Today, the weather changed, with pouring rain and wind.
The day started out well enough. True, the clouds looked ominous, but there was plenty of blue sky. It took us only 35 minutes to get from our Parador at Carmona (which happened to be Peter I of Castile’s castle) to Seville, where the coach stopped on the waterfront of the Guadalquivir river. Turns out Seville was an important port city during the Middle Ages. Even though it is located 65 miles from the Atlantic, it is navigable all the way up to Seville and beyond. Also, Magellan and Chrisopher Columbus set off on their trips to the New World from Seville.
Lidia was the name of our tour guide and she hopped on the bus when we stopped momentarily at the river. Then she took us on a bus tour of old town Seville, saying it was the most efficient way as the walls that surround old town are 6 miles long. We went past all the buildings built for the 1929 Iberia-American Expo, before getting off the bus in the Santa Cruz area of the city.
Santa Cruz is the part with all the tourist attractions as The Alcazar and the Cathedral are located here. After a brief walk around (not very pleasant as the place was heaving with tourists as if it were August), we finally entered the Alcazar. Because parts of Season 5 of Game of Thrones was filmed here, they now require you to have a time ticket plus your passport so they can check you in. I recognized it from my previous visit, but it was wonderful to have Lidia fill in all the details. Apparently, the Alcazar is the Royal Palace and has been so since the time of Peter I of Castile. This is the same Peter who built the Parador at Carmona where we are staying.
The gardens of the Alcazar were lovely, and I would have stayed but they were swarming with tourists. So at the end of the tour, I headed out to find lunch, finally settling on the Taverna Belmonte. Others of our group arrived while we were eating. As I was starving (I’d had no breakfast) I ordered gazpacho followed by fried cuttlefish along with a glass of red wine. The gazpacho was pink pureed soup served in a wine glass, completely unlike the gazpacho I make in the United States, where everything is chopped up. However, it was delicious. I was a little dubious about ordering fried fish, but as they had no grilled fish and I didn’t want the inevitable meat dish, I sighed and ordered it.
I was pleasantly surprised. It was only lightly fried, meaning it was possible to taste the fish. After that, I ordered a cappuccino, but of course they didn’t have the machine to make it so I had to content myself with a cafe con leche (coffee with milk) instead. I also ordered chocolate cake, which came with a glaze of caramel and two spoons of light cream. Delicous!
After all that, I rose to my feet and went for a long walk, determined to get away from all the tourists. I found my way down to the river front, to the Torre del Oro (Tower of Gold) which is where both Magellan and Christopher Columbus left on their voyages. Nearby, sitting in the water was a replica of one of the five ships Magellan took with him on his voyage of circumnavigation, along with around 250 men. They returned without Magellan (who died in the Phillippines) with only one ship (the replica on the Guadalquivir today) and 18 men.
By this time, the wind was picking up, and there was nowhere for me to sit and rest my sore feet, so I made my way back to the Alcazar, planning to visit the cathedral. Of course I stood in the wrong line for tickets – it was for those who had purchased tickets online. Of course, it was starting to pour again, so I had to run around the cathedral with my umbrella half-open as flimsly protection, until I was able to get inside and purchase the €14 ticket. Expensive, but well worth avoiding the downpour that followed.
I sat down in the first seat I could find, then got up and wandered around. The cathedral is enormous and overdone, but there is something splendid in all that gold leaf. At 3:40 I rose to my feet and made my way to the Tourist Information Center near the Alcazar for the 4pm meeting.We were going back to the Parador and my sore feet really needed it!
