We got a pretty cheap last minute flight from Marrakesh to Seville in Southern Spain, which was great because that allowed us to avoid the 10 hour train ride and hour ferry ride back into Spain. So Seville it was, and very nice was Seville. Lovely city that felt very welcoming and had a good mix of people. We didn't see a lot of sights in Seville, but the two big ones that we did make it to were the Seville Cathedral and the Metropol Parasol.
The Seville Cathedral is epic. It is the world's largest Gothic cathedral and the third largest church in the world. Aside from maybe La Sagrada Familia I haven't been to a cathedral that was as impressive.
The Cathedral actually used to be a Mosque that was completed in the late 12th century. After Catholic Spain took control of Seville back from the Moors they converted it into a church and turned the Mosque's minaret into a bell tower. Going up this bell tower is one of the highlights of visiting the church since you get amazing views of the massive church and of the city that spreads out in every direction.
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| Metropol Parasol and the Alamillo Bridge bridge |
Seville Cathedral is also of note because it has the (probable) tomb of Christopher Columbus. A cathedral in Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic also claims to have his remains, but DNA evidence supports Seville's claim. It's extra hard to know for sure because dead Columbus got around almost as much as alive Columbus. Here's the route of his remains:
He died in 1506 in Valladolid, Spain --> Remains moved to Seville in 1509 --> Moved to Santo Domingo in 1537 (since he had requested to be buried in the New World) --> In 1795 they were moved to Havana Cuba (after Spain lost Hispanola to France) --> 1898 they got sent back to Seville (because of the Spanish American War).
...Or, according to some, the proper remains were actually never removed from the Dominican Republic, because in 1877 a lead box was found with the inscription: "Illustrious and distinguished male, don Cristobal Colon". So it's still somewhat debated, but what is in Seville are probably his (or at least part of his) remains, since the DNA evidence is similar enough to that of his sons.
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| Christopher Columbus Tomb |
The other big sightseeing that we did in Seville was to the Metropol Parasol, which is the world's largest wooden structure. It was finished in 2011 and was very controversial due to its cost and location in the old part of town. But it seems that the structure has now been embraced more by the city and the locals, since you see it represented all around as an icon of the city. Even beyond its massive size it's a very compelling structure and I personally think it contrasts nicely with the older buildings.
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LISBON
Lisbon has (seven) hills
Lisbon has earthquakes (one of the most devastating ones on record happened in 1755).
Lisbon has foggy/grayish weather.
Lisbon is known for its literature, (street) art, and wine.
Lisbon has cable cars and streetcars.
Lisbon is on the water (they call it a river, but it sure looks like a bay to me).
Lisbon has two main bridges: one longer, newer one that looks like this:
And one older, shorter one that looks like this:
Remind you of anywhere?
We loved it - maybe partially because it felt so familiar. But it's just a charming city in its own right. Unfortunately the weather didn't allow us to see all that much of it. It poured - seriously poured - while we were there. We had a few rain breaks, but the one semi-clear day was a Sunday, when everything seemed to be closed (including the museums geared at tourist). Before we even left we had already started talking about our return trip. Would be a great place to visit for a month or two. Hopefully I can get that community college job (with summers off) and we can make that happen sooner than later.
Here are some of our Lisbon pics:
Also. One SF comparison where SF falls extremely short is the metro. The Lisbon Metro was great. It wasn't as vast or frequent as Berlin or Paris, but a city of half a million people doesn't need to be. Until the 1990s they only had one metro line (so BART had a far more vast system at the time). Then in the 1990s (to get ready for Expo 98) they added three more lines and another line in the 2000s for a total of 5 (mostly non-overlapping lines). Since then BART has only expanded a stop or two on a couple their lines: to SFO, that awful AirBART thing to OAK, and soon a couple into San Jose. Pathetic. The Lisbon Metro isn't perfect but it is clean, cheap (€1.40 = $1.53) and trains come 5-8 minutes (BART comes every 15 minutes). Seeing this smaller and far less affluent city have such a well run and respected Metro really makes you realize that a decent transit system is really not that hard to create if willed to do so, and just how far BART and Muni have to get there. I'll stop my BART rant there, and share some of the amazing subway art that can be found in the very clean and well connected Lisbon Metro stations:
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| by Antonio Segui, March 1998 |
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| Subway art by Hundertwasser (!!!), January 1998, Lisbon |
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MADRID
For being a huge cultural city, we weren't very excited for Madrid. Maybe Franco and C. Ronaldo had something to do with this, but that is unfair we know. We got a good deal on a flight to Budapest on a Wednesday and we arrived on a Monday, so we didn't even have two full days in Madrid, but I think we made the most of them.
The famous museums are free certain nights, so the first night we had a brief visit to Reina Sofia and got to see Guernica. I snapped this picture before I realized that photograph was not allowed.
And the next night the Prado was free from 6-8, but we had also signed up for a tapas tour that started at 7, and the line to get into the Prado had hundreds of people in it. So we waited and finally got in at 6:30. This gave us only 10 minutes to rush in and see The Garden of Earthly Delights (which was the main reason we wanted to go). Amazing. So glad we got to see it, even briefly. We looked at it for 5 minutes or so, saw a couple other Boschs and then hauled ass to the tapas tour.
We did the tour because after nearly a month in Spain we still didn't like tapas much, so maybe we needed some professional guidance. It was a great time, but not necessarily because of the tapas. We met a ton of good people, drank various forms of wine and had some alright food. I still don't really get the tapas appeal though. One of the people we met on the tour was originally from Sacramento and used to live 2 blocks from us on 39th Street...and he knew someone Janet went to school with. That's the second person we've met on this trip that used to live within three blocks of us at one time or another. After the tour was over we stayed out for a while with this really cool couple from London and a couple of wonderful Filipina girls. One of my favorite nights of the trip.
Another highlight from Madrid was the El Retiro Park, a huge park that used to belong to the Spanish monarchy before it was given to the city.
In the middle of the park is a beautiful glasshouse (called Palacio de Cristal) that displays artwork (it's actually operated by Reina Sofia). When were we there they had this cool work that had bones and a lone Christ figure hanging from the ceiling, which was pretty striking.
Here are some other pictures from the park:
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| Monument to Alfonso XII of Spain |
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| Monument to Alfonso XII of Spain |
One last site to share from Madrid. Atocha Station (which is the main train station in Madrid) for some reason has a botanical garden inside. It's cool, but pretty absurd too - especially considering that a quarter of the population is currently unemployed. Maybe a little over the top, but it's definitely pleasant and novel, but then again so is Las Vegas.
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| There are hundreds of turtles in pond of the 'garden'. People apparently abandon their turtles there. |
Hasta luego espana!
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