SEVILLA

We started our day with a group breakfast as usually and then we were off to see Alcazar. Alcazar is another palace. A Spanish king commissioned Muslim architects to build his palace. The palace definitely had a uniquely Arabic flair with all the tiles and archways. Parts of the palace looked similar to Alhambra, but the palace had a more modern feel and there were touches of Christian influence. My favorite part was the gardens. We got to explore the gardens after we done with our tour with Jesus. The gardens smelled wonderful. All the cities we had visited in Andalusia had orange trees everywhere. In the gardens at Alcazar the orange tree fragrance was mixed with blooming flowers. It smelled so wonderful; I wish I could have bottled it.

After the tour of Alcazar Jesus took us to Plaza Espana. Every Spanish town has a Plaza Espana. If you remember my previous blogs the Plaza Espana in Barcelona was where the magic fountains were. The Plaza Espana in Salamanca is not quite as impressive but there is a pretty little park with a statue and fountain. The Plaza Espana in Sevilla was very grandiose. There was a towering buildings decorated with Spanish tiles. The building was flanked on either side with towers. There were tiled bridges leading up to the grand columned building. There was also a fountain in front. All along the façade of the building there were tiled depictions of each of the cities in Spain. I walked around all of the depictions getting a picture of all the places I had visited. We took a group shot in front of Salamanca and Barcelona. When we were done at Plaza Espana we got back on the bus and headed back to the center of town.

Sevilla has the third oldest cathedral in Europe. Unfortunately, they were ordaining priest so we could not get a tour. My parents walked around the cathedral for a while and we walked into one of the chapels and listened to choral performance. We stopped for lunch a cute out door café. My stomach had been hurting all day, so I was not looking forward to Spanish food. I ordered some scrambles eggs with asparagus. I made sure to tell the waiter sin jamon. My parents both got gazpacho.

After our lunch my parents wanted to find La Casa de Pilates. I was not sure what this was, but my dad seemed pretty dead set on finding it. We headed into the historically Jewish area. This area reminded us of the Gothic Area in Barcelona. There were twisted roads with no street signs. Of course we tried following the map, but like always we ended up on the wrong side. My mom was about to give up on this Casa de Pilatos, but my dad with his superior map skills eventually found the Casa.

La Casa de Pilatos was decked out with beautiful tiles. It had several interior gardens and my favorite flowers, bugambilas, were hanging from the balconies in the gardens. Bugambilas are these vibrant purple flowers that grow on vines. The can be found in warmer climates, I have seen them in San Francisco too. As we were walking around the casa, I walked in the Chapel of Flagellation. I was slightly confused because I had always thought that flagellation is passing gas, but it is really inflicting self-mutilation. I had the words flagellation and fluctuation mixed up, so I thought the Chapel of Flagellation was the chapel of farting!
By far the best part of the Casa de Pilates was the painting of the bearded women. My mom and I both walked into the room with this painting and looked at it. First we thought it was just a picture of a man holding baby but then we saw the “man” had a big boob sticking out. This was definitely not was I thought it was, so I read the description under the picture and there was the story of the bearded women. It took Dad a little longer to realize this was not a normal women, haha!

We walked back to the center of town and ran into some girls in the group that were heading back to the bus. The bus took us back to the hotel, and we relaxed for an hour or so before going back into the city to get some tapas. We found a cute tapas bar with outside tables. I ordered some spinach dish, mom got smoked salmon, and dad ordered sirloin with raisins. The tapas were delicious and were complimented nicely with sangria. After tapas we all got sorbet and headed back for the bus. Tomorrow we would be leaving Sevilla heading back to Salamanca.