Seville
Birthplace of flamenco, Carmen, Don Juan, bullfighting.....this is certainly a city with soul...and heat! Temperatures soared to 44 degrees during the few days we were there. The afternoon siesta wasn't just welcomed - it was required...being out in that kind of sun was downright dangerous.
We stayed in the tangled Jewish quarter. Once again getting lost was the order of the day, or it would have been without our trusty map.
The street where our hotel was located.
Another near-by 'street', just after it's had its morning rinse down. People refer to this as a kissing lane, not necessarily because of the kissing that goes on there (although plenty of that happens) but because the two buildings are almost close enough to one another to kiss. The idea behind building structures so close together was to keep the area cool. It's three or four degrees cooler here than in other parts of Seville.
Seville's Catherdral and Giralda Bell Tower....the largest church in Spain and the third largest in Europe, after the Vatican's St. Peter's and London's St. Paul's. There was once a mosque on this site, but the Reconquista Christians ripped it down in 1401 and built this monstrosity. Apparently they bragged, "We'll build a cathedral so huge that anyone who sees it will take us for madmen." It took them 120 years to build.
Inside the church. The alter is apparently the largest ever made - 65 feet tall, with 44 scenes from the life of Jesus. I have to admit that this stuff doesn't impress me very much. I'm still fuming about the fact that they tore down a mosque to put up this over-the-top building. I don't like braggarts.
Ceiling detail.
Near the cathedral is the Alcazar. It was originally built in the 10th century as a palace for the local Moorish governors but was extensively rebuilt in the 1400s for the Christian king Pedro I. King Pedro hired Muslim workers from Granada to recreate the beauty and romance of the Alhambra. This is a section of the roof.
An exterior shot of the Alcazar.
This is looking at a section of Seville across the Guadalquivir River. I had to go to this part of the city to take my flamenco class.
Me, practicing my fan skills, and about to walk into the flamenco dance studio. I don't know if it was the heat or something in the air, but my eyes were puffy and red the whole time I was in Seville (and in other parts of Spain too). The class, by the way, was incredibly challenging but fun. *Hmmm, I wonder why my hand looks so big in this picture?
And now to show you how it's really done! Unfortunately I don't have any good photos of this performance, which took place in a cultural centre near our hotel...our camera needed to be re-charged and it died before the end of the evening. Note the polka-dots on the heels of her shoes!
Seeking shade where you can get it!
6:05:35 AM 
|
