens straight out of the Jungle Book or Jasmine’s backyard. There is the great wall that overlooks the absolutely gorgeous gardens full of citrus and palm trees and other fantastic foliage. This part gave us some pretty great views of the gardens, but me and the two Megans wanted to go to the top and see the real view. So here we come to our stealthy action. If the Spaniards really didn’t want people going to the top they would have put up a door rather than just this dinky little gate that I hopped over easily, in a skirt no less. The sad part came when I got to the top and was just enjoying the view when I happened to glance over and see a security camera on the roof. So we scurried our little butts down those stairs and out into the gardens. I guess that would be the reason why they felt safe just putting a gate up, lesson learned for our next illegal action-check for cameras first.








The gardens were made even more sweet by the fact they had themselves a freaking LABRYNTH. You may now feel the fabulousness emanating from this place. And this was not even one of those dinky one where you can step over the bushes; no this you couldn’t even see over the top unless you were pretty tall. I felt like Harry Potter and at any moment I would have to battle Viktor Krum and Cedric Diggory for the cup. I could have spent hours exploring, but the other girls in our group (besides me and the Megans) were getting antsy and bored. Thus me and my Moorish paradise were separated, hopefully temporarily, and we were off to our next location, which happened to be right next door.


The Cathedral of Sevilla is the third largest cathedral in the whole dang world! Again-how cool is that? Pretty dang cool, in case you were wondering. It comes after St. Peter’s in Rome and one in Brazil with quite a long name. Oh and FYI: this is also the largest Gothic building in the world. The builders who designed it had one goal solidly in mind: “That those who come after us will take us for madmen.” I sure do. Construction began in the late 1400s on the site of an ancient mosque (what else is new?) and took centuries to complete. Other than the fact that it is much bigger this place is very similar to all the other Catholic cathedrals we’ve been to so I won’t bore you with details about that. But I will say that the best thing the cathedral had to offer is this thing called the Giralda Tower.




This is the city’s most famous monument. It was erected at a minaret in the 12th century (for all of you like me who have no idea what that is, it is a Moorish tower that they used to call people to prayer from). To get up to the top (at last they let us go up to the top of somewhere) there were no steps, merely ramps, 37 to be exact. This is apparently because the person that would call people to prayer (don’t ask me who) used to ride his horse up there every hour to do just that. Those halls were pretty narrow and the turns sharp, so how he got a large horse up there every hour is beyond me. Anyway when you get to the top prepare to have your breath taken away (because of the amazing view of the city and also due to the fact that you just hiked up 37 steep ramps). You get a view of Sevilla from all four sides and get to see all that the city has to offer. The city is gorgeous (I love any city near/on the water-river here) with so many bridges (one that is supposedly also a massive sundial) and great buildings (like the Torre de Oro right near our hotel). So the coldness of the cathedral was more than made up for by the coolness of the tower. Side-note: The cathedral also has the tomb of Christopher Columbus and supposedly his remains inside, but that is disputed left and right.




So then it was time to find us some food and do some exploring. After much walking and a few trips to a particular pastry shop (2 desserts in the space of 2 hours isn’t bad right?) we decided to take a break and apply the knowledge we’ve learned thus far in Spain. Thus we sat down near the river and then proceeded to catcall all the guys rowing below (embracing the culture I would say). If guys can do it openly all the time to us, why not the other way around? But after that little adventure we went and explored a bit more in the Jewish district and then three of the six of us decided to head back to the hotel rather than indulging in some shopping. And thus we come to the beginning of a two hour adventure trying to find our way home in the dark in a strange city. Despite how it sounds it actually served us well because we ended up on the entirely opposite side of the city and saw much more than we otherwise would have. To explain to you just how far out we were: our location was off of the map we had, about an hour in to our wandering aimlessly we stopped and asked if we were going in the right direction of the Torre de Oro (near our hotel) and the man laughed and then said yes, people thought we were crazy we were trying to walk that far and then the kicker: we got back to the hotel at the same time the other girls we left to shopping did. My feet were hating me by the end and I’ve never been more happy to see a hotel, but it was a fun adventure to share.




