Our Andalusian Adventure: Seville - Cathedral, Tapas and Flamenco

"Suddenly a barefoot girl was dancing. No one saw her begin; they only saw her somehow appear in the middle of the dirt floor, surrounded by the mahogany faces of spellbound gypsies. She moved in a tortuous way, dancing in the superb manner that the moment demanded, moving only her hands and arms, completely lost in the trance of the charged flamenco atmosphere. The singer sang to her, the guitarist played for her, and she moved toward them, responding with pureness of dance and movement that had the effect of somehow exalting the crowd, while at the same time intensifying their desolation. They had reached the culmination, flamenco's perfect moment, when all of flamenco's components were combined in a rare purity of expression....we were all quiet a moment, completely entranced, a little ashamed of our raw emotions, and yet savouring the impact of the experience that we knew would rarely be repeated. Further performing was meaningless. 'Ya estaba todo dicho'. Everything had been said." - D.E. Pohren

We awoke to another glorious winters morning in Seville and took our time over breakfast, filling ourselves on all the delicious healthy food before finishing off with decadent churros and hot chocolate. It was close to midday before we found ourselves in a taxi which we had drop us at the Torre del Oro, an early thirteen century Moorish watch tower and prison.

From here we walked to the Cathedral of Santa Maria, built on the site of a former mosque after the Reconquista. All week we had seen the famous Giralda towering over the city, and once the kids knew they could climb it they had been looking forward very much  to seeing the views from the top.

 

We faced our longest wait of all of our time in Spain to enter the Cathedral, so we guessed that many other travellers had the same idea as us.

The stunning World Heritage listed Cathedral was well worth the wait, and while the kids were very keen to climb the tower I insisted that we visit the tomb of Christopher Columbus first. The tomb was only set up here at the end of the nineteenth century. It shows the figures representing of the four nations of Spain at the time, Castille, Leon, Navara and Aragon, holding aloft the casket bearing Columbus's body.

Apparently Columbus had quite some difficulties with the Spanish during his lifetime and expressed the desire to never rest in Spanish soil. Thirty six years after his death his son arranged for his body to be exhumed and sent to Santo Domingo (now the Dominican Republic) where it stayed for about two hundred and fifty years before being sent to Havana, Cuba, before returning to Seville a hundred years later.

To complicate matters somewhat a second casket was found also in Santa Domingo inscribed as holding his remains and despite DNA testing there is no concrete evidence to say that this tomb holds his remains. Either way it seems he got his wish as this grand imposing tomb is well above Spanish soil.

I took my time looking around the imposing Cathedral, one of Europe's largest, knowing that I would find my troops at the entry to the Giralda, at the back corner of the Cathedral. While the Cathedral itself wasn't overly packed with people an electronic displayed showed over nine hundred people where currently in the tower.

 

The Giralda was originally the minaret for the mosque that stood on this site, standing here fore over eight hundred and thirty years. With the addition of a Spanish Renaissance Bell Tower representing the top third, the tower is just over one hundred and four metres tall. Luckily for us rather than stairs the Giralda is climbed by a series of ramps, designed this way so that Muezzin could ride his horse to the top for the call to prayer.

Along the way there are many places to stop and enjoy the view and displays, which was handy as the thirty five or more floors took a little effort.

The view from the top over Seville was well worth the effort, with stunning views of the bull fighting ring, the huge timber Metropol Parasol, the Alcazar gardens and the Cathedral itself.

At the top the kids decided that it was time for lunch and they had little sympathy for their "old Mum" as they raced down the ramps. While it wasn't too crowded many people were stopping for photos and I'm sure than the kids have featured in photos going home to all corners of the globe, some even asked them if they didn't mind having their photos taken, which is always nice.

Once at the bottom we came out into a beautiful garden filled with the ever present orange trees. We stayed in the lovely garden for a quick rest and to plan our route to lunch. This time I was adamant that we would go a restaurant I had found on Trip Advisor, La Brunilda, in Calle Galera. It was absolutely worth the eight hundred metre walk.

 

We found this restaurant on a quiet street and would have missed it altogether except that I was able to recognise it from a photograph on Trip Advisor, where La Brunilda has received top ratings.

 We didn't mind waiting at the bar for a table, it was a surprise however to leave the deserted street and enter this lively restaurant, the kids asked "where did all these people come from". Waiting gave us time to study the menu and the tempting plates of food the busy waiters were racing around with.

Our lunch at La Brunilda was absolutely delicious and well worth the wait, it would have to be one of the best meals we have eaten in our year away, as good as Toro Muelle Uno in Malaga, at about a third of the price tag.

 Having sampled Seville's beautiful architecture and her beautiful cuisine it was time to sample another of her cultural masterpieces. And so we made our way to Museo del Baile Flamenco to watch an amazing flamenco performance.

 We arrived early enough to spend some time looking through the dance shop, Emma was keen to buy some castanets. A few years ago I took some flamenco classes, which was wonderful, and Emma would like to learn "Spanish" at her ballet school next year, so we girls were both  very excited about the show.

We managed to get seats in the front row, and whilst the kids were armed with snacks and we had our Sangria's, once the show started our eyes were riveted to the stage, while keeping our hands well back away from the stamping feet, moving with thrilling speed just inches from us.

The performance included flamenco guitar, vocals, palmas (clapping) and baile (dance). All of the artists we exceptionally gifted and as the show lasted only an hour even the youngest amongst us enjoyed it thoroughly.

After the show we over we wandered the streets, which had now come alive for the evening, in search of dance shoes. Before we left Australia Emma's ballet teacher advised us to buy dance shoes in Spain as they cost a fraction of the price that we pay in Australia, and she was right.

The streets of Seville have an amazing life and energy, simply walking along a narrow street becomes a street party when a band leaving one bar perhaps to journey to another continues playing and you find yourselves drawn along in the wake of the this impromptu street party.

We found that my lovely tall husband stands head and shoulders above most people in Seville and when he perched Julian on his shoulders to better see the band leading us along it resulted in much good natured response from the crowd. We felt that Sevillanos certainly know how to enjoy life, and the days to come certainly confirmed this.