Unfortunately - he never got around to culling the rest of the Pictures for Espania from the CD so some day they will be added here and on the Picassa Web... but don't hold your breath.
DAY 5 – SEVILLA
“Eeeewwww... What’s that smell?”“That’s a sewer smell. They are not just repairing the road, a sewer line must have broken.”
“This just spoiled my appetite.”
“Mine too, lets see what’s down this way”…
Wait… this isn’t how the day began.
It started at:
10AM – Parador Carmona
“I’m really going to throw this @*$#\?!&+$&!? Alarm in the pool” mumbled the groggy Chuckie. It again did not go off in time and now we are going to be late for our tour in Sevilla.The sleepy Cuban Lady urges her aching body from the warm Parador bed and settles her feet on the linen comfort carpet. A nice touch, cool linen placed over the rustic throw rug by the evening turn down service so she doesn’t have to place her bare feet were the dirty shoes have been. [These Paradores think of everything].
After a quick shower and hurried dressing, Illy heads for the car while Chuckie darts off to the kitchen. He is attempting to get a couple of rolls and coffee ‘to-go’. [For the moment we forgot where we were.] Chuckie explains to the dining room staff [in his delightfully unaccented Spanish… he is sooooo over confident by now] that he requests: ‘Si possible, yo quiero dos café’s para llevar, por favor’….
”Café Que?”
“Dos café para llevar. Tiene ustedes son tasas plasticos o Styrofoam? [He really thinks he is getting away with this!!]
“Café por su Habitacion?”
“No… mi Scuzi, para llevar… in me carrito [now the poor fool is mixing Italian, Spanglish and Slang!]
“Uno momento Señior mi companero habla con usted [Ah - Ha, she is sending for re-enforcements, perhaps this one will speak English and bail me out!]
Another impeccably uniformed waitress appears, “Le puedo ayudar… may I help you?”
“Ahhhh, yes. If possible yo quiero dos cafes to go...er.. para llevar. [Spanglish may be spoken here too!?!}
She looks at me puzzled, and I continue to say: “Tienes usteds tasas plastico o Styrofoam por traller café en mi carro?
“No Señior no es possible” Tenemos tasas crystal, pero, if you would bring it back when you are through. [Chuckie is impressed, they DO speak Spang-lish here!]
A brief moment later, she appears with a cute little oblong cracker tray, with two demitasse cups of perfectly brewed espresso, cute plastic paddles, and two packets of azucar. In the meantime, Chuckie has grabbed two croissants from the café and wrapping them in a paper doily, shoves them into his pocket. He takes the coffee with a humble ‘Muchisamas Gracias’ and heads for the car as quickly as he can gallop with too loose cups of coffee. A wave at the most helpful and puzzled desk clerk “ Café para llevar” says Chuckie grinning and he approaches the car triumphantly!
As he opens the car door, he proudly presents the elegantly displayed coffee. Illy takes one look at it, and shrieks. “There’s no way you are going to get me to hold that while you drive over this bumpy cobblestone driveway and down that winding road to Sevilla!”
“Aahh babe, no problema. Here’s how we do it. First we sugar-up, then we sip a little bit, I’ll put the rolls right here [stuffing them in the cup holder of the car]. We will take a little sip and we are off.” He hands BOTH cups to Illy and puts the car in first gear.
As we bumped along the driveway toward the two massive gates of the Parador, Illy yells “STOP, drink some more coffee – it is spilling!”
We stopped to adjust the level of coffee in the cups, and clean the spillage that Chuckie made on the drivers seat, barely missing his khaki slacks [it is a good thing the upholstered part of the seat is Scotch Guarded].
Once outside the ancient city walls, we wind down the road through modern Carmona, ease through the center of town and easily find highway E05 to Sevilla.
Now we are running tight for time to meet our Guide in Sevilla and Chuckie is really cranking along, when he spots a helicopter circling ahead over the AUTOVIA. First swooping downward, then circling, then swooping again and then circling...
“Uh-oh, looks like something may be happening up ahead” he says.
No sooner do these words leave his lips than we spot 3 or 4 blue lighted autos marked Guardia Civil along the side of the road. Chuckie remarks that this could be the Spanish version of a speed trap and just then a blue lighted car and a jeep pull out in front of us and the truck on our left and proceed to perform the “California Rolling-Road Block” which slowly brings both lanes of traffic to a dead stop.
“Well, says Chuckie if this is a speed trap – this dude is going to be busy writing a lot of tickets” looking back over his shoulder at the long line of cars and trucks behind him.
Just then, off to the right the helicopter lands. A few uniform types jump out and run onto the road. “Oooohhhh boy,” Chuckie giggles, “this ought to be real good, either they are really after someone big…or…well...it sure looks like a lot of armaments for a simple traffic stop..”
We watch as uniform types are scattering all over, blue lighted vehicles zoom past us on the right. The two cars in front of us travel about 200 Meters down the road to create a zigzag checkpoint, while one fellow stays behind to keep us at a stop. So we wait...and wait…. And wait.