After this whole occurrence we decided it was a Domino’s night (don’t scold me for loving me some pizza) and time to stay up late having typical girl talk. And for this reason we slept in a bit before we headed off to our next southern locale: Cordoba!

Stay tuned for the tale of the peaceful ancient city.

Hotter than the sun in the south in Spain: Numero Uno

Prepare yourselves for amazingness beyond your wildest dreams! This is the first installment in a series of who knows how many about Andalucía. I invite you to sit back, relax, grab a snack and enjoy the lovely descriptions of my adventures in this southern beauty. We went to three main cities in the south-Granada, Sevilla and Córdoba-but that did not stop us from visiting other sites during the traveling.



Granada was our first city of choice and thus the exploit you will be hearing about today. After leaving incredibly (at least for the Spanish people) early in the morning we traveled about an hour and then made our first stop in Aranjuez at the Palacio Real there (this just means royal palace, so there are many Palacios Reales here). This serves as a summer home for the royals. They actually have a very wide variety of places to choose from to be their home in this country I just discovered from this journey. My only thing is that most of them are huge and cold and if I were the royal family I would cut back a little on the palaces and focus more on installing proper heating systems into a few of the ones I already have, but that’s just me. We had some fun running around the plaza out front of this place and climbing the gates in true Beauty and the Beast fashion (“kill the beast!”). There was also this fantastic river-like creation that divided the palace from its amazing gardens (and proved to be the perfect backdrop for our model pictures). The only problem we had was actually getting over to the gardens because the only bridge we saw was out of commission. Thus we admitted defeat and trudged our way back to the bus. Thankfully Megan (other Megan in our group-not my roommate) and I really had to go to the bathroom so we went looking for one before Landes and his family arrived. We ended up running into them on while on our search and Landes pointed us in the right direction, which just happened to be across another bridge into the amazing gardens full of statues, foliage and water-wonders. Thank you small bladder!









So then it was back on the bus for another hour before our next break. We did have the consolation of watching “First Knight” with a very attractive younger Richard Gere and an older Sean Connery from his James Bond days. We were literally on the edge of our seats (it was hard to hear and the speaker happened to be in front of us).



Our second stop on the way down was in Consuegra to see the windmills of Cervantes’s Don Quixote. Of course we had to read that part of the story-in Spanish so not much was understood-before we went up to see them. Basically Don Quixote was a psycho that thought they were giants that were going to destroy the city, while his sidekick Sancho Panza has a firm grasp on reality and tries to convince him that they are merely windmills, unsuccessfully. So Sancho just lets Don Quixote have at them and luckily the idiot just ends up falling in a hole and convinces himself he defeated the giants. It was quite compelling. But what was even better was seeing the 12 of the original 13 windmills. Megan, Megan and I had quite the time running between each one and then admiring the view of the rural countryside. We couldn’t actually go inside them, but they all had these funny names and have been in the same family for years. We couldn’t stay too long because we had a schedule to keep gosh dang it! So it was back on the bus for another hour before we stopped again to eat lunch (Spanish bus systems do not allow food on their buses, even though we had a problem following this particular rule) and then another hour before we reached Granada.







After we got all checked into our hotel and settled in all us girls went out to explore the city a bit and get us some grub. And now we come into contact with the best new thing on my planet: shawarmas. Reminiscent of gyros, these babies are pitas stuffed with shaved meat (lamb is succulent and spiced perfected), veggies and a yogurt sauce. This was the cheapest and best meal I had while down there. And of course what kind of meal is it without some sort of dessert? Thus it was really an obligation of us to get some delicious ice cream (Dulce de Leche leaves your mouth in a permanent state of pleasure).





