This past Thanksgiving we took a trip to Spain, to explore the city of Sevilla, organized (as always) by our travel planner extraordinaire, Amy. It was just Amy, Reed, and myself this time -- we tried to get Ethan to come along, but he said he had other plans for the break.
Our flight was via Lisbon this time around, flying via TAP, the flag airline of Portugal (yes, these things still seem to exist). It was a pretty uneventful flight, food was tolerable (dinner) and I was able to get a bit of napping/dozing done in spite of the conditions.
We arrived in Lisbon around 5:30am, and since our flight to Sevilla didn't leave for another six hours, we decided to make a quick run into the city to look around instead of cooling our heels at the airport. It was good to stretch my legs; didn't feel tired to speak of, at least not at first.
Line for customs was immense, took us more than an hour to get through it (longest one I have been in for quite some time). We did finally make our way through and managed to get into a cab and on our way to the city center.
The cab ride from the airport takes you past a rather gritty section of town, then past the docks and the shipping containers, then finally to the spot that we'd picked in the south part of the old city to begin our walk, the Praça do Comércio. We went past a medium-sized cruise ship that was at the dock -- wondered for a bit if it was the same one Frances was going to be on?
Walking in Lisbon was fun -- small cobblestones made from light-colored stone of some sort in the main section of town, larger darker cobblestones elsewhere. At that hour the footing was a bit dicey (condensation on the stone), so we went slowly. We stopped at a cafe and grabbed a cup of coffee and a pastry, then continued. We only had a couple of hours, so we did a fairly short loop that included a hilly place (Barrio Alto) where you can get a view of the main part of downtown. Weird streetcar for super-steep streets:
More random photos along the walk:
After finishing the tour we decided that we would take the subway back to the airport, since the cab ride had been a bit expensive. That turned out to be a good move; the subway system in Lisbon is very good, with huge platforms and gleaming new trains. It was crowded but not so that we were uncomfortable. When we arrived at the airport station we were presented with the sight of a huge (couple of hundred yards long) line of people waiting to buy tickets at the automated kiosks... apparently a lot of people had the same idea that we did, but didn't want to go the cab route.
Napped a bit more on the flight to Sevilla, then cabbed it to the apartment where we were staying, 35 Calle de Boteros. It's a nice place, a bit to the north and east of the cathedral and the big shopping districts, maybe a bit quieter. The apartment was advertised as being on the 3rd floor, but we found out when we got there that the entry level is "floor -1" (?) which meant we had to walk up 5 flights to get there. Hmm. View from the apartment:
After meeting up with our AirBNB host and having a quick tour around the apartment, we got unpacked and then headed down to do some grocery shopping and get the lay of the land. As to be expected in Spain, everywhere you look there are bars, restaurants, cafes, and tapas places... no shortages there, to be sure. We came back and did some relaxing, then around 6 or so we headed up to the Metropol Parasol to take in the view from there. This is a sort of elevated swoopy modern-looking wooden structure that was built on top of an old covered market that had been torn down after becoming too dilapidated. Relatively recent (finished in 2011), but fun to visit, with fantastic views of the surrounding city. We arrived right as a very large group of teenagers was getting set to go in (eek), but we did survive the elevator ride and had a nice view of the city, also the sunset.
We were pretty exhausted when we came back after that, especially Amy, who hadn't slept on the plane rides, but as we all know, in Spain the restaurants close down at 3pm or so and don't open up until 8 or later, so we had to cool our heels and try to keep our eyes open. We took a look at one place that opened at 7:30, but it was just a bit too earthy-crunchy "green" (strict vegetarian), so we waited another half hour and went to a neighborhood place, "El Traga". We got there right at 8 when it opened, and the host told us that they were completely booked, but they could give us a table just as long as we cleared out by 10:15 (we told him that would not be a problem). Food was good but not spectacular; probably the most interesting thing was a tempura made with green garlic stems, quite yummy. Collapsed after getting back, went to bed more or less right away.
Friday:
In the morning we got ourselves collected and headed over to the La Encarnación square, where we met up with a small gang for an excursion that Amy had arranged. The tour outfit is called "Devour", and they specialize in food-themed walking tours. It was fun: it was our three, a family of four from Minneapolis, and a couple from southern Sweden. Our tour guide was named Sara, now a Sevilla resident but originally from Italy; she was friendly and outgoing with very interesting and animated hand gestures.
