The Bahblog

We arrived in Sevilla on Wednesday afternoon and it's currently Saturday evening as I write this (and it likely won't be published until Sunday). Needless to say, we've kept ourselves busy by exploring this amazing city, drinking lots of wine and eating lots of tapas, and walking off all of the wine and tapas.

Upon arriving on Wednesday afternoon, and decided to walk our bags from the train station to the airBnB. We passed the old roman aquaduct before entering the old part of the city.

The sidewalks got skinnier and skinner, but we survived the schlep.

We dropped our bags at the AirBnB (which is lovely - we have the entire apartment to ourselves) and decided to take a stroll. Sevilla is magical, especially at night. We're staying only a couple blocks from the cathedral and my first introduction to it was seeing it lit up at night.

We walked down to the river, crossed the bridge, and found Nate's host family's apartment in Triana. Since we were in the neighborhood, Nate also showed me all of the bars he used to frequent as a college student.

We eventually made our way back closer to the AirBnB and stopped at another bar Nate used to frequent (you might notice a theme here). We each had a beer and split a tapa and Nate even recognized the bartender from six years ago.

This ended our trip down memory lane on Wednesday (don't worry - it continues Thursday) and we grabbed dinner at a restaurant that was recommended to us by our AirBnB host. Dinner was delicious (we split six tapas - the best one was fried eggplant drizzled in honey) and we toasted to Nate being back in Sevilla and bringing me here.

Thursday started with breakfast at our AirBnb and then a walking tour during the daytime to get me oriented to Sevilla. We started by the cathedral at the Plaza de la Virgen de los Reyes and walked to the Plaza del Triunfo. From there, we walked down Calle Agua and cut over to Plaza de Santa Cruz before proceeding on Calle Reinoso (a "kissing lane") and ending up in Plaza de los Venerables.

Below are some photos from the walk.

We did some more walking around and saw Metropol Parasol, locally known as "Las Setas", The Mushrooms in English.

At this point we kept the Cien Montedidos tradition going and grabbed lunch.

After lunch I went to the cathedral (Nate sat this one out to finish the Madrid post). I walked around with my guidebook, camera, second camera lens, and binoculars and blended in perfectly with the locals. However, as ridiculous as I looked, I'm so happy I brought all of these objects with me because the cathedral is AMAZING and I'm glad I was able to take it all in.

The Sevilla Cathedral is the largest Gothic church in the world. It was finished in 1528 and was once the site of a mosque. Part of the reason it's so big is that they wanted to cover every square inch of the former mosque. They succeeded and the exterior is simply breath-taking. They recently uncovered some animal blood graffiti from the 18th century along the side of the church.

Inside, the high altar steals your attention. It's an 80 foot wall of gold covered with statues and is considered the largest altarpiece ever made. Its 44 scenes tell the story of Jesus and Mary. At the very top is a crucifixion that is over six feet tall!

The Altar de Plata is meant to resemble a monstrance and was made from more than 5,000 pounds of silver looted from Mexico.

The chapel contains the tombs of Christoper Columbus and his second son (Ferdinand Columbus). It makes sense that Christoper is buried here as his 1492 voyage departed from 50 miles away. Four royal pallbearers carry his coffin and represent the traditional kingdoms that formed the core of Spain - Castile, Aragon, Leon, and Navarre. Granada is represented by the pomegranate that is being stabbed by Leon's pike (seriously). Christopher actually died in Northwestern Spain and his body was moved to both the Dominican Republic (where he requested) and Cuba before returning to Sevilla in 1902. I guess that's a fitting posthumous journey for Christopher Columbus.

Before leaving the cathedral I climbed to the top of the bell tower. The hike up is actually composed of 35 ramps and 17 steps. The bell tower was refurbished from the structure the Muslims built and they built it with ramps because the donkey-riding muezzin rode up five times a day for the call to prayer. In case you're wondering, climbing up a series of ramps leaves you less breathless than climbing up a series of stairs.

I took a few shots from the patio of oranges before making my exit.

After the cathedral I met up with Nate and we hung out at the AirBnB before going to a flamenco show at La Casa del Flamenco. The show was absolutely wonderful. I had never seen a flamenco show before and I was blown away by the singing (you really notice the Arabic influence) and the rhythm, in addition to the dance moves and the dresses. We both left the show a bit speechless and stumbled into a local restaurant for a nice dinner.

I fell in love with Sevilla as soon as we arrived, but walking around in the daytime solidified that love. Sevilla is much smaller than Madrid and easier to navigate, but it still feels very Spanish (we are in Spain, after all). The architecture is beautiful, the streets are lined with orange trees, and the pace is a bit slower so you have time to stop and admire all of it. I continuously thank Nate for choosing Sevilla as his study abroad location.