Seville, Spain
5 October, 2010
Strange… there are three restaurants in a row on a side street (across from a park) near my hotel. Two of them have nary a empty table … one is practicably deserted. Guess which one I am at? We’ll see just how bad the food is… so far the service is fine!
I’m having a GREAT time in Seville! This place is an interesting mix of old city and modern. The streets in the old city are so narrow that cars are prohibited… I have rented a bicycle and am having a GRAND time! I just enjoy the heck out of riding a bike! As I told my facebook friends… I tend to break out in song while riding… and not just ANY song… “Zippity-Do-Dah”! Yes… the chances of ME being “inconspicuous” are slim! LOL! Getting from my hotel to the old city was just a BIT of a walk… not bad, but not something I did without thinking. With the bike, I’m happy to run “home” to ‘freshen up a couple of times a day… or to pick up or drop off my computer. It’s quite convenient.
And there are wonderful parks to ride in! I spent today exploring a couple… really beautiful! And I “did” two museums… got to get that “culture” in! One was the archeology museum… again, I seemed to have genuinely surprised the desk attendant when I approached to buy a ticket! I don’t think archeology is that popular in the Iberian Peninsula! I enjoyed the exhibits at any rate! The other museum was interesting…I can’t remember the exact name, but it was a series of displays of workshops of different historical professions… blacksmith, tailor, weaver… that sort of thing. Really interesting!
My “hostel” room here is fine… it has a bed and a bathroom. What more can you ask for? Okay, so the bathroom is so small that I can barely squeeze past the door to enter. And I have a little balcony, but to REACH the balcony, I have to push my bed all the way to one side to open the door… but when I do that, I can no longer get in or out of the door to the hallway! It is either one of the other, NOT both! LOL!
The cathedral of Seville is awesome! Really BIG… I think only two other churches in the world are bigger… one is St. Peter’s in Rome. The church was built over the site of a former grand mosque… conquering forces WILL “mark” the territory with their own monuments! The only thing of note left of the mosque is the bell tower, which was originally the minaret of the mosque. It is 34 stories high (I counted them as I walked up!)… all but the top most stories are the former Moorish minaret. The top few layers were added by the Christians and bells installed. The walk UP the 34 stories was fairly easy… as climbs go. The Moors had actually built the tower with spiraling ramps to ascend, rather than stairs… my understanding is the trek UP the minaret to call the faithful to prayer five times a day was done on horseback… and the ramp facilitated this more easily. You’ve got to love the Moor’s practicality! The views from the top were AWESOME! And I was up there while the bells chimed the half hour… BIG bells! LOL!
Well… the reviews are in… my “deserted” restaurant was just fine. I had four tapas for dinner and all were excellent. Now, ONE was supposed to be “Grilled Cuttlefish Eggs with Green Sauce”… I’ve never HAD cuttlefish eggs before, but THIS didn’t seem to resemble octopus eggs at ALL… nor was the sauce green! But whatever it WAS was good, so I’ve got no complaints! LOL!
I’m here for a few more days, then I am off to Cordova. I think after that I may head down to Gibraltar and take a day-trip ferry over to Morocco. I might as well add another “pin” on my map of places I’ve been!
Life is good! And you know… Life’s a TRIP!
Claudia
Once again, I’m late posting this but I’ve been busy and have had poor internet connections! I’m taking a four day vacation from my vacation right now… there’s a four day holiday in Spain and EVERYTHING was booked in all the INTERESTING places. I’m in a studio apartment that is a private dorm room outside of Seville. There is absolutely NOTHING to do but laundry and catch up on internet! Life is GOOD!