We spot another uniform, who appears to be an officer and finally asked him “Senor, que esta passando?” [What is happening?”]
He replied: “Nada” “Tranquila”. Chuckie indicated that we were late for an appointment in Sevilla, and he responded “Pronto” [soon].
A few minutes later we were directed to pass one car at a time through the checkpoint and that’s when we noticed the fellow with the tire spike chain, poised to dash across the road if the wrong car attempted to pass. It appeared that it could just have been an exercise to keep their procedures sharp – but we were not going to hang around to find out, we were running late for our tour. To make up lost time, Chuckie put the pedal–to– the-metal and we arrived at the outskirts of Sevilla with about 10 minutes to spare.
We really thought we had the route to the Hotel Alfonso XIII fairly well determined, however, Spaniards do not mark their city streets well enough to be seen from afar – I guess they assume everyone knows where they are. As a result, navigator Illy spotted the street we were supposed to turn left onto just a tad too late and we blew past it with no point we could make a pirula. We reached the next cross street [Avenida] thinking we could follow it back but could not take a left there either, and we were forced around in the opposite direction of where we needed to be. Chuckie spotted a point at which he could execute the obligatory pirula, and we were headed back in the right direction.
We found the hotel Alfonso XIII without further incident, pulled into the parking lot and found a spot right up front. After securing the necessary “Stuff” in the trunk – we grabbed the camera case and hauled-butt to the Torre del Oro hoping that our guide had not despaired and left since we are now 25 minutes late. [I guess you are wondering dear readers, “Will these two Wacko’s ever get somewhere on time?”]
We dashed up to the Torre del Oro and a young man sitting on the wall, popped up and said “Chok Me-curio”? “That’s me!” I said, “sorry we are so late and thank you so much for waiting, we were busy making U-turns.” [He obviously did not get it… and we weren't of a mind to explain further.]
Jaime, [Hyme] as he introduced himself, bade us to follow him and we were off at a light trot to the Cathedral of Sevilla. We passed through several photo worthy areas and of course Chuckie had to stop here and there in attempt to capture the flavor of this ancient city. Once in the Cathedral, Jaime proceeded to enlighten us of the various historical facts and architectural tidbits. He then ushered us through the gardens with it’s magnificent fountains and walkways. We passed numerous art students and several amateur artists who were attempting to capture the entrance from the gardens and several other beautiful points of architecture on canvas. As we walked through this magnificent explosion of color and tremendous variety of plants, flowers and trees from around the world, Jaime pointed out the various architectural and design forms used through the centuries that contributed to the completion of this marvelous Cathedral. Since we were pressed for time allotted in his part of the tour, rather than visit the Giralda Tower at this point, Jaime recommended we do it on our own after his tour concludes and he arranged for us to re-enter the Cathedral later in the day. He then took us up through the Barrio Santa Cruz, which was filled with artisans and shops which would be another stop after he left us. We had invited him to join us for lunch but he was committed to going home and cooking for his wife. He did however; introduce us to one of his favorite places to dine, where we met one of the managers who welcomed us when we returned later for a relaxing lunch.
We bid farewell to Jaime – the 3rd of our personal walking tour guides [so far, Fernando in Toledo was the best] and proceeded on our search for more Kodak [Chuckie has gone photo crazy, it will take him FOREVER to arrange and catalogue everything when we get home…which will at least keep him off the streets and not into too much trouble for a while.] Our only regret is we are having trouble finding ASA 800 Kodak, but have stumbled across Fuji 800 which we were told by several vendors is better than Kodak.
We head back to the Barrio Santa Cruz to search for the ever obligatory Chotchkie’s. A stop here and a stop there and Illy acquired her prized gifts. It was running too late to grab lunch before we headed back to the Giralda, as Jaime’s friend at the gate would be leaving soon so we rushed back just to find a huge group of tourists queued up at the entrance. Fortunately they were stopped while their guides paid the appropriate entrance fees. We slid past them to find the nice lady who was to let us re-enter the Giralda and headed for the ancient Bell tower.
Now… if you’ve never been to the Giralda Tower, wear your hiking boots!
The good news is: instead of steps all the way up the 37 levels, it is ramped upwards on each side leveling off at each corner… The bad news is the ramps are steep!
More good news: There are little niches on certain levels in the center with visuals and details of some of the interesting facets of the Giralda’s construction and history, which also give you a little rest between levels.
More bad news: when you reach the top there are obnoxious safety railings filling the portals from which you can view the city below. They are significantly restrictive if you really want to stretch out to get a better shot. [It keeps the ever eager, shutter-happy Chuckie from falling over – which is just fine by the acrophobic Cuban Lady!]
The view however is magnificent, well worth the trek. Just be sure that you are nowhere near the top on the hour or half hour – The Giralda is still a functioning BELL tower. Some of the biggest #@$*#+!% & bells I have ever seen! Surely it would be deafening when they are all going off at once.
