“We are in the Spanish south. The castanets click from coast to coast, the cicada hum through the night, the air is heavy with jasmine and orange blossom… the girls have black eyes and undulating carriages.”, Jan Morris – ‘Spain’
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Posted in Cathedrals, Europe, Food, History, Literature, Spain, Travel, World Heritage
Tagged Alcazar Seville, Andalusia, Carmona, Royal Palace Seville, Seville, Seville Bullring, Seville Cathedral, tapas
“Seville was dazzling, a creamy crustation of flower banked houses fanning out from each bank of the river…. A thousand miniature patios set with inexhaustible fountains which fell trickling upon ferns and leaves, each a nest of green repeated in endless variations around the theme of domestic oasis”, Laurie Lee – ‘As I walked out one Sunny Morning”
The Goya was closed this morning so we had a very similar breakfast at the Bar Plaza instead and debated our itinerary for the day and agreed that on account of the unpredictable nature of the weather that we should drive to Seville.
The city is the fourth largest in Spain after Madrid, Barcelona and Valencia, it is the city of Carmen, Don Juan and Figaro with a reputation for drama, flair and theatre, castanets and flamenco, gypsies and horses and we set out therefore with very high expectations.
After trouble finding an underground car park it was quite a long walk to the old town but at least the sun was shining, lighting up the buildings with a rosy glow and casting long shadows in the narrow streets and we optimistic that it would be a warm day as people rearranged the shade of the canopies on their balconies.
The route took us along a couple of busy main streets and then following a road to the centre of the city we turned off into a tangled web of narrow streets and alleys that criss-crossed and dog legged in a most confusing way and made following the street map with any degree of certainty almost impossible.
We were in the district of Santa Cruz, which is a maze of whitewashed buildings and alleyways all leading eventually to the centre and La Giralda and the Cathedral that is built on the site of a former Moorish mosque. The Cathedral is the largest in Spain and the third largest in the world, after Saint Peter’s in Rome and Saint Paul’s in London.
Some uninvited grey cloud had swept in rather quickly so we were tempted to go inside but there was a long queue so we investigated the Palace Real Alcázar opposite but there was a long queue for that as well so we abandoned both options for the time being and walked down to the river through the district of El Arenal. We don’t like queues.
After Madrid, Seville is the second most important centre for the national sport of bullfighting and after a few hundred metres we left the river and came up outside the Plaza de Toros de la Maestranza, which is the oldest bull ring in Spain.
The origin of modern day bullfighting on foot (rather than horseback) can be traced back to here and to the town of Ronda, also in Andalusia. It is one of the most charming bullrings in the country and although its capacity is only fourteen thousand spectators, which makes it rather small (the bullring in Madrid has a capacity of twenty-five thousand, the local football stadium, Ramón Sánchez Pizjuán Stadium has a capacity of seventy-thousand) it attracts all of the country’s finest bullfighters.
All of us except Christine, because she loves animals and can’t bear to think of them suffering, paid for and joined an informative and entertaining thirty-minute tour of the arena and the museum.
The walk back towards the Cathedral was along difficult cobbled streets where the houses had balconies with flowers spilling over the sides and it was full of the sights and sounds of postcard Spain and it was lunch time now so we found a traditional bodega serving sherry and tapas and went inside for food.
After dining we returned to the Cathedral Square, the Plaza del Triunfo, and had to make a choice between visiting the Cathedral or the Palace and we chose the Palace. It was a good decision because the fourteenth century building was a jewel box of Moorish architecture and decoration with tiled patios, elaborate halls and extensive gardens. It has been the home of the Spanish Monarchy for seven hundred years and the upper floors are still used by the royal family today as its official Seville residence.
When we paid the entrance fee it was still overcast but by the time we had been around the interior the sun was out again and we had a very enjoyable hour walking around the extensive gardens and the wall top walks. When we had finished we left and strolled back to the Cathedral and then into the network of narrow streets to make our way back to the car park.
Back in Carmona we rested and changed and went for a pre-dinner drink in a lively family bar called the Forum and joined the residents of the town out for an evening and noisily watching a football match on a big screen TV.
Later we returned to the Bar Plaza and ordered paella but there was none so instead we had a very similar meal to the previous evening. We were the only customers in the place and the owner must have been glad of the company. Actually the Plaza was the only place open and we worked it out that because it was out of season the owners were probably operating a cooperative rota system and we thought that was clever.
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Posted in Cathedrals, Europe, History, Hotels, Literature, Postcards, Spain, Travel, World Heritage
Tagged Andalusia, Carmona, Don Juan, Figaro, Flamenco, Seville, Seville Bullring, Seville Cathedral, Spain UNESCO, World Heritage
As we nail down 2014, please excuse my annual self-indulgent post to begin the new year as I look back over the last one. I have ignored the WordPress annual statement to produce my own review.
