For the next several days, I found myself some help in my efforts to introduce Snowdrop to Andalucia. For Seville (where we'll be until Monday), I found Laura.
Laura is a women's history PhD student in Seville. (She lives in the countryside outside the city, where she also teaches in her local school). She'll spend a couple of hours today and tomorrow, walking us through some of the highlights here. When Ed and I visited Seville, I used a Lonely Planet Guide. This is definitely an upgrade from those times. I had used local young people in Venice and Athens with Snowdrop and I thought both times that the benefits of walking with them were tremendous. Snowdrop is attentive, I'm spared. Win win. (I know Paris too well to need this kind of help. But here, without Spanish in my pocket, and having spent so few days in this city, I could do with some help.)
But first, let's look out the window. Cloudy and warm. Just like yesterday.
I let Snowdrop sleep in a little. These late Andalucian nights demand it!
(I get ready: yes, I caved to the trend and purchased a pair of elephant leg pants!)
And of course, there is breakfast.
(the fruit selection: we are not in Kansas anymore...)
Laura meets us at the hotel. The city is completely disrupted because of Holy Week and so she is making things easy for us. We go down at 10:15...
(one in a famous series of gaga-Snowdrop elevator photos...)
... and magically she is there.
The goal today is to walk the city. To look at it as a local (Laura was born and raised here). To get to know its key elements. To understand the significance of Holy Week. To soak in the city from its inside.
Laura is patient and enthusiastic and personable. She has every trait you would love in a person who is your buddy on a walk through the city. I wont describe "what we saw." It will not have meaning for you if I throw down random facts about Seville. But I'll show you some favorite moments and, too, I'll note some random thoughts I had about our walk:
1. I remain enchanted by Seville. The color of it, even on a mostly cloudy day, is magical. I'd call it goldenrod. They call it albero. Sevilla is albera.
2. The influence of Islamic culture is profound. Seville's history is a potpourri of Roman, Islamic, Christian and Jewish history. Despite the efforts to eradicate the past (the Inquisition), it never left.
3. Holy Week is something altogether different here. Processions linked to patron saints. Prayer, incense, hooded walks with tall candles along miles and miles of city streets. It all starts today and the crowds for this are... intense. We see preparations throughout the city. Streets, cordoned off. Vendors of incense and incense pots are everywhere.
4. After Holy Week comes the second most important festival in this city: The April Festival (Feria de Abril). It's all about dance and dress and celebration. Shops with traditional flamenco dresses on display are everywhere. If you are a girl, you want one. You wear one. It is yours for the next week after Easter.
5. Seville oranges: the trees were likely first imported from China. There are 40,000 of them throughout the city. Right now, the smell of azahar (orange blossoms) is everywhere.
Okay, let's add some pictures.
(narrow streets, elaborate balconies)
(Las Setas, or the Mushroom square: opened in 2011; it is the largest wooden structure in the world; controversial at first, beloved now)
(more from the Mushroom Square)
(she finds a playground)
(more from the Mushroom Square)
(Cathedral Tower sighting)
(oh those home balconies...)
(I do believe every woman, every girl has one for the next festival, right after Easter!)
(this week, however, is all about the hooded processions, which, dress-wise, are frighteningly reminiscent of other meetings and processions in America)
(one of many squares, churches, cafes, procession stages...)
(for Holy Week)
(for Holy Week)
(the entrance to the Cathedral: do you recognize the Islamic influence? the ornamented horseshoe shape?)
(the tower, at over 100 meters, has at its bottom by far the oldest sections of the Cathedral -- dating to the 11th century)
(Seville's orange trees)
(to the Jewish Quarter...)
(Laura, by the old Roman aqueduct)
(someone claims she is tired)
(music is everywhere; Flamenco as well)
(my App says this is an Orchid Tree)
(from the 12th century, by the river)
(river walk among the wysteria)
(to alleviate "tiredness")
We rest then. I suppose we both need it. You log in a lot of steps wandering through those Sevillian streets. But as we get past three, I'm thinking that I really should feed the girl lunch. Laura had suggested we cross the river and search out the eateries that spill out onto the little square right after the bridge. We do just that.
There are many restaurants, but they're all packed, so we stop at the first one that has a free table. A little rickety table, with a leg stuck in a garbage can for balance, but hey, we're not fussy. It's called the Vela Azahares (orange Blossom Candle?). Fine, but what's there to eat? I pick the first two things that have a chance of appealing to my pescatarian granddaughter: scallops (meh... "I prefer the bigger ones, like you make"), and what they call "Traditional Sevillian Mixed Fry" with anchovies, squid, cuttlefish, dogfish (dogfish??), cod, baby squid.
She loves this. All but the anchovies. Put off there by the little skeleton running through them.
Well now, after that very late lunch and her super accommodating stance, I feel like I owe her a favor. And since I know the rains will start tomorrow, I offer her something she has been wanting since we first rode the taxi to the hotel and saw them, everywhere: the horse drawn carriages.
Want to ride one now?
Is she ever happy!
The route along the busy roads is okay (she loves it anyway!), but once we actually enter the large park, even I have to admit that it's quite enjoyable.
We identify trees (date palms, from the Canary Islands!)...
We watch families of ducks. We enter the Plaza d'Espagna. All beautiful!
(the driver insists on snapping a photo of us...)
(wait, I want the horse in it as well!)
The ride back puts us close to the hotel. Well, sort of close. The roads are blocked. The first procession of the Holy Week has begun. The carriage can go no further. We have to walk.
And it... is... crowded! Squeeze-tight crowds. Yes, I got one picture of the first row of processioners...
... but after that I was too concerned about losing sight of Snowdrop. She was, however, undaunted. Gaga, come this way! Follow me! She squeezed through and made her way to the block of our hotel. I caught a shot of the Christ figure, over the tops of heads and in between plane trees. Well, sort of a shot: his one arm.
I ask her -- how do you deal with crowds so well? Oh, carnivals. They're always like this. Well, close to this!
I think she deserves a half hour in the pool after that, while I recover!
We have a reservation for dinner at the hotel restaurant. At 8, just when it opens. Am I glad we have nowhere else to go. There's beauty in tumult, but there's greater peace in quiet.
The almost full moon shines brightly over Seville tonight...
