Siesta time is a wonderful part of the day! During today’s siesta, I chose to sit down and take a stab at another entry, after a brief nap. I will let Jackie continue her beauty rest, as we plan to head out to catch a late night Flamenco show at one of the local and very well known clubs. We are now in Sevilla, or Seville in English, and are very much enjoying our second day here.
Yesterday morning, we got up early, checked out of the Tryp Ciebles Hotel and headed for the Atocha train station in Madrid. At first we were going to jump on the metro again, but the thought of dragging four luggage up and down all those stairs and cramming them onto over packed trains at rush hour was not a pleasant one (I hate it when people do this on the metro in DC during rush hour!), so we made the very smart decision of asking the doorman to grab us a taxi. He ran out onto Gran Via and immediately flagged down a cab and loaded our bags into the trunk for us. Much to our surprise, the taxi driver spoke English well and was excited to talk to us, just as friendly as could be. He mentioned to us how quiet Madrid was this time of year because the whole country goes on vacation in August. We knew this from our readings prior to the trip, but we never really thought the city to be quiet or calm…I can only imagine what a giant party city Madrid can be during the regular season. After about a 10 minute ride that flew by as we discussed the differences between Madrid and Washington with our driver, we arrived at the Atocha train. Money well spent, as it was only about 5 or 6 euro.
Entering the train station, Jackie and I were filled with a bit of anxiety as we recalled the difficult time we had purchasing train tickets in the Roma Termini last year. I think it took us close to 45 minutes just to find the ticket booth! But not in Madrid; we entered into a beautifully modern station of gigantic proportions. The station even contained a huge atrium with palm trees and other vegetation. We took the escalator ramps, which Jackie greatly appreciated over a typical escalator for the ease of pulling her big duffle bag, down to the first floor where the ticket counters were. There were about 10 counters that were staffed, but the helpful part of this experience was the digital sign over top of each counter that listed what train ticket could be bought at that counter. We immediately spotted the counter for the AVE high speed train to Sevilla and walked up to get what we came for. “Dos para Sevilla, por favor.” I handed her my credit card and ID (they check ID with every CC transaction in Spain) and we had our tickets in under a minute. There were a few questions in Spanish she asked, but luckily we had read enough about the trains to actually understand what she was asking. And yes, we wanted our tickets in the turista class; or the cheapest class. The whole process went so smoothly that we ended up catching the 9:00 am train instead of the 10:00 am.
The AVE high speed train, the Andalucia Express, goes from Madrid to Sevilla in about 2 and a half hours. It does make a few stops, but runs very quickly and smoothly and even includes airplane like conveniences. A few Spanish radio stations and an in train film to watch. Although the first 5 minutes of the film featured terrorists blowing up a mass transit ferry and everyone dying, which would not have been my choice for a film on a mass transit train in a country that experienced a similar event just a few years back. Oh well, it was dubbed in Spanish anyway so it could only hold my interest for so long. Sleep seemed like a better option after staring out the window at the passing emptiness. We did get into the Sevilla station a few minutes early and decided to grab some food.
The trickiest part of visiting Spain is becoming acclimated to their eating schedule. We sat down at a café in the train station at about 11:45 and used our increasing knowledge of Spanish to ask for a menu properly. After looking over the menu and choosing a few random items, the waitress came by to take our order. But after we ordered, she rambled on about something in Spanish and then walked away. Jackie and I tried to analyze what she had said, and came to the conclusion that we could not order food until later…it was too early for lunch. We ended up sitting there for another 45 minutes, and at 12:30, we were allowed to order. We were excited to get croquettas, since we had seen several people eating them at various tapas restaurants. They are kind of like fried ovals of mashed potatoes, if you will. Interesting and tasty, but they are a little overwhelming if you eat more than a few. The jamon iberico (Iberian ham sandwich) was excellent as they have incredibly good ham here. After a long sit down for a sandwich and fried potatoes, we went outside to grab a taxi and find our hotel in the very old town of Sevilla.
The taxi ride was an experience as we went through some of the narrowest streets I have ever seen, they even made the tiny streets of the villages in England look like interstate highways. As we hopped out of the cab and walked to our hotel, we realized we were finally in what we had been expecting the whole time. Spain! It was not a typical crazy city loaded with traffic, but a quaint and very charming village full of character, houses accented with pots of blooming flowers, striking architecture and bustling tapas cafes on every corner. We couldn’t wait to head out on foot and explore the old town.