The top ten most visited posts on my Travel Blog always surprise me but then I don’t pretend to understand how search engines work. I say visited pages rather than read because I am neither conceited enough or sufficiently naive to claim that a visit equals a read. I know that a lot of people will arrive here by mistake and swiftly reverse back out via the back button!
Just to go back a bit, in 2012 the site recorded 170,900 visits and I was optimistic that as I kept posting this number was just going to keep going up but then in February 2013 Google made some devastating changes to its search algorithms and the numbers halved overnight and have never fully recovered. I finished 2013 with 79,470, a decrease of 115%.
I thought it was important to keep going so in 2014 I have posted 320 times and the total number of visits is recorded as just over 101,000 so there has been some significant recovery. My other companion blogs, Scrap Book Project and Another Bag More Travel have recorded about 105,000 hits between them.
Interestingly, WordPress statistics reports are consistently lower than third party statistics counters but I am reporting here on the official site numbers.
These are the Top Ten posts of 2014:
No. 1
Catalonia, Barcelona and Antoni Gaudi
A newcomer to the top ten and straight in at number 1 with 5,430 visits. I posted this in August 2013 following a week touring Catalonia in the North-East of Spain and pulling in a visit to Barcelona along the way. I’d like to think that this is because it is a knowledgeable and scholarly assessment of Gaudi’s architectural contribution to the World but I think it is more likely because the image attracts visitors as it easily found in a Google search and people seem to like it because it has been copied several times!
No. 2
This post is down from number 1 in 2013 to number 2 this year with 4,010 hits. I posted this in April 2010 after returning from a visit to Krakow in Poland. It was a good trip but I am not sure why so many people would hit on it. It is not as interesting as my trip to Auschwitz or the Crazy Mike Communist Tour. Once again it is probably the image but interest in this post however is on the slide because someone stole the image and their version of it now comes up before mine in a Google search. How annoying is that!
No. 3
3,300 hits, staying in the Top Ten and up three places from number 6 represents a very successful year for this post. This one has been around for a long time ( since June 2009) and has always been popular especially around the Spring and Summer when invitations to the Royal Garden Party are going out and when people are wondering how to get one or what to wear if they have one. I think people assume that I have connections with the Royal Family and can be of some assistance.
No. 4
This post stays in the Top 10 for a second year with 2,225 visits after an original posting in July 2012. Cameras and mobile phones are strictly forbidden inside the Mausoleum because the Russian authorities don’t want snapshots of the great man turning up on the internet in people’s Blogs or Trip Advisor reviews so they have to be left in a locker room and if anyone tries to defy this and is caught by the thorough security checks then there punishment is to be sent to the back of the queue! I shamelessly stole this one – well, people steal mine!
No. 5
1,330 hits and a fourth year in the Top Ten but dropping three places and presently running out of steam. A bit of a surprise because this is the account of a day trip to Mount Vesuvius whilst on a holiday to Sorrento in 1976 with my dad. From my memories of the same holiday I posted several blogs about visits to Capri, Naples, Pompeii, The Amalfi Drive and Rome but these have only achieved a handful of hits between them.
No. 6
The Twelve Treasures of Spain – Seville Cathedral
This year’s second new entry with 1,050 visits. The “Twelve Treasures of the Kingdom of Spain” was a contest/poll that was conducted by the Spanish Television Company Antena 3 and the radio broadcaster Cope. The final results were announced on 31st December 2007. I thought it might be interesting to take a look at the eight out of the twelve that I have visited. Third in the competition was the mighty Spanish Cathedral in Seville, Andalusia..
No. 7
Seventh place with 1,005 hits which demonstrates the importance of an ‘About’ page.
Completing the Top 10 this year are three more newcomers:
No. 8
Weekly Photo Challenge – Signs
I try and regularly take part in the Weekly Photo Challenge and often use it to provide a link to an older post. I get a respectable amount of visits but they are rather like a Mayfly and only live for a day but for some reason this one has just kept on going. Only posted in October 2014 it has attracted 905 visits and has muscled its way into the top 10. It is a signpost in the village of Ballyvaughan in Southern Ireland and I can think of no reason why it has been so successful.
No. 9
Alternative Twelve Treasures of Spain – Antoni Gaudi
A second top 10 appearance this year for the Catalan architect Antoni Gaudi (maybe I am an expert on Gaudi after all). After I had taken a look at the official Twelve Treasures of Spain I thought it might be fun to draw up my own personal alternative list. I included Antoni Gaudi in a general rather than a specific way. I posted this in March 2013 and it has made its way into the top 10 with 820 hits.
