6/19/2014
Time to head up to Seville after spending four days on Costa del Sol. Zeynep, my daughter has spent 2 days there already in addition to one day in Tarifa and 3 days in Cadiz the week before my arrival. We decide to take the mountain roads, in our pursuit for Seville. In the end, we will be able to say "highly recommended". The first town again is Ronda, which we already explored during our first visit. We had spotted a restaurant that belonged to a hotel built into the cliff of the gorge to the north of the New Bridge during our first visit, which we had not had enough time to explore. Phenomenal an experience, we will share with each other later. It is too late for breakfast and too early for lunch. All we get is a baguette, olive oil and freshly squeezed orange juice. It will do perfectly. All I care about is the grandeur of the canyon right below us, the expanse of the meadows with their liberating influence on us... Another refreshing experience after the robbery, from which we are still trying to recover...
It is impossible to capture the entire height of the canyon in Ronda
Once we are done with our simple "brunch" we head north. We pass through Algondales, another pueblo blanca and find a back road to Zahara, which we had wanted to visit during our first trip to the pueblos blancas but had not had enough time. As we meander through the hills on a snake like narrow road that is taking us to Zahara, we see now and then again that it is situated on top of a cliff like an eagle, a white one at that. Its reflection cast over her beautiful namesake lake.
Zahara, last pueblo blanca of our trip from a distance
Once we arrive on the last curve of the road climbing up the hill toward town, we decide to stay there and enjoy the lake, which covers our view panaromically all the way from southwest to northeast. It has an emerald color, pristine, lying ahead of us with no visible ripples, enjoying the soft, caressing touch of the sun through the clouds in the overcast sky. We assess all the towns we visited up on the Mountains of Andalusia: I like Grazalerma the best due to its size, a tiny village with less then a dozen shops and cafes with great charm, where we picked lavender flowers, albeit, they were stolen with our luggage, too. Zahara seems to be a touristic town of moderate size, but worth a visit to experience this beautiful lake vista at least. Ronda is the place with lots of history as well as natural beauty, but deserves a full day to do justice to both.
Lake Zahara stretching below us like an emerald beauty
Having gotten enough of pueblos blancas we are now ready to head to Seville. The drive is pleasant. We arrive in town around 3:30, very good timing and for a change my data roaming is working and GPS is on. The GPS lady is guiding us toward the parking place. However, not only the old town is a maze, but whatever parking there is around and in it is all roadside parking and I already know from my travel book that is not a safe option. Especially, after the luggage robbery, we can't afford to get the rental car stolen! However, by the time, we realize that we probably need to find a closed ramp to park the car safely, we are already in the heart of the old town where data roaming has been cut off and the more we try the more we get sucked into the streets ever growing narrower, some barely 5-6 feet wide.
First glimpse of the Cathedral in Seville
We are miserable in a funny way as if we are in the devine comedy! Finally locals coming across us multiple times in our futile effort to get out when apparently all we do is to circle the same streets, figure out that unless they help us, we will never be able to get out of old town! Zeynep's Spanish comes to help again and with directions from locals, we manage to get out from this claustrophobia and find our way to the cathedral, where there are police officers: A nice policeman tells us, there is no way to find a parking ramp unless we go by the river. Well, that's what we will do then, we don't have any luggage anyway! Such a liberating experience, for the last two days we have traveled each of us owning only two dresses and 2 pieces of underwear and bras. Each night one set was washed and dried throughout the night and day until the next day when the other set was washed. It worked out just fine! We both bought the smallest backpack we could for our minimal possessions and we are not afraid of a walk of a mile to the hotel.
Alcazar marrying Moorish staco with elegant tile work
We follow the police officer's guidance and in five minutes the car is safely tucked away. In two days we will discover that in fact there is no reason to have a car in Seville unless one plans to drive out of town for other purposes during the stay in town. The parking for two days cost E35, add to this the rental cost, taxi to and from the airport to old town, would have been quite a reasonable option. The old town in Seville reminds me even more of the old town in Antalya, Turkey. Narrow, convoluted streets, breathing just a bit via the tiny plazas (200-300 square feet or so) scattered into the entire old town wherever three to five streets intersect. These tiny plazas are lined with small shops selling abanicos (fans), white dresses, shawls, cards, ceramic goods, olive oil, spices, and teas, among lots of other things. Zeynep finds a store where the gentleman sells hand painted silk abanicos, one of which I would like to take home from Seville. I choose a blue one, my favorite color. We choose additional abanicos for gift as well as ceramic gifts. All the gifts I had bought in Grazalerma unfortunately were stolen, thus, we need this second set of gifts. Let's hope they will make it to the USA!
The grandeur of the main entrance at the Cathedral in Seville
We go to the cathedral before returning to the heart of old town to enjoy the evening delicacies and intricacies. Triana concept thrives here, too. The cathedral was built in 1200s by the Moors as a mosque. Those features still survive in the round domes and smooth curves of the architecture. In 1400s it was taken over by Christians, who added, columns, stained glass with legends from the bible, and finally baroque touch with impressive and colossal wooden carved figures and huge panels... I look at Agia Sophia, which was converted to a mosque in 1500s after the conquest of Istanbul by Ottomans more compassionately now. With a better understanding of layered cultures in one architectural structure. Agia Sophia in Istanbul is also a museum now, in fact exclusively a museum with no islamic religious services, which is contrary to many cathedrals converted from mosques to churches in Europe...
I can't get over the beauty and creativeness of the use of tiles in this country
When we get hungry, we start looking for a restaurant in this maze. As we are passing along one of the streets very close to our hotel, we notice a man playing guitar and a woman singing flamenco style at one of the tables. We look at each other, no question, this is where we will situate ourselves for some time if not to have dinner at least to have some tapas to savor this what seems to be a totally spontaneous show... The woman has black hair put in a bun in the back, wears traditional flamenco attire for a singer, I will learn later that singers' attire is more subdued compared to dancers in flamenco culture, understandably so. She has a very powerful voice, guttural, with a very wide range, very impressive. The guitarist is almost amazed with her voice and singing. We wonder if they are a couple. Give some time, we will learn it all...
Tiles on display at Alcazar
They are Martha and Richard, yes, married for 25 years. They have been performing for as long. She originally from Colombia, he from Scotland, they met in Canada, where they currently live. They travel the world to perform the way they do tonight. Although, their arranged travels are professional tours, tonight is voluntary, they just liked the place and sat down and started playing and singing. How lucky we are. This spectacular miniconcert reminds me of the Irish pubs that I had visited in Doolin in Western Ireland one time, where, locals and regionals would just stop by for a Guinness or two and all of a sudden, there would be a band, totally spontaneously formed, playing and singing all night long.
One of the narrow streets in the maze that got us circling in the old town...
Zeynep exchanges contact information with Robert and Martha to see if we can get an entity to invite them to Iowa City, who knows, perhaps some day... We seek a place where we may see an improvisational flamenco show to top what we already observed. Alas, none to be found. We resolve, one spontaneous gem a night is more than enough and decide we will see a flamenco show at our hotel the next day. By the time we are done with our full dinner, it is 11:30, already. We smile at ourselves, how easy it is to melt into the fragrant and syrupy juices of life in such interesting and exciting a place considering I would rarely have dinner past 8 pm in Iowa City...
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