We started off at a local cafe ("Bodega El Picadero", Calle Arguijo, 6) with coffee and tostada "pringa". This is a sort of small panini-like construction with meat (usually pork) that is left over from making stock, so kind of soft and stewed. Photo:
From there we wandered over to the food market underneath the Metropol Parasol ("Mercado de la Encarnación") and looked over the fish and vegetable stalls, then stopped at a place that sells Jamon Iberico. Similar setup market-wise as a place like the Bocqueria in Barcelona, but much smaller (a tenth of the size at most) and not as crowded. Pix:
Jamon Iberico was interesting, although to be honest I wasn't really sure what all the fuss is about... it is certainly tasty but doesn't seem that much better than good Serrano or Prosciutto ham.
Onward: we walked over to what used to be the Jewish quarter and stopped at a convent, the Convento Madre de Dios de la Piedad, Calle San José, 4. Used to be a synagogue, but following the inquisition the building was converted/repurposed. The nuns there support themselves baking cookies and other treats; the ones we tried were called "naranjitos" -- very tasty, a sort of small marzipan-like ball with candied orange rind on the top. Our tour guide, Sara, told is that when the convent first started up, most of the nuns came from well-to-do families, and when the first batch entered the convent they had no idea how to cook (having come from a life of privilege), but they brought along their servants. The servants at that point were usually from Jewish or Muslim backgrounds, hence the mild contradiction of very Jewish + Muslim styles of sweets being made by at a Catholic nunnery.
Lots of walking during the tour, as one might expect. The streets and alleyways in Sevilla are narrow, but not quite so narrow and cramped as in Barcelona, a bit more light and with more trees. Lots of orange trees (they are everywhere), also sycamores, also a bunch that I suspect are jacarandas (but hard to tell without seeing the blooms). The sidewalks are weirdly narrow and tend to shrink and expand at random places, so you have to watch carefully for cars. Our tour took us south and west to the Sevilla Cathedral; on the way we stopped at a tiny bar called La Frescita (our group almost didn't fit). This bar is associated with La Macarena, one of the religious brotherhood-type organizations that is heavily involved with the traditional Holy Week festival. The interior is lined wall to wall with photos of the various parades, pictures of the Virgin of Hope of Macarena (usually shown weeping), medals, and other paraphernalia. To add to the overall effect the music playing is either religious (organ music) or sort of marching-band, parade-march-themed stuff, and as a final top-off the guy behind the counter periodically lights incense. Whew! Here we had another traditional tostada-like thing ("montadillo") this time pork with a sort of pepper sauce. Sara introduced us to "tinto de verana", which is red wine mixed with lemonade, served with ice (sounds weird, but actually not too bad).
From the descriptions of our guide, the city really does go slightly crazy over the two big festivals of the year, the Semana Santa / Holy Week (which is in the lead-up to Easter) and then the Feria de Abril, which happens a couple of weeks later. The religious brotherhoods sponsor very elaborate floats, which are part of lengthy/winding processions to and from the cathedral. The floats are carried by hand, which sounds kind of tortuous for the poor guys underneath (no girls allowed for the most part) who carry them.
From there we walked south and west, past the Cathedral and explored the neighborhoods around there. Our next visit was at a small shop specializing in fried fish, Freiduría La Isla, Calle de las Conchas, 9. I particularly enjoyed that stop, since I probably would not have thought to visit the place on my own (very ordinary-looking from the outside). Unlike English fish and chips the traditional fish variety is dogfish (a small sand shark as I understand it), and the fish is marinated overnight in vinegar, cumin, and spices before frying to make it a bit less tough. It was also cut into slightly smaller pieces than in the English style, which made it a bit easier to eat. The chips were more like potato chips as opposed to french fries, for what that's worth. The drink at this stop was manzanilla sherry ("La Gitane") -- it was good, at least in small quantities (Sara said that it goes well with fried or very salty foods).
After that it was on to another tapas bar, "La Taberna", on Calle Gamazo, 6. This time around we got a chance to choose the dish we wanted; I opted for the cold tomato soup ("Salmorejo") that is traditional around here; Amy ordered the chickpeas with spinach, and Reed had a bowl of garlicky rice with shrimp. The soup was good but a little on the mild side; Amy's chickpeas were also good but in fact she makes the same dish at home and her version tastes way better :-).