As it was, we were there when two bells chimed out the half hour and we thought the walls were coming in. It startled us so much that Chuckie almost fell from his perch as he was taking a shot of the "Maestranza", Sevilla’s world famous bullring through the obnoxious guardrails.
The trip back down the tower was obviously easier than going up, but the Cuban Lady’s calves were definitely talking back to her. Additionally Chuckie’s left foot and leg were starting to ache, but he refused to take a break and we trudged on in search of the ever-elusive Kodak 800. Each store we stopped in sent us to another one and we were getting further and further away from the highly touted lunch spot. We finally found a store that had 2 rolls of Fuji 800 and Chuckie relented, paid the highway robbery and we were off for a delightful lunch at the Restaurante Robles where we sampled several Andaluzian specialties along with our usual Jamon Serrano and Manchego Cheese.
Some photos of the cute little bodega and the neighboring sites were had, Chuckie added a nice logo’ed addition to his collection of Italian demitasse cups and we were off to explore the commercial area recommended by Jaime. We didn’t get far before Chuckie’s foot really started to complain and walking became obviously painful. We spotted a “Pediteria” [shoe store] that appeared to have some of the same comfortable shoes that a couple of our guides had been wearing. He has determined that it was the ‘low heeled sneakers’ that was causing his foot problems since wearing a pair of dress shoes the day before did not cause the same discomfort.
Now here’s the deal…this Little Italian Man has a hard time trying on shoes when his feet feel fine, but he is obviously in enough pain that he will chance buying shoes under adverse conditions. Of course he has the wrong socks on, so the clerk gives him a couple of plastic bags to put on his feet so he can try on the shoes. This does not work. So he stretches his bulky white socks thinly and tries on the shoes. It doesn’t appear too bad, in fact the pain subsides enough for him to make the purchase.
As we walk along the new shoes start to pinch in a different place and Chuckie decides it is part of getting used to wearing something new. You must realize, on these trips we do LOTS & LOTS of walking. Having done a pretty fair share today, we decide it was time to head back to the Alfonso XIII for a cup of café in the delightful terrace recommended by Jaime before retrieving the car and heading back to the Parador.
While relaxing with our café, we decide that we might as well stay in town and grab a bite in the area that a young man in a tee-shirt shop recommended as having the best Tapas in Sevilla.
On the way to the bridge across the Rio Guadalquivir, [which just happens to wind its way down from Cordoba] …what do we find on the corner of Calle Regina Cristina and Avenida de las Delicias?
A McDonalds of all things!!!
The irony of the location [on the corner of “las Delicias?!?!”] had Chuckie in stitches – he laughed so hard he was nearly choking. An obvious photo-op, once he recovered.
As we crossed the bridge, the view of the brightly illuminated Torre del Oro was magnificent. Anchored below it was a catamaran party boat filled with some serious revelry. This presented another photo-op for the camera crazed Little Italian Man.
Having crossed the bridge, we attempted to turn right onto the street the young man had recommended however, we found it completely torn up and the way blocked. We spotted a small path and took it toward the cleaner part of the street.
“Eeewwww, what’s that smell?”
“That’s a sewer smell. They are not just repairing the road, a sewer line must have broken.”
‘This just spoiled my appetite.”
“Mine too, lets see what’s down this way…Oh look this place is cute… maybe we’ll stop here, but lets see what else is further down away from the smell.”
We passed several closed places. Since, with the whole street broken up, I guess many of them figured it was time for a little vacation. We did pass a great little Tequila Bar with a sign in the window stating:
“Welcome, if you don’t laugh at our English, we promise not to make fun of your Spanish!”
A quick survey of the area, and we decided that the first place we passed seemed to have the best opportunity for a waterside table and light fair as it was now getting a bit late. We actually sat opposite the Torre Del Oro and by now the river was still enough for a reflected image shot. [Hope it came out… it really was beautiful.]
We finished our assorted Tapas and wine, not bad for a place half empty, hiked back to the car [past the well placed McDonalds] retrieved our trusty Volvo, and wound our way back up the narrow, cobblestone streets to the Parador Carmona.
One last cognac nightcap in the room, as the Dragon Lady lounged in a luxurious bubble bath, [2 nights in a row yet… these Paradores are really spoiling her] and I began to edit the NOWAT from Cordoba.
Yes…we are now a few days behind in the Notes. Some got edited and finished in the car but Seville did not really afford much opportunity to upload. Between Jerez de la Frontera and Granada, time got away from us sooooo this Note on Sevilla is actually being finished in Barcelona, started on the road from The Parador El Saler, outside of Valencia. We would have finished it at the Parador last night, but we ran into this delightful Irishman and his son and... A few scotches…and dinner… and wine… and….
ooppssss again… we’re getting just a little ahead of the story.
We’ll catch up; on Jerez de la Frontera, Granada, the outstanding "Country Club" Parador at El Saler and more as the Wacky American Tourist and the ever lovely [but not too Spanish accented - Illy struggle to balance the sightseeing, journal writing, Ooooffffing, Eeeeeeking and what not.
Ciao 4 Now
Chuck and the very tired, but very content Cuban Lady
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