Seville trip, June 15

[jinian]

Another tour this morning, this one mostly walking. Finally, Seville oranges! They're actually very sour and bitter, not good for eating out of hand, but critical to making proper marmalade.



Our guide hinted our way to a secret: Lawrence of Arabia was partially shot at the Plaza of the Americas. Here's the Archeological Museum.



We never made it in, which was sad; it's supposed to be among the best museums in Spain. We did go into the museum across the courtyard from it, the gorgeous Pabellón Mudejar,



where we saw impressive terrain maps of Spain from military ground actions and amazing embroidery and cutwork fabric work. We had NO room on the camera memory card, so I have one blurry shot of the fabric art



We went the the Archivo General de las Indias which contained some paintings by some famous guy, a lot of impressively worked marble, and a whole lot of files in magazine boxes that we couldn't look at.

Next we saw the Royal Alcázares, densely decorated palaces that were originally built around the 10th century and heavily renovated in the 14th, contemporaneous with the better-known Alhambra. The Moors were driven out of Europe during the time of construction, but the Mudejars are those who ostensibly converted to Christianity and were allowed to stay. There's a lot of implication that the real reason some Moors were kept around was for their architectural talents, and those are definitely in evidence. Loads of photos here.

Stonework with Arabic writing:



Amazing geometric ceiling pattern:



A typical example of the scalloped arch that was very common:



Check out the difference between the ground-level and second-story arches in the Patio de las Doncellas (Maidens). Apparently the upper ones were added later in the Italian Renaissance style.



Out in the gardens, there was the tallest bougainvillea ever. I am included for scale.



Fountain with stunning paintings behind it:



Some of the zillion very elaborate tiles found indoors. Tiling everything did seem to make things cooler, as we found when sitting on tiled benches.



Another ceiling as we left the Alcázares:



Next we took a walk though Santa Cruz, the former Jewish quarter. (Not sure what it was called then; the current name would like you to know that WE ARE CHRISTIAN NOW K THX.) The Jews were booted out at the same time as the Muslims, by the same Ferdinand and Isabella Americans will remember from the Christopher Columbus story. Santa Cruz is a maze of little winding streets, which does not stop people from riding their scooters in it. It had a few of the most beautiful spots, including this fountain:



Santa Cruz was also a good place to find pictorial tiles set into many of the walls. Some made sense, some seemed pretty random. This one shows the three language of the historical peoples of Seville.



Lunch of tapas, also found in Santa Cruz:
Gazpacho (MTOD and made of tomatoes, so no one ate this. I did sample it and didn't mind missing out.)
Ali-oli potatoes: basically boiled potatoes dressed with garlic mayonnaise. Too much goo, but tasty.
Spanish omelette: an eggy, savory cake full of more boiled potatoes. Salty and nice, with some more ali-oli on the side.
Spinach and garbanzos, oily and cooked down pretty far, but nicely spiced.

The cathedral is HUGE.



Saints Justa and Rufina were pottery makers in Triana in the third century, who refused to join a procession for Venus due to being Christians and were duly thrown to the lions. No one seems to say whether they escaped, though there was an adorable painting in the Chalice Chapel that included a lion licking one's foot.

None of the photos from inside the cathedral came out very well, but there were many stunning altars, classical paintings, and treasures. The stonework and woodwork were amazing. One of our guides mentioned at one point that the people building the cathedral had actually been concerned that future generations would think them mad for building it so immense. I kind of do, actually, but it's beautiful and people still use it for worship.

Some deep-pink-striped flowers were on small landscape trees. Our guide thought they were carob trees, but carob flowers are nondescript. So pretty! I wish I had a photo.

Flamenco at Los Gallos. (No photos -- Mom didn't think they'd be allowed, so she didn't bring the camera. Actually they were allowed, but I was glad we weren't adding to the flashbulb quotient, which had to be annoying for the dancers.) There were a total of four bailaoras and two bailaores, all of whom performed separately until the last long number, which included all of them. There were three or four singers, one very loud, and two guitarists. Everyone rotated, so they didn't get too exhausted -- it was incredibly energetic, so they would really need the down time.

The flamenco music is the only time I've really seen the different types of handclap used specifically for a musical effect. Normally people aren't that picky about how their hands land so long as it makes some noise, but the singers had rhythms in which a cupped-hand clap had a certain place and a flat-hand clap was used elsewhere, which made it much more complex and interesting. Also the two clappers active at any given time would not necessarily act in unison, so very fast and overwhelming rhythms were available. Very cool.

The first male dancer looked a little too much like he was dressed up as a sophisticated vampire, all in dark clothing with a cravat and slicked-back hair. Dancing the flamenco seems to have a similar "look at me, I am angsty and a babe" function, actually. The female dancer I liked least danced using a fan, which she closed and stuck in her cleavage whenever she didn't want it for emphasis.

I worried for a while that I was going to sneeze during the performance, but felt liberated after a while when I realized it would probably be totally inaudible over the clatter of heels. It was so great, really high energy and exciting, and the girls had beautiful asses. :)

Neither of us felt like coping with dinner, so we came back and had oranges and yogurt. I think I'd have been happier to eat in restaurants if there weren't so much oil in everything, even if we didn't have the MTOD to fear.