Our final stop was at a sweet shop ("La Campana", Calle Sierpes, 1), where our guide told us about a traditional concoction called tocino de cielo (which translates roughly to something like "pork belly from heaven"). Very dense and jelly-like, made with sugar and egg yolks. The story is that the people making sherry would need egg whites to use as fining agents (clarifiers), meaning that there were a lot of yolks left over, which eventually made their way into various sweets. There were a lot of other interesting cookies and treats as well; I tried one made with a sort of angel food cake topped with a layer of egg custard and then pine nuts sprinkled on top. Yum.
It was a good introduction to traditional foods of Sevilla-- they are all delicious but quite rich, but I have to wonder how people can avoid blowing up like balloons if they are eating this sort of thing on a day-in / day-out basis... nowhere near enough fruits and vegetables for my taste.
The tour finished up at the sweet shop; we walked our way north and east to the Metropol Parasol (our tour guide referred to it as "The Mushrooms") and then back to the apartment from there. It was already about 2:45 by that time, so we were ready for a break after walking around for five hours.
Group photo at the end of the tour:
Throngs of pedestrians circulating around the city, people were out everywhere. We spend the time wandering and window-shopping; Amy was looking for ceramic dishes, Reed was looking for clothes, and I had my eye out for a sweater. It was fun to see everyone out and about.
Dinner was at 8pm at La Becerrita, a slightly more formal place a half a kilometer or so to the west of our apartment. The place was pretty much empty when we got there (8pm being considered too early to be a civilized dinner hour), but it had filled up pretty well by the time we left. Reed ordered a salad with smoked fish of various sorts, I had a grilled octopus appetizer, and Amy started with a stuffed artichoke dish. I had braised oxtails as my main; Amy and Reed had fish. Good food and good service; it was nice to eat in a place where you didn't have talk loudly to be heard. The one really odd thing was the background music -- it was recordings of a very formal string-quartet arrangement, but playing tunes drawn from contemporary pop music (think Katy Perry, Coldplay, that sort of thing). It definitely had us giggling for a while there, it was so incongruous.
Today was our travel day to Cordoba, huzzah. Amy bought us 8:50am train tickets on the TGV (or whatever the Spanish equivalent is -- not sure of the acronym), so we had to make sure not to oversleep. I woke up in plenty of time and thought about trying to go for a run beforehand, but it really doesn't get light here this time of year until 7:10/7:15, which would have been cutting it too close for comfort.
The train station looked like a like a long ways way on the map, but turned out to be just a 20 minute walk at a brisk pace, maybe a kilometer and a half. Very chilly; I had to stick my hands in my pockets along the way (and spent time wondering if I should have worn a hat). The main Sevilla train station is large and new-looking, I think they must have redone it recently. We did have to put our bags through the metal detector in order to board the train... that seems like a new thing (no doubt due to the bad things that happened in 2004 in Madrid). All things considered, it was a small inconvenience, though (way easier than going through security at the airport).
Nice zippy ride to Cordoba; by car it is a little less than two hours, but it takes 40 minutes on the fast train. Pretty flat countryside -- we saw mostly fallow fields, plus a few orange and olive groves.
From the train station we cabbed it to the mosque ("the Mezquita"), and after a bit of searching around eventually found the right door (on the north side). Amy had signed us up for an English-language tour; when we arrived we discovered that it was just us and the tour guide, a nice older guy named Juan (professor at the local university, very knowledgeable). They say that the mosque in Cordoba is more historically important but less visually interesting than the one in Granada, and I think that certainly rang true for our tour. The Mezquita is a true architectural hodge-podge -- different parts and pieces constructed at various times and in various situations, but never any sort of "clean start": for whatever reason, whoever was doing the building decided to just add on to what was there instead of starting over. For this reason it's hard to write coherently about it, since it was such a jumble inside.
The history of the mosque is very lengthy and complicated, with much pushing and pulling between the Christians and the Muslims. It was interesting to note that when the Moors arrived and began their ascendancy in the 8th century, they were pretty accommodating to the Christians who were there at that time (Juan told us that there was a good chunk of time when the two groups "shared" the building half and half, something I have not heard of in recent times :-).
