Seville

Saturday morning we took the bus to Sevilla at 8 AM from Granada bus station. It took us 3 hours to arrive to Plaza de Armas, Seville. The view was so nice along the way that I tried so hard to keep myself awake. After arrival, we decided to visit the Cathedral and the Real Alcázar first since we can't check in yet to our accommodation anyway. It was super hot when we arrived. 

The Cathedral of Saint Mary of the See

This cathedral was originally a mosque, but it is converted into the city's cathedral, shortly after Seville's conquest by Ferdinand III. I would say, due to its position, the picture above don't do justice to the cathedral. 


The Giralda, the bell tower of the Cathedral was a former minaret of the mosque that stood on the site under muslim rule. We took a picture with it from the other side, so we can only see the top of it.

With friends in front of Giralda, the bell tower of the Cathedral

Unfortunately, when we got in to the cathedral, there was a procession happening in the church, which I think it's part of the celebration of Corpus Christi. 

The procession in the cathedral

For me, it is a pity that even when the procession was happening, some parts of the church were still made accessible to tourists. I just hoped that people that sat in the middle for the procession, could fully feel the procession sacredly.

When I walked around the cathedral, there were couple of "altars" that were prepared to be carried out for Corpus Christi procession. Out of so many of them, what interesting to me was the one with the statue below. There are 3 human heads under the statue. I wonder what these heads symbolize. I wish I could get any guide to tell me, but it wasn't the case.
 

I am curious what these three heads at the bottom symbolize. 

The Real Alcázar
This is a Royal palace that is built for the Christian king, Peter of Castile. The palace is an example of Mudéjar architecture in the Iberian Peninsula. The upper levels of the Alcázar are still used by the royal family as their official residence in Seville. However, our guide told me, nowadays, the royal family prefers to stay in the Hotel Fernando III in the historical center.

To get in this place, there was a long queue. We cut through the queue by joining a guided tour in English, but this costs us more money though. Getting in to the area, it gives an impression of Alhambra, but this is not as impressive as the Alhambra.

This picture shows the journey of Christopher Columbus with three ships, the Santa Maria, the Pinta and the Nina.

At this point, the guide told us a little bit about the remain of Christopher Columbus. It's only around 140 gr of his knee bone is kept (if I don't remember wrongly). DNA test had been done and it was proven that it is the real bone of him.










It is very interesting that even though the King is Catholic, the wall is full of Arabic Calligraphy which translated by the guide to be ¨God bless the King¨. He said that this shows the good relation between the Muslims and the Christian at that time.

This roof is very impressive, not only by the golden color but also the detail. 

In one of the room, there is this funny map. Can you see what is different in this map?

Well, this map is actually is upside down. We have Italy is on the left side of Spain. Haha.

The dancing floor

In one of the room, it has a unique floor. Our guide showed us that if we move according to blue tiles, you will end up in dancing movement.

In the middle of the royal palace, there is this nice garden. The pond has a lot of fish in it. I like the contrast of the color in this picture. In this garden, there are palm trees also orange trees. Our guided tour ended here. It was too hot for us to explore the garden, everyone was so exhausted, so we sat under the shade and enjoy the garden for a bit before heading toward the exit. 

Jewish Quarter
The adventure for finding out the Jewish Quarter was hilarious. We had actually passed through the quarter when we left the cathedral towards our Airbnb. But since we were rushing to check in, we didn't pay much attention. So, on Sunday, when we decided to find this quarter which is surrounded by the wall, Donovan and I were laughing after arrival. We were here! So the Sunday walk was basically walking in a circle like dejavu.

The Giralda is so close to the square

It is very interesting how Jewish quarter was so closed to the cathedral. Our guide told us that the Muslims, the Jews and Christians used to live in harmony.

The wall that defines the Jewish quarter

The walk toward the square

Plaza de España. 

My friends visited Plaza de España on Saturday, but I didn´t join them because I decided to catch up with my ex-housemate for dinner. Sunday morning, after having breakfast together, I walked toward this plaza. The first impression was "WOW! It is so Venice!"

Don't you agree with me that this looks like Venice? Well, missing gondolas. 

If it is not too hot, I probably would try to row in the canal. I walk up the stairs and basically just sit at the corridor and enjoyed the view. I was happy that I made my way here. 

The society
The life in Seville is very family centered. I had a chance to meet up with my friend who was my ex-housemate when I studied in the Netherlands, so I had a chance to have a peek to the local life. She introduced me to a lot of her family member, including all her in-laws. It is a very funny phenomena for me, that after I am introduced, some of the in-laws hangout with us. It is very different to the life in the states, where everybody has more private life. Even comparing it to Indonesian, we normally introduce our guest to some family member if they happen to pass by, but they will not stay to spend time with the guest. 


Another interesting thing was, even though it is quite a big city, horse cart is allowed to round around the city and taking passengers, which most of them are tourists. I don't think locals are using it. It goes in harmony with cars. 




To conclude this blog, here is another icon of Sevilla, las setas de Sevilla. Sometimes you can find Flamenco performance here too.