After the Alcazar, we went on to Seville Cathedral.
The outside featured many orange trees.
The famous Seville oranges
It was a very impressive building
We went inside.
No photos because I tend not to inside churches (not without explicit permission, holy sites are holy etc), so you will have to rely on websites for the indoor pictures. The big highlight is the tomb of Christopher Columbus (https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/tomb-of-christopher-columbus) which is full of symbolism.
(In a statement to annoy L., the Assassin’s Creed film did a very good job of recreating the inside)
I then walked up to the top of the Giralda bell tower (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giralda). I cannot comment on whether the walkways are big enough to walk horses up and down, as the story goes, but they certainly were broader and were flat not stairs, so far easier to climb.
Meet the Lizard of Seville
Hello crocodile
Allegedly a real crocodile was a gift from the Sultan of Egypt for Alfonso X. It has been replaced with a wooden model since then.
I warned you I’d cheat and add a ninth photo in some of these.
At the end of the last post, I explained we had to get to Alcazar exactly on time. I expect that’s always required, but it was made more of a thing by the circumstances of when the tour was. I must draw you back to the beforetimes and the heady days of Summer 2019, possibly the height of Game of Thrones mania. The show runners had used the Alcazar as the Dornish palaces (https://www.andalucia.org/en/game-of-thrones-in-andalusia), so there were even more people than usual wanting to see it. According to our tour guide, you booked 6 months ahead if you wanted tickets to see inside.
And, as you’ll hopefully see from my photos, you really want to go inside.
The Alcazar is where I really went OTT on the photographs. It’s because the things I like in art and design, whether it’s painting, architecture or decorative objects, is colour, shape and texture. Mudéjar style is basically catnip for me.
Underneath one of the overhanging roofs
A very decorative ceiling
One of the rooms that leads out onto the patio de las DoncellasI just think he’s cute
Unfortunately my notes and memory can’t remember if the tour guide said anything about the little face being deliberate or whether it’s just an accidental pattern made by the weathering, but I find it intriguing.
One of the ceilings in one of the rooms of the Palacio Mudéjar or Palacio de Pedro I, depending who’s talking.
A golden decorative ceiling
Many of the rooms in the Palacio Mudéjar are that style and covered in gold leaf or gold in the same way.
An archway into another courtyard. You can see how busy it was.
There were also historical treasures.
A very old model boat
I think it’s the idea that someone >500 years ago saw exactly the same thing, and it’s still there that gets to me.
The inside decorations are but one of the highlights. The gardens are spectacular, and not sharing some of those photos was one of the hardest decisions when cutting this down to 8 photos.
I am sharing one of those below because the contrast of how green it was and the aridity of the surrounding countryside, as seen around Ronda and Grazalema really helped explain the things about the first wave of Caliphs saying “this, this is what heaven looks like.” (Some paraphrasing from the story involved)
Again, this just made me happy. I love the calligraphic style of the iron work.
One day I’d like to go back to walk around it at my own speed and do more ooh-ing and ahh-ing.
What the tile map doesn’t convey, because it can’t, is the curve of building, and the intricacies of its decoration.
The two towers at the ends face each other and the building surrounds the plaza.
The left hand tower
Same tower, from the side, as viewed from one of the four bridges
Same tower, viewed from a different bridge
The remaining photos are close ups of some of the decorative tiling
At the ends of the bridges is more decorative tiling. Each bridge is for one of the 4 kingdoms of Spain. I’m guessing this is Catalunya from the yellow and red stripes at the centre of the design.
The building was designed by Aníbal González, and
in 2011, probably commemorating the restoration. (The restoration work is excellent)
As the Andalusian tourism board website suggests, I did take a photo of the Seville alcove, which is where the photo at the start comes from.
We had to rush, because we had to walk from the Plaza de España to the Alcazar so we were there for our tickets slot.
This was my last big trip before COVID. Given everything that’s happened since, I’m glad I went then.
My poor unfortunate mother (TM) had always wanted to visit the Alhambra. Given one of her friends’s advice to seize the day, I felt it would make an excellent birthday present.
We decided to go on a coach tour. I know all the coach trip jokes (and I was the youngest person on the trip by 15 years) but they provide a really good service, giving you a taster of something. It definitely did that, and I have plans to return to Andalusia. But then again, I’ve been planning to go to Stockholm since 2017.
I went entirely OTT on photos and was going to promise to restrain myself to 8 photos and the occasional town sign per post, but the I hit my Seville photos and realised I would fail that one miserably, so the plan is 8 photos per post, but splitting a couple of days into more than 1 post.
The trip was 8 days long.
The first day was a flight to Spain and then recovery. Theoretically, because the flight was so early and because we arrived at the hotel at 11 am, you could have gone to Malaga or Torremolinos in the afternoon. However, it was a very early flight so Mum was not up for further movement, so she rested and I spent the afternoon sunbathing and swimming.
The next day we went to Ronda and Grazalema on the way to Seville.
This post focuses on Ronda.
First let me admit my ignorance. Before the trip, I’d never heard of Ronda. Now I have. And I want to go back.
It’s fantastically interesting, and I do recommend it. For further information, please see this remarkably detailed page from the Andalusian Tourism body – https://www.andalucia.org/en/ronda
Because of the gorge it’s built on, the split between the old and new (1700s) towns is part of what makes it so remarkable.
The gorge which separates the Old and New Towns of Ronda. Those are trees at the bottom!View from the “New Bridge”, built 1751
Ronda was part of the Romantic trail
The very pretty tilework becomes a pattern
It does mean that there’s a fair bit of “Orson Welles was here”.
It definitely has an excellent statue of a bull outside
Excellent statue of a bull
My photo doesn’t do it justice, you know those statues that are full of life and feeling, it’s one of those.
Ronda was also where the Constitution of Andalusia and it’s flag were formally adopted (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assembly_of_Ronda), which is why the Plaza del Socorro has two giant Andalusian flags flying.
Statue of Hercules in the Plaza del Socorro Side view of the statue of Hercules, and the parish church of Socorro
We spent the morning in Ronda and then on to Grazalema.
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