No. 10
Every Picture Tells a Story – Benidorm c1960
I posted this in March 2010 so it has taken a long time to get to the top 10. It is actually one of my personal favourites. It has crept in this year with 765 visits but I have no explanation about why it should suddenly spike like that! It is a story about the Spanish seaside resort of Benidorm inspired by some photographs that I came across of my grandparents on holiday there in about 1960.
Dropping out of the Top Ten this year were: Norway, Europe’s most Expensive Country, Travel Tips when Flying Budget Airlines, Danger in Naples, Camorra, Vesuvius and Pollution, Onyx UK and an Inappropriate Visit to the Moulin Rouge and Twelve Treasures of Spain – Sagrada Familia, Barcelona
If you have read one of these posts or any of the 1,475 others on my site ‘Have Bag, Will Travel’, then thank you very much! I guess it proves that George Bailey (It’s A Wonderful Life) was right when he said: “The three most exciting sounds in the world are anchor chains, plane motors and train whistles.”
I’d be interested to know about other people’s most popular posts in 2014 and the possible explanations why? Comment and let me know. I’m a sucker for statistics!
Posted in Cathedrals, Europe, History, Literature, Spain, Travel, World Heritage
Tagged Antoni Gaudi, Ballyvaughan, Benidorm, Lenin, Mount Vesuvius, review 2014, Royal Garden Party, Seville Cathedral, Wieliczka Salt Mine
“The Cathedral and the Alcázar of Seville bear exceptional testimony to the civilization of the Almohads and to that of Christian Andalusia dating from the Reconquest of 1248 to the 16th century. The Giralda, which influenced the construction of many towers in Spain is a masterpiece of Almohad architecture.” – UNESCO
…was a contest/poll that was conducted by the Spanish Television Company Antena 3 and the radio broadcaster Cope. The final results were announced on 31st December 2007. I thought it might be interesting to take a look at the eight out of the twelve that I have visited. Third in the competition was the Cathedral of Seville and I am going to have to cheat a little on this one.
The Cathedral of Saint Mary of the See is the largest Gothic cathedral and the third-largest church in the world. After its completion in the early 16th century, Seville Cathedral was the largest cathedral in the world and is also the burial site of Christopher Columbus. It was included in 1987 by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site, along with the adjacent Alcázar Palace complex.
…was built to demonstrate the city’s wealth, as it had become a major trading centre in the years after the Reconquista in 1248. In July 1401 it was decided to build a new cathedral since the structure of the current building, an ancient Muslim mosque which had been converted into a Christian church, had been very badly damaged by the 1356 earthquake. According to local tradition, the members of the cathedral chapter said: “Let us build a church so beautiful and so great that those who see it built will think we were mad”.
Well, I don’t know about the members of the cathedral chapter but we must have been mad because although we visited Seville we didn’t go inside the Cathedral!
After visiting the Bull Ring we returned to the Cathedral square, the Plaza del Triunfo, and had to make a choice between visiting the Cathedral or the Palace and because of Micky’s aversion to churches we chose the Palace. Micky has never explained this issue that he has with the house of God and we have never asked – I have always assumed that he fears either Divine retribution for some terrible misdemeanour or terminal conversion to the Christian faith.
I would have liked to have seen the Cathedral but the Palace was a good choice because the fourteenth century building was a jewel box of patios, halls and gardens. It has been the home of the Spanish Monarchy for seven hundred years and the upper floors are still used by the royal family today as its official Seville residence.
When we paid the entrance fee it was still overcast but by the time we had been around the interior the sun was out again and we had a very enjoyable hour walking around the extensive gardens decorated with tiles and containers and the wall top walks with views over the city gardens.
When we had finished we left and walked back to the Cathedral and then into the network of narrow streets to make our way back to the car park and a return to nearby Carmona.
Perhaps one day I will go back to Seville and this time pay the entrance fee and visit the Cathedral.
So, that is the top three – Cordoba, Altamira and Seville and I have seen them all but now I will have to move on to no. six in the list because so far I have not visited no. four, the Alhambra Palace in Granada or no. five the Basilica of Our Lady of the Pillard in Zaragoza.
Even more reasons then to return sometime to Spain.
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Posted in Cathedrals, El Cid, Europe, History, Marrakech, Spain, Travel, World Heritage
Tagged cathédrale de séville espagne, Culture, Life, Religion, Religion. Photography, Seville, Seville Alcazar, Seville Cathedral
Have Bag, Will Travel 