Saturday March 22 - Alcazar, Torre, Flamenco

On Saturday we went – with, apparently, all of Spain – to the Real Alcázar. We had to wait in line for about 45 minutes, which was an unpleasant surprise given that I’d never even seen a line to get into the Alcázar. But the inside, the gardens, the tiles…everything was really pretty with such nice weather.

A tiled, plasterworked wall with horseshoe arches (all very typical of Muslim architecture in al-Andalus)
Cute one of Mom and me in a little tiled niche. Ah, we do love a good niche.
A pretty shot of the gardens with the buildings added by Catholic kings (very different in style from the Muslim buildings that comprise the core of the Alcazar).

Here are the baths of Doña María de Padilla, the official mistress of Rey Pedro I, from 1352 until her death in 1361. Her remains are buried next to those of the king in the cathedral, so this was not just any woman. She was rumored to bathe in these baths, which had been built by the Muslims and were almost never used by Catholics (bathing and personal cleanliness were extremely important to the Muslims, but Christians believed bathing could make one sick). It was very scandalous, because supposedly her singing could be heard throughout the Alcázar through grates in the ground, and on occasion she was rumored to be seen in the nude. Seville now has a street named after her.

Afterwards we ate lunch – one of the best I’ve had here – in a little café. We had tortilla with baby shrimp (a really strange, flat tortilla…Spanish tortilla is nothing like Mexican tortillas – more explanation at a later time), lagrimitas de pollo (little tiny pieces of fried chicken), patatas bravas (potatoes with a spicy sauce) and a special sweet dessert available only during Semana Santa, called torrijo.

Next we headed to the Torre de Oro and climbed up to the top to get a view of the cathedral – as well as Los Remedios (my neighborhood!) and Triana – from waaay up high. The audio guides were in Spanish and couldn’t be reprogrammed for the parentals, so the visit was pretty short.

Nice view of the cathedral.

View of Triana bridge (on the right/in the middle, that wide walkway is the Paseo de Colón.

Then we swung by the Reales Atarazanas (royal shipyards), which is free and sort of cool. Dad and me, scoping it out (actually, probably me translating something from Spanish into English for Dad's listening convenience, but instead of paying attention he is staring at the ceiling):

Afterwards we ate dinner and then headed to Casa de Carmen, in Triana, for a flamenco show. It was my parents’ first and my second, but I hadn’t been since since January. This show was different from the first one I saw. The one I saw in January had a singer, a guitarist and one female dancer, but this one had a singer, a guitarist and a pair of dancers – a man and a woman. It was cool to watch. Which is the whole point.

They were on fi-ya.

And the always-popular sideways video! Alas, blogger won't let me turn it the right way. Enjoy.