Seville, Andalusia

                                       Seville, Andalusia

The poet said, “He who hasn’t seen Seville hasn’t seen wonders. Quien no ha visto Sevilla, no ha visto maravillas.” How true! Seville is a city with a mystique, the duende, little devil that makes people sing, dance, play, love. My wife and I were lucky to discover a small hotel, the Dona Maria, in the middle of the historic area of the Cathedral right by the Alcazar and the Jewish district. From our window on the third floor we could see the square in front with side walk café and hear the people having a good time. Lucky, it wasn’t a noise street with car traffic. From the hotel roof top terrace we had a glass of sherry and saw the looming Cathedral and the Palace of the Alcazar. The surrounding streets had orange trees loaded with the golden Seville oranges. At twilight we watched the bats fly by.

The Cathedral itself is huge and too dark inside to see details. We took the exhausting steps up the Giralda Tower. The uphill trip was worth rewarding us with a beautiful view of Seville, the Guadalquivir River, the bullring of Maestranza, the Golden Tower and the rooftops extending in all directions except for the Palace of the Alcazar and its Gardens and the University once upon a tobacco factory where supposedly the story says that a feisty gypsy by the name of Carmen was a worker.

We strolled through the Jewish quarter and passed several squares one of them had the statue of another famous Seville resident “Don Juan.” We saw a nice “Flamenco Tablao” in another square. The place was quiet except for amateur guitar players who were practicing with a group of friends who clapped or did their dance routine. All of this was very spontaneous and in good fun.

The next visit was the Palace of the Alcazar. A Moorish Palace with beautiful sculptured walls and arabesques throughout punctuated with open patios with fountains and flowering gardens. Each room had a distinct personality and even the hallways from one room to the other showed an attention for details and a feeling of regal luxury. Every place well lit from natural light coming through the filigree of the wall design. What a difference from the darkened Cathedral! The gardens of the Alcazar brought color, greenery everywhere as ponds, fountains water cascaded from the rock. It was hard to believe that we were in an arid part of Spain.

We visited the beautiful Maria Luiza Park, another green spot of the city with its white doves everywhere as if they belonged there and probably did. Young couples strolled by in close embraces. A few paces away from the Park is the Plaza de España with its colorful pastel bridges over canals and panels behind benches representing all the provinces and major cities of Spain. The hemi circle Government buildings stood behind this beautiful tribute to a beautiful country.

Seville has great food like the rest of Spain but the specialty for tourist and people who don’t want to wait until ten o’clock at night for dinner there are Tapas bars everywhere. No one goes hungry. Enjoy the Tapas, the flamenco music, the museums and the pleasant strolls throughout this gorgeous provincial city.