So then the next day we went and visited one of the highlights of Spain, the Alhambra. The full name, Calat Alhambra, means “red castle” apparently, just in case you’re ever on Jeopardy, and it was originally used for Nasrid princes and their harems (which could get incredibly huge). It was later turned into a lavish palace but was first used for defensive purposes, with the perfect position on a rocky hilltop overlooking the river. Later, the site became a Christian palace. Within the Alhambra, the Palace of Charles V was erected by Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, in 1527. I guess the Alhambra really wasn’t that famous until Washington Irving came and stayed in the Patio de la Reja and wrote his book, “Tales of the Alhambra”.





When you first look at this building from the outside and see its castle-like structure it just looks like some large stone building, but not until you go inside do you really get a full understanding why people talk about this place. Most of the walls were carved in the white stone with amazing nature-like carvings and Arabic inscriptions, a lot meaning “Only Allah is conqueror”. Everything was also incredibly colorful, with tile mosaic floors and surprisingly intricate ceilings, my personal favorite being the honeycombed ceiling. I have to say that even though these were incredibly ornate and detailed I like this type of elaborate design more so than the cathedrals we’ve visited. All of the detailing was on a small scale and all worked together to make an astonishing overall look, nothing is over the top in your face.













What is really remarkable about this place is that it is really the only Moorish palace of this time that survived. That entire hillside used to be dotted with palaces like that and actually the Alhambra used to be four times the size it is today. Then Fernando and Isabel conquered Granada and it was goodbye fabulous Moorish palaces and hello gaudy cathedrals (which are still pretty).

And of course the gardens here were fantastic as well. Generalife (pronounce it in Spanish otherwise no one will know what you’re talking about) was built in the 13th century and was used as a summer retreat for the sultans and their harems. I personally enjoyed the water structures and secret-passage-type things within the gardens and also running about taking random pictures, that’s always a hoot.









So our next stop for the day was the Cathedral of Granada and Capilla Real. We first went into the Capilla Real, which houses the remains of the Catholic monarchs, Ferdinand and Isabel. I think Spain has found their favorite king and queen because seriously these people and their symbols are EVERYWHERE. That probably has to do with the fact that they were the ones to finance Columbus on his journey to America, nothing too big or anything. Anyway there is a crypt-type thing that leads down to the caskets of Ferdinand and Isabel, their daughter Juana la Loca and her husband Philip the Handsome and another son. Now why was Juana so crazy? Could it be because one lady-in-waiting had her long hair shorn by Juana herself? Or maybe the fact that after Philip died she would periodically have his casket opened so that she might embrace his decaying body? Or maybe just her overall obsession with her husband? I guess if my husband were sleeping around, especially my ladies in waiting, I would probably go a little insane too. So power to ya honey! In the chapel there was also Isabel’s art collection, including a few works from Botecelli. But the real sight was the Cathedral of Granada.



The cathedral got started in 1521 and was completed in 1714 (I don’t know if that kind of time frame would fly in our day). This also happened to be my personal favorite of all the cathedrals we’ve visited in Spain. The white and gold color scheme was really powerful without being overwhelming and I fell in love with the blue and gold ceiling in the middle (I think that was the main thing that won me over). It was nice just to sit in there and look around without your head spinning from everything going on. I dug it.







After the cathedral it was free time before heading to the bus for our next destination. And by free time I mean eating time because that is what I like best. Granada and Cafeteria Esmeralda rock my world for the free tapas and delicious fried chicken (even if you did think one of us didn’t pay and came chasing after us, but sadly did not leave us with any stories of arrestment). I also have a new-found love for this wonderful invention called Magnum bars. These are not just your typical ice cream bars-they have a magical aspect to them that makes your taste buds dance in delight. I highly recommend strawberry center with a white chocolate outside.



Then it was goodbye Granada and hola Sevilla! But I will leave that story for another later post; I want to keep you guys reading.