August 17, 2004
SEVILLA -- I rolled into town around noon on another typically sunny Spanish day. As usual, the first thing was to get to the hostel, or in this case, the "hostal". As it was not too far from the spot on my map marked "El Centro", I asked the man at the bus station info desk how best to reach the city center. Just walk, he said, and pointed a direction that I am pretty sure was the wrong way; but giving directions from inside a building is always a little dicey, so I didn't worry. I set off on what was a reasonably pleasant walk. As I was going, I reflected that my opinion of what is "hot" has evolved dramatically during this trip. In Boston, just before I left, it only took an 80 degree day to get me into shorts. Here in Spain, it is admittedly different because the heat is so much drier, but even so I find I can now walk around with a backpack quite comfortably even in the mid to high 90's, provided only a little shade. This was handy, because my hostal was in an alley, and I took what may have been the least direct route possible that still made continuous progress.
Having reached my destination, I found out what a Spanish hostal looks like. Despite the similarity in words, it is not at all a hostel-style place with dormitory beds. Rather, the building is composed of a central patio-like room, with the small, simple bedrooms adjoining it. Many hostals, I have read, have common rooms too, but not this one. Still, it was very pleasant, with blue-and-white tiled walls and plants hanging from the second-floor balconies.
My next quest was for food. It was around 3:30 by this time, so I was not shocked to find most restaurants and all grocery stores closed. I finally settled for a Subway-like chain restaurant I had tried in Granada, and proceeded downtown, past rows of shuttered shops. The streets were curiously empty, but again I chalked it up to the siesta. I passed the cathedral on my way to the Alcazar Real, the royal castle, which is still the official residence of the king and queen of Spain whenever they are in the neighborhood. The Alcazar has the laudable practice of offering a discount ticket price of free for students, so I didn't worry too much about the remaining visiting time and waltzed right in. Like the Alhambra, the outside is mostly military fortifications, and none too exciting to look at, but the inside is again partly Moorish and partly Christian palace. It's stiff competition for the Alhambra, and I liked it a great deal as well -- the carved decorations in the Alcazar may be slightly nicer, but I think the Alhambra's use of water is more inventive. My visit of the gardens was interrupted surprisingly early by a security guard, who was trying to herd all the visitors toward the exit -- evidently the palace was closing, about two hours earlier than I had expected. Easy come, easy go, and I would be able to finish my tour tomorrow.
Feeling it was about time for dinner, and also hoping to find a cheap book to help me learn some Spanish in my remaining week here, I went back to the main shopping district. Everything was still closed, and I began to think there was something else at play. A sign on a shop door soon confirmed my suspicions: "cerrado 16 agosto". It all fell into place: the Feast of the Assumption had fallen on a Sunday this year, so all the Spaniards took the following day off as well. I looked around more carefully: sure enough, the only businesses with open doors were McDonald's and Ben & Jerry's, and there was no one in sight but a dozen or so bemused tourists. With nothing better to do, I got another fast-food sandwich for dinner, spent three hours in an Internet café, and called it a night, hoping to return to normalcy in the morning.
My hopes were realized, and I celebrated by heading straight to the supermarket and buying way too much food; having been left so unsatisfied the previous day, I laid in a supply of oranges, granola bars and the like. After breakfast, I spent several hours exploring the cathedral of Seville. On the way in I noticed a document from the Guiness book of records, certifying it as the cathedral with the "greatest area" (but the document also listed its length, width, and height, so I don't know quite what was intended). At any rate it is quite large -- according to my guide book, it ranks third after St. Peter's in Rome (obviously the largest in almost any possible measuring scheme, except apparently volume) and St. Paul's in London. Standing inside the church makes this quite plausible. With what I suspect is the largest altarpiece in the world (featuring some 45 scenes from the life of Christ and a staggering amount of gold), an imposing choir loft, a 42 meter tall dome, and 44 separate chapels, the cathedral is nothing if not very very big. As is common with this kind of thing, the construction took so long that there are a variety of different architectural styles visible, with my favorite being the Islamic-Christian-fusion mudejar style I mentioned earlier. So this church had beautiful mosaics and tiled floors, as well as the odd horseshoe arch that reminds one that the cathedral was built on top of a mosque. The only remnants from the mosque are the patio filled with orange trees, and the belltower, which used to be a minaret. You can walk up the tower, and unlike every other belltower I can think of, the ascent is made by ramps instead of stairs. This was done because the muezzin would have to go up and down this very tall tower five times a day to make the call for prayer, and he very sensibly wanted to be able to ride a horse. Hence the ramps. Other features of the cathedral included unusually pretty colored marble work, and Columbus's sepulchre, which has four of the great kings of Europe serving as pallbearers for his coffin. However, there appears to be some doubt as to whether Columbus is actually buried in Seville. There is also a church in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, that claims to house his remains, and another in Havana where he used to be buried. (I found some news stories on a DNA based test that was being attempted last year, but no results. If anyone can track down an answer, I'd be very curious to know it.)
I spent the rest of the afternoon back in the Alcazar, wandering the very extensive gardens. They're not as good as the Generalife in the Alhambra, but they made a very pleasant and cool place to hang out in the afternoon heat. After leaving I browsed the bookstores on the main shopping streets, which were finally open today, but I didn't find anything I wanted to buy. (My list: book on learning Spanish for less than about 8 euro [they run closer to 20], and the first Harry Potter book in German [I have been idly looking for this since this time last summer, but I've only ever found number five].) Running low on steam, I chose to shun the famous Seville nightlife (I still don't know anyone in the city anyway). I'll save my energy for Madrid.