Seville Sights

After the morning and half the afternoon at the Alcazar, we walked around much of the old town...

Sic Transit, Gloria department again: this is the cigar factory
where Carmen worked....now merely the university

Street lamps, dated 1832

Hotel Alfonso, one of Seville's emblems; we were going to
finish up there with a sherry in the garden, but took a wrong
turn and wound up at Burger King

Cathedral square, cathedral bit, and tower
(originally the minaret)

Entrance to the cathedral with replica of the
weather vane that sits atop

We got as far as the gift shoppe but decided
to skip the cathedral since we missed the
Holy Week parade pictured above; and
since we had seen it in 2010; and since it is
another of those fraudulent "Gothic"
cathedrals one sees in Spain...Gothic
trappings on the outside, thoroughly
Baroque (and dark) on the inside; I am
reminded of Nabokov's claim (contra
Pseudo-Dionysus) that the
gargoyle monsters are on the outside to
show that they have been expelled; in
these cathedrals it is the Gothic that has
been expelled!

Main square again

Some beautiful buildings

Ditto

Ditto again

Kissing alleys in the barrio

Recycling millstones

El Cid still presiding

Seville's Alcazar

I know, I posted extensively on the Alcazar in 2010. But there are just so many views one has to shoot again and share...plus, we tarried and saw quite a few things we missed in 2010.

Sic Transit, Gloria

In one of the Alcazar's many interior courtyards, the site of
Spain's first tennis court, built for the royalty in the early
1900s; now it's just pushing up roses and shrubs and a tree

Seville's Alacazar Gardens

Until we figured out the dates of the feria, we were going to Seville mainly to see the old town and the cathedral and the Alcazar, the great Moorish palace and gardens that are my favorite secular Moorish place in Spain. True, the Alcazar in Seville was built by a Christian prince, but he hired Granada builders to do the job. This was before international Gothic or other styles, and, I conjecture, Moorish was the only style anybody knew in Spain at the time, apart from Roman. In any case, the Alcazar is beautiful throughout (more so than the more "authentic" Alhambra (well, authentic to  fanciful 19th century reconstruction)). We first visited the Alcazar in the winter of 2010, not a great time for gardens. Mid-April is much better.

Flamencas

They're not Flemish nor are they flaming, so what do you call 75,000 women in flamenco dresses? We tried flamengos, flamengettes, but have settled on the at least gender-appropriate flamenca. Dots or dottees might have worked (you'll see) but flamencas is now entrenched. In my mind anyway. The most interesting and appealing aspects of feria are the women and their flamenco dresses, which are, nearly without exception, of the polka dot tribe. And no two are alike (except the mother/daughter combinations). Here are some examples.

Pretty typical, arriving Wednesday afternoon

All ages; yes, we bought a flamenca outfit for Penelope for
next year

She smiled at me

Many younger flamencas

Mom generally nearby

You're not going to ride the scooter in that thing, are you?

The scooter was parked next to this; seriously;
sculpture of the Unknown Flamenca

Girls' flamenca dress department at El Cortes Ingles; these
are the left-overs! Yours, Penelope, came from a somewhat
less reputable source

In one of the more exclusive shops
downtown (closed for feria)

Practicalities; the dresses have hidden,
zippered pockets under the folds; we
also noted smart-phones stored there and
also more conspicuously in the massive
cleavage areas

More little flamencas

They start them very young (yes, I always ask permission
for shots like these)

Mother and daughter outfits

Matches the pink flamencas; encouraged
by his father, this kid knows how to strike a
pose

Teeny-bopper flamencas

Dancin'