Sevilla with Nancy and Tom

It's been a (LONG) while since our last meaty post. We got some great feedback ;)! Thank you to those of you who replied. I (Kari) can sympathize with those of you who couldn't get through the message. I was half fascinated by the meat market and half totally disgusted.


So, in our last entry we were in Toledo, near Madrid. We took a fast train to Sevilla in Andalucia, the southern part of Spain, with Nancy and Tom. We spent two and a half days in Sevilla. Sevilla is a very old city (more that 2,000 years). In fact, walking from the train station into town we saw ruins from the Roman aqueduct along the very busy modern streets.


My first impression was how HOT it was (around 40 degrees Celsius = 104!) Rumors say that the heat in Andalucia is the reason for the famous Spanish siesta. It is too hot in the middle of the day to be out doing business.

We ate dinner at a great restaurant which was in a former Arabic bathhouse. We spent the rest of our first night walking along the Guadalquivir river. Sevilla used to be a major port in Spain where all of the explorers departed and arrived from the New World. However, now the river is so small it's hard to imagine. We sipped on sangria and eventually made our way back to our hostels. Nancy and Tom stayed at a nice small hotel, and Chad and I opted to save 15 euros by staying next door at a hostel called "Buen Dormir" (Good Sleep). We don't recommend it, though, because it was so hot and the a/c barely worked, so sleeping was not so good.

The next day we went to a bull ring in the morning. It was quite interesting, though I'm not sure I'd want to go to a bull fight. Here are a couple of pictures:

the exterior
the ring

the king's balcony
These are a couple of suits that the toreros (bull fighters) wear. They're all hand stitched and are worth thousands of dollars each.

Later that day, we toured the gothic cathedral in Sevilla. Chad spotted it first:

It was built from 1401-1519 after the Reconquista from the Arabic Moors. It is one of the largest of the medieval cathedrals and was actually built on the site of the city's mosque. It is absolutely huge and lavish. The backdrop of the main altar is completely made of gold, and there was a side altar made of silver.

The riches of the Americas found their home here in Sevilla's cathedral. The cathedral has a room of riches, with lots of diamonds, precious stones, gold and one of the world's largest pearls. The cathedral also houses Columbus's tomb (which is held by statues of kings representing the different areas of Spain).

Like all of the cathedrals we saw in Spain, it was so intricate and detailed. Here are a few shots. Here's a beautiful stained glass window. The curious thing is that they are so high up in the cathedral you can barely see them.

Here's a picture of one part of the ceiling. I think it's beautiful.

Also, it seems that the first oval office was in this cathedral. This is the room where all of the bishops would gather.

Our favorite part of the cathedral is the tower. It was the minaret of the mosque and was converted into the bell tower. We walked all the way to the top. It is about 32 stories tall. Fortunately there aren't stairs, but rather, a ramp so that a man could ride to the top on horseback five times a day for the Muslim call to prayer.

There were great views. Here's one of the rest of the cathedral:

Here's one of the small patio garden within the walls of the cathedral:

It had great views of the city. We were fascinated by the rooftop pools-- an oasis in the city heat!

After touring the cathedral, we took a siesta and then later that afternoon, walked to a park at the plaza de Espana. It's quite pretty:

We relaxed in the grass, had some snacks and drank the wonderful bottle of wine Tom bought from the cellar in Toledo.

We had a delicious dinner that night, but unfortunately missed the flamenco show we'd hoped to catch since Sevilla's famous for it's flamenco music. The next day we headed back to the train station to pick up our car for the next leg of our trip. We rented a VW Passat, and Chad was our awesome driver!


Before leaving Sevilla completely, we went on a personalized tour of an olive plantation.

The tour was wonderful and informative. We learned that both black and green olives are from the same olives, the difference is how long they've stayed on the tree and how they're processed.

We also learned that there are different qualities of olive oil: lamp oil (from really bad oil), the virgin (a better quality) and then extra virgin (best). Extra virgin olive oil is the best because the olives are harvested earlier. It's also the most expensive because each olive contain less oil; thus, more olives have to be harvested for the same amount of oil. We also learned that you should buy your olive oil in small quantities because it can spoil and become bitter. It should be kept in a cool place, and our host recommended keeping it in the fridge until you need it.

We ended our tour with a sampling of olive oil. It was amazing the flavors you can actually taste in high quality olive oil. Some of them are quite surprising: fresh grass, apple and banana! If it's a young oil, it actually can be quite spicy. He gave us some ideas for dishes with olive oil. One we've yet to try is olive oil with chocolate ice cream!!! Though I love my ice cream, I'll have to say I'm hesitant on mixing it with oil.

After our tour, we drove to some small towns built on top of cliffs known as the white hill towns... see our next post for more details.