Explore is exactly what we did, following random cobblestone streets and jumping from shop to shop and café to café; dodging horse drawn coaches as we went. Photographing the buildings
naturally framed by the Sevillan bitter orange trees kept my interest while Jackie enjoyed the many clothing stores. Fortunately the clothing prices in Spain are considerably cheaper than those of the stores in Italy and France, so Jackie did her share of damage at the popular stores like Zara. But our exploration was only partially filled with consumerism, as we spent a good amount of time taking in the sights. The town is so rich in ancient culture it is amazing. Jewish, Arabian/Muslim, Roman and Spanish are just a few of the cultures that have left a great impact on the city, and it is evident in the pronunciation of each town square or building. The main part of the old town, Santa Cruz, was formerly a Jewish ghetto in the late 1400’s, but is now the heart of city and where all tourists must go. It is also home to the massive cathedral, said to be Europe’s third largest, and the Alcazar royal palace.
Jackie is still sleeping and I have a lot of the trip left to describe, so I will keep writing. Feel free to grab a cappuccino or something if you are falling asleep. More adventure ahead!
After a siesta nap at the hotel and getting cleaned up from the long day of travels, we walked back to the town square to meet our tour guide at 8:45 in front of the Giraldir bell tower, part of the cathedral in Santa Cruz. We had booked a guided walking tour and river boat cruise on Expedia as part of our hotel package. Much to our surprise though, we were the only two people on the tour so we had an excited lifelong Sevillian guide all to our selves. The walking tough was only about an hour, but she took us through every little winding street and explained the history of each building in the best English she could. She had a hard time understanding some of my questions, but after we began speaking in a mix of English and Spanish, we were usually able to figure out the answers. Mostly questions about the battles or the different settlements over the last 600 or so years. She dropped us off at the Quadalquivir River where the boat ramp was and we boarded a river boat for our night time cruise. This river is the only navigable river in all of Spain. The ship left the port at 10:00 pm and the hot sun was completely gone, so it was a perfect time to cruise down the river with a few glasses of Sangria as we went. The sound system on the boat broadcasted bits of historical info in five different languages as we went by each major landmark, followed by blaring, yet enjoyably festive, Spanish music. It was music to which the sangria maker danced by himself on the back of the boat and clapped his hands, attempting to entice the tourists to join. Sadly, no one did, but he looked to be enjoying himself immensely none the less. The last sailing of the night was only about 1/10th full and I believe we were the only non-German tourists on the boat. They sure can be loud when they are having fun! About 90 minutes into what turned out to be a rather romantic and calming cruise, we docked back at Santa Cruz and went on our way to get dinner. Dinner at nearly 11:30! Yes, when in Spain, do as the Spaniards do.
We wined and dined ourselves at a street corner cafe, which can be done rather inexpensively as a glass of wine is only a few Euros at most, and went back for some shut eye after finishing off our paella.
The next morning, finally bringing us up to today, started with us wakening to the fire alarm sounding in our little hotel! We quickly grabbed our passports and started out the door toward the stairs, not really knowing what to expect. A maid ran by and yelled something at us in Spanish, something that contained the phrase “I don’t know” or “no se”. As we rounded the second flight of the completely marble staircase, the alarm stopped. Still confused, we turned around and made our way back to the room. This time the maid appeared to be laughing and I asked her “esta bien?” to see if everything was ok, to which she answered “si, si”. It was a crazy start to another wonderful day in Sevilla.
We wandered down to the end of the main shopping street to check out a famous pastry shop for breakfast. It was crowded, but we managed to find a place at the espresso bar to have cappuccinos and a chocolate croissant. Very delicious indeed.
She is awake! Well Jackie has risen and appears to be full of energy, so I will have to quickly wrap up the rest of the day. We walked and walked and walked, and took lots of pictures and ate some really good paella and croquettas, drank Cruzcampo (the local cerveza) and vino tinto (red wine) and took in our favorite Spanish city so far. Three more to go! In the morning, we head out to take the train to the little coastal city of Cadiz for two nights. A city nearly 4000 years old!
We will continue to enjoy ourselves here in Spain I am sure, and I will try to post again in a few days. Adios!
Karl
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