Monday March 17
We were up at 6am, and down to breakfast at 6:30. Breakfast was nice, and we asked another couple to join us. Our included tour of Seville would begin at 9am, so we were in no particular hurry. The forecast is for light rain in the morning, and heavier rain in the afternoon. Since our walking tour is in the morning, and our afternoon tour is indoors, that works out fairly well. So at 9 we got on the coach for a short ride that dropped us at the waterfront. The Guadalquivir (great river) is navigable all the way to Seville, and it was the port city for all trade between Spain and the Americas. Magellan’s expedition set out from here with 5 ships, but Magellan died in the Philippines, and only one ship, the Victoria, completed the voyage, and we saw a replica of this ship. Continuing on foot with our local guide we explored the historical heart of Seville. When the rest of the group went for a sherry tasting around noon, Cheryl and I left to get some cold water and rest for a bit, before meeting our guide for the tour of the Cathedral and the Alcazar. This was another tour we booked through GetYourGuide, and again we were very happy with the result.
The tour started with an opportunity to climb the tower (the Giralda), but we passed on that. So instead the guide let the others climb, and took us to another room to show us some of the treasures they had.
The Cathedral was originally a Mosque, and the tower was originally the Minaret, and the layout did remind us a bit of the Grand Mosque in Córdoba. And inside a number of the architectural details and decorations were more Muslim than Christian. But the gold and silver brought back from the Americas were in plentiful display. There is a tomb for Christopher Columbus, but DNA testing has revealed that most of the skeleton is someone else, but one pinky finger is genuine. And they could test this because one of his sons, Fernando, is also interred in the Cathedral. Columbus has been interred, dug up, and reinterred in other places multiple times, so there are pieces of him in many places.
After the Cathedral, we visited the Alcazar, which generally means Fortress, but in this case more resembles a small palace. It also shows a lot of the Arab influence, such as inscriptions in Arabic to ¨the Sultan Pedro¨. Pedro was a Christian King of Castile who built the palace within the Alcazar in the 14th century. Our guide took us to a room used for dancing, and tiles on the floor helped you know which way to go when doing a waltz. He demonstrated using both women and men as partners, I danced with him for a minute or so. We couldn’t go into the gardens because they were closed due to the rain, but we have seen the gardens of the Alhambra in Granada, and they are pretty hard to beat.
After leaving the Alcazar, the rain had stopped, and we got a taxi to take us back to the Alcazar Andalusi Tapas restaurant we ate in last night, and after a nice sit in the restaurant and a full meal we were ready to walk back to the hotel.
Tuesday March 18
Our departure for Lisbon is at 8:45am this morning, which isn’t bad. So after breakfast we got on our small coach (our group is only 19 people) and hit the highway. We went due west, which took us into Portugal at the southern end of the country, and we stopped in a small city called Faro. This coastal city sits on the Atlantic, and we spent a couple of hours there. We had beautiful weather there, warm and sunny, and we went to look at the Cathedral. The tile work in particular seems to be a specialty here, and we might visit the National Tile Museum in Lisbon tomorrow. Then we walked along the sea wall, and into the city, stopping for a cold drink, before heading back to the bus. Then it was on to Lisbon. Speaking of Lisbon, here it is spelled Lisboa, and is pronounced something like “Lish-bwa”. And it is built on hills, so that in the city you are either going uphill or downhill. I don’t think I would like that as a place to live. We got into the city a little after 4, and then settled into our hotel room.
Lisbon is largely the work of the Marques de Pombal, who rebuilt the city after the major earthquake in 1755 destroyed most of the city. You see his name everywhere, and memorial statues of him. But he was a tyrant who once burned an entire village with all of its inhabitants because they defied his instructions.
By 5 we were starting to think about dinner and shopping. We found a restaurant that was open, but when we got there the menu didn’t look very good for us, so we left. We then saw a market and went in to buy a few things, and got a scare when Cheryl set her phone down to bag some carrots and forgot to pick it up again. Fortunately, she noticed it missing before we had left the store and retrieved it after a panicked search. We considered getting something to go