"Your Wife is a Disappointment!" (Sevilla, Day 2)

Day 2 in Sevilla began with showers and breakfast for both of us travelers and then a taxi ride to the Real Alcazar (Royal Fortress/Palace) in Sevilla.  It definitely reminded me a lot of Granada's Alhambra...but with the carvings in color.  And lots more tile.  Not quite so big as Alhambra, but just as easy to get lost in. I cannot tell you how many times we had to choose one direction over another and said we'd come back to see the rest of it...and we'd walk around for what felt like forever and then end up somewhere we knew (though usually not the spot we said we'd return to).

Of course, we enjoyed our visit immensely.  For Amy, who is interested in Arabic and in love with tile, this was heaven.  She has not yet seen Alhambra and so this was her first taste of Muslim influence in Spain.  She tried multiple times to read the Arabic mingled in with the carvings and then decided she wanted to become a tile scholar.  We spent several hours viewing this beautiful place and its gardens.

Oh and for those of you wondering how the title of this post came about...another miscommunication.  I thought I saw this really cool tree...which was not so cool up close.  So we decided it was a disappointment...and then Amy jokingly said, "Your life is a disappointment." You can probably guess from the title what I heard...yup..."Your wife is a disappointment." So I told her I didn't care if she thought a non-existent person was a disappointment...and she was obviously very confused.  Needless to say, this quickly became the joke of the day.



After visiting the Alcazar, we walked over to the Catedral de Sevilla...conveniently located practically next door.  Another beautiful site awaited us...museum-ish area, paintings, hidden treasures and relics, chapels everywhere, and the giralda (bell tower), which we were allowed to climb for a lovely view of the city.  As many cathedrals as I've seen since being here, 90% of them still amaze me with their beauty even though you would think I would be bored as heck with Cathedrals (and this goes for palaces too) by now.

By this time, we were both pretty hungry and began walking around searching for somewhere that looked like a good spot to stop for lunch...we ended up settling again...either there are no good restaurants or we are just cheap and picky.  Probably the latter...and it didn't help that neither of us are fans of fish and that's a main dish there.  After lunch we did a little shopping and then were both super ready for a nap.  (So much for the flamenco museum we had considered visiting). 

We had done in one day the 2 places my travel guide specifically said to not attempt to fit into one day (because of the amount of walking).  But like we thought, if you only have one full day, what are you supposed to do?  Skip one of the 2 most important and interesting sites to see?  That just was not good enough for us, so we crammed them both in one day and then napped.  (Well, I napped and Amy, who couldn't sleep, walked around a bit and did some homework and relaxed).

After an hour or 2 nap, we were good to go.  It was already after dark, but we had decided to get dinner in Plaza de Espana to see the gorgeous tiled area...again hard to explain.  So we taxied there...only to find that the area was gorgeous, but not only were we unable to get great pictures of it because of the lighting (or lack thereof), there were also no places to eat nearby.  We walked around for a while, but after seeing some creepy people, a good-looking restaurant with no one else eating and all men on staff, other expensive, dirty,  and unappetizing places, and an area that did not seem super safe at night, we gave up and went back toward our hostel.  We ended up at the same pizza place, where I ordered...you guessed it...pepperoni pizza.  Amy chose pasta.  We of course decided to also repeat our chocolate con churros experience and enjoyed it just as much as the night before. 

Then it was time for bed as we had a 9 am bus to Cordoba to catch and I wanted to shower.  After our experiences in Sevilla, we both concluded that while we absolutely fell in love with the Cathedral and Alcazar, we were not big fans of the city overall.  I think we just ended up not in the best areas for good cuisine and such.  Not that the food was bad or that we did not have fun...it's just that the city was built up so much in our minds by everyone we knew that our expectations were too high or too unlike what we encountered.  I'm willing to bet that it was all by chance that I didn't fall in love with the city as expected...if I went back with someone who knows the best places to eat and just walk around (like Mrs. Sumpter), I bet I would enjoy the city itself more.  But the tourist attractions were definitely up there with the others I've especially enjoyed. Definitely worth the visit even if it was not my favorite trip.

Peace and Blessings,
Melanie

Spanish Word of the Day: azulejo = tile :)