Sevilla and Christmas in Rota

I thought I had retired but I am under enormous pressure to meet the tight deadlines imposed by my Editor for publishing these pieces. Here we go with a ‘blog’ about Sevilla, the charming capital of Andalucia.

Firstly we must apologize to all those who woke early on the 19th of December to hear Miggy on Radio Solent. They got their proverbials in a twist during an outside broadcast that morning and postponed her to the next morning when the listening public got two for one as I had a word on air as well.

The 0830 bus from Rota to Sevilla goes by way of Jerez. The journey to the latter is familiar to us now but we did not see much of the new territory between Jerez and Sevilla due to fog. The bus station at Sevilla was only a short walk from our Hotel through the narrow streets of Santa Cruz.

Our four star Hotel Los Sieses, conveniently situated in the heart of the sights that must be seen, was a little jaded and probably earned and lived up to its stars back in the 1930’s. The room was clean, warm and comfortable and Miggy had the long soak in a bubbly bath to which she was so looking forward and we got the room at an ‘offer’ price!
We walked to the Torre del Oro, a magical 13th century tower, which used to guard the town against attack from the river. It is said that the Golden Tower got its name because of the sun’s reflection on the gold tiles that once covered the twelve-sided building or from the hair colour of the beautiful damsel who King Pedro locked up in the tower while her husband was away at war. The tower has been used for many purposes since its defensive role including storage of precious metals from South America and a prison. It now houses an interesting Maritime Museum.

From the tower we strolled along the Paseo beside the river Quadilquivir past the Plaza de Toros de la Real Maestranza, Sevilla’s bullring and the most important bullfighting venue in all Spain along, perhaps, with that at Ronda.
Crossing over the river to the Triana district we continued our stroll along the waterfront to cross the river once again next to the Torre del Oro.

A ‘Menu del Dia’ lunch of roast pork was followed by a siesta. In the evening we did our Paseo past the Ayuntamiento and through the main pedestrianised shopping streets Tetuan and Sierpes where Miggy bought two fans in the famous fan store of ‘Diaz’. We also bought an outfit for Miggy for Kate Hay’s wedding at ‘El Corte Ingles’, a vast department store like John Lewis.

The Christmas lights over the streets and in the Plazas were magnificent and lived up to their reputation and the Tree in the Plaza Nueva looked as if it was carved from ice.

Supper in ‘Robles’ of various media racion was fun and we talked to a couple from Dublin of all places.

The Hotel buffet breakfast the following morning was fine as it should be for €16 each. It comprised a wide range of hot and cold items including sausage, egg and bacon and a third of a bottle of Cava!

The Real Alcazar of Sevilla, although a selection of beautiful buildings and reminiscent of the Alhambra in Granada, has less allure than the Alhambra in that it comprises palaces built by the Catholic Monarchs in the 14th to 16th centuries within the walls of the Moorish fortifications. The halls and patios of the palaces were a copy of the Moorish style and were in fact built by Grenadine craftsmen.

The one advantage of this later construction over the earlier of the Alhambra is that the plaster walls and wooden ceilings are much more decorative, the brilliant primary colours having not faded as much as those in the earlier Alhambra. The upper floor of the main Palace is still used by the Royal Family when in Sevilla. They were in residence at the time of our visit and so their rooms were unavailable to us.

The 15th century Cathedral of Sevilla, built on a 9th century mosque, is the largest Gothic temple in the world and the third largest of the Christian world. It is massive both in area and height. Its 18 metre high main Altarpiece, where scenes from the Old and New Testaments are depicted with over a thousand statues and its collection of precious metal, jewels and paintings add to its grandeur – but why? My answer to that rhetoric question is Power. The mortal remains of Christopher Columbus are housed in the Cathedral.

The only parts of the mosque that remain are the Patio of Orange trees where Muslims washed themselves in the central fountain before entering the mosque and the Giralda, the minuet that has over the years grown to tower 93 metres high and dominate the skyline of the city. We climbed its 35 ramps, built as such to allow the bell ringer to ride his horse to the top, to find magnificent views over the city.

A late lunch at ‘Robles’ saw us each tuck into an absolutely delicious roast leg of baby lamb.

After a siesta and bath we again walked through the shopping streets and squares to breathe the almost tangible Christmas spirit. We had a tapas supper and great fun at a wonderful café frequented by Sevillians, Casa La Viuda,

After more bacon and egg and Cava for breakfast we packed our bags and checked out and then went to see the vast Plaza de Espana housing an enormous pavilion built for the 1928 Iberian-American Expo.

The arcade of this semi circular building has on its face the coat of arms of each of the fifty four Spanish provinces and the depiction of an historic event in that province all in ceramic tiles. The shady cool gardens of the Parque de Maria Luisa adjoining the Plaza de Espana has numerous fountains, ponds and artificial lakes and a wide variety of plants and flowers including oleanders, one hundred year old orange trees, magnolias, banana trees and rose bushes. It is also home to Peacocks.

A bustling and excellent Lunch back at the ‘Casa La Viuda’ was a befitting end to our visit to this friendly, clean, interesting and vibrant city.

Our bus journey back to Rota was uneventful although the lady driver was behind schedule and extremely worried that her books didn’t balance fares taken with passenger numbers.

We were late for a Choral Concert in Rota’s main Church that evening but what we heard was beautiful and included a carol or two, as we know them in England. It was a great start to our Christmas celebrations and continued the Christmas spirit we encountered in Sevilla.

We attended mass at the Church on Christmas Eve. It was different to the service with carols that we are used to but, from the little we understood, the message was the same as that we hear in the Anglican Church, beware commercialism, love the family and God. The Catholic congregation don’t have wine at communion only bread. The priest drank the whole goblet!

Christmas day was a great success and the meal to which the three couples contributed as mentioned in the last ‘blog’ was excellent. We laughed a lot and by the time we got to brandy and cigars we had spent six hours at the table.

We are overwhelmed by the number of greetings received by card or email but with Christmas now over we turn our thoughts to New Year’s Eve which traditionally involves gathering in the main square and eating a grape with each strike of the midnight bells, drinking Cava and kissing all and sundry.

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO EVERY ONE OF YOU