Outside the gates:
Going inside:
Cool iron work on the door:
In the courtyard:
We visited the various sections of the building chronological order; the earliest parts are characterized by columns with distinctive double arches composed of red and tan bricks in the interior; around the periphery are a set of "chapels" where important families paid to their own private burial areas. From there we worked our way to the "newer" areas of the mosque (constructed by one emir after another). Most sections of the mosque don't have a lot of natural light, so it seems sort of tomb-like (must have been really dark back before electric lighting). Eventually we hit the south wall, where there is a very elaborately constructed mihrab built by one of the Caliphs of the time. From there we detoured into the "Capilla de Santa Teresa", an area built much later off to the side dedicated to St Teresa, filled with all sorts of middle-age and Renaissance treasures and relics. Of course after stepping through a door from the year 900 or so it looks completely out of place, but that kind of goes with the territory for the Mezquita (everything is mixed together).
This shot shows what most of the interior of the mosque looks like (marble pillars supporting red-and-white striped brick arches):
One of the chapels along the side:
The main cathedral (built in the 16th century) is quite lovely; somehow they managed to graft it into all of the existing buildings that were already there (not quite sure how that happened, but they did pull it off). The choir is especially stunning -- it immediately brought back memories of the choir in the King's College chapel choir, which we have seen close up (including sitting in it for a choral performance, courtesy of my dad). The wood for this choir was mahogany (from the Dominican Republic, interestingly) -- it is huge and elaborately carved... each seat has a scene from the life of Jesus in the upper part, then a picture of a Christian martyr (including an inset in the background showing how this specific martyr was done in, ick). Very difficult to photograph, though -- most of the shots I took were too dark.
After the Mezquita, or guide took us on a slightly shorter tour up into the Jewish quarter. There is not in fact really much left of the Jewish quarter; it was very vibrant and alive right up into the thirteenth century or so and then most of the Jews were forced out (not due to the Inquisition, but due to a series of plagues that were blamed on the Jewish presence). There was one of ruin of a mosque that we visited, and a statue of Maimonides, with a few associated plaques and such.
After the end of the tour in the Jewish Quarter, we decided to visit one of the markets in Cordoba to try to buy vegetables for dinner (all of us were feeling especially veggie-starved, so getting some greens seemed like a priority). We hiked our way into the city for a couple of kilometers, found the spot we'd seen described on the web, but it was a disappointment -- mostly fish and meat, very little in the way of greens, so we decided to pass. We walked back down towards the Mezquita and stopped for lunch at a small local place (not too fancy but decent food). After that we had a session at the "Hammam Al Andalus" Arabic-style bath, which Amy had arranged ahead of time. Not a huge place (very different from visiting the baths in Budapest) but still fun; it was similar in a number of ways to the Japanese baths we visited in San Francisco a number of years ago. We spent an hour or so soaking and sitting in the steam room, then wrapped up.
We had plenty of time until our train ride back to Sevilla, so we took a slow meandering walk up to the north in the general direction of the station. We stopped at a Christmas market near the city center (food stalls, plus a whole series of booths selling dolls + figurines for creche construction), then made our way north again through the shopping district. We finally wound up in one of the city parks where we found a tea garden; Reed and Amy ordered "Death by Chocolate" (I was very virtuous and only had a couple of tastes), along with cups of tea to wash things down. Lots of parents and small kids at this particular cafe for some reason (I think it may have been a kids birthday party). We eventually extracted ourselves and got up in time to catch the train home.
Amy and I could not bear the thought of another late-night high-calorie meal, so we stopped at a huge grocery store not far from the train station and bought a big bag of spinach, another big bag of chard, some green beans, and a bit of pesto sauce, then walked our way home and cooked for ourselves. The beans and greens were quite good, I'm glad we went that route. By the time we got the food on the table Reed had already gone to bed and was absolutely out cold (I shook a shoulder and tried to elicit a response, but no dice). I think Reed mentioned having had trouble sleeping the night before.
Sunday:
This was was our day to visit the Alcazar; Amy arranged for tickets ahead of time, which I think was a good idea, since when we got there at the opening (9:30) there was already a big line, and it got even more crowded as the day went on. The Alcazar was a lot of fun to take in; definitely a highlight of our trip.
At the entrance waiting to be let in:
The main rooms in the palace are decorated in fantastic Moorish style, with geometric patterns in plaster and carved stone, elaborate pillars, and beautiful carved wooden roofs. There is a big area devoted to ceramics (mostly the "later" stuff meaning 16th century on), lots of artwork, and numerous gardens. One of the rooms that I liked the best features a set of four immense tapestries -- one is a sort of stylized map of Spain, Italy, and North Africa, and then the other three (I gather) are depictions of some sort of military campaign that was carried out against the north Africans. The place is huge -- we probably could have spent another three or four hours there without repeating anything.
Ground floor, main rooms of the old palace:
Second floor:
This is a close-up from one of the tapestries featuring the map:
If you look carefully you can find a green parakeet in this picture. It was happily noshing away on ripe oranges.
Closeup:
When we finally finished up at the Alcazar we decided to go visit the Triana neighborhood of Sevilla, which is known for having good ceramics shops. We headed west, crossed the river, and then worked our way to the north, walking maybe a mile or so. The streets across the river from the city center seem a bit more down-to-earth and working class, not quite so fancy. We stopped for coffee along the way, and eventually got there around 12:10 or so. Chocolate time:
Triana is definitely the place to shop for ceramics; the store we visited had much nicer stuff than what we had seen elsewhere, so Amy was glad that we held off until we could make it here.
Over the river to the west side of town:
The ceramics museum (closed, but we could look at the exterior):
Shopping for ceramic pieces:
Reed and I waiting for Amy:
After the shopping session was done, we bumped into a big procession with a couple of marching bands and a float:
After that we made another long walk back to the east. The spot Amy had picked out was the Vineria San Telmo, Paseo Catalina de Ribera 4. Food was quite good, probably the best meal we had in Sevilla. Tapas dishes included a salad (with rocket, cheese, fresh tomatoes, and sun-dried tomatoes), panko-crusted fried shrimp, a traditional Spanish tortilla (egg and potato omelette), a dish of squid ink pasta with pesto and a seared scallop on top, and a braised pork sandwich (Reed ate that one solo, so I didn't get a chance to taste it), plus an interesting dish with roast pumpkin and grilled pork, with a really fantastic sauce on the side made from some sort of smoked pepper (uber tasty). Very reasonably priced to boot (37 euros for the whole thing with drinks).
On the walk back:
From there we were a bit worn out, so we decided to head back to the apartment for a bit of down time.
Later in the afternoon Amy and I went out for a drink at a rooftop bar in the Hotel Santa Maria -- that was fun, great views of the cathedral and of the sunset. Reed was still holed up in the apartment, I think a little burned out on the touristy stuff. View from the terrace:
We had a dinner made up of leftover veggies from the night before, plus some baked stuff collected from the bakery down the street. Not fancy, but it was enough.
The trip back on Monday was very long but mostly uneventful. Got up at 4:30am, cab came to get us at 5am, flew to Lisbon again, then another plane at 11am to Boston. The customs line was immense, I don't think I've ever seen it quite so long in Boston before, but we did manage to get through and eventually extract our bags.
Very good to be home! Reed of course wanted to take advantage of the last bit of freedom before classes again by getting together with a friend, so I gritted my teeth and tried to keep my eyes open until 9, when they finally turned up back at home again. Whew.
It was a nice trip, lots of good memories.
Later in the afternoon Amy and I went out for a drink at a rooftop bar in the Hotel Santa Maria -- that was fun, great views of the cathedral and of the sunset. Reed was still holed up in the apartment, I think a little burned out on the touristy stuff. View from the terrace:
We had a dinner made up of leftover veggies from the night before, plus some baked stuff collected from the bakery down the street. Not fancy, but it was enough.
The trip back on Monday was very long but mostly uneventful. Got up at 4:30am, cab came to get us at 5am, flew to Lisbon again, then another plane at 11am to Boston. The customs line was immense, I don't think I've ever seen it quite so long in Boston before, but we did manage to get through and eventually extract our bags.
Very good to be home! Reed of course wanted to take advantage of the last bit of freedom before classes again by getting together with a friend, so I gritted my teeth and tried to keep my eyes open until 9, when they finally turned up back at home again. Whew.
It was a nice trip, lots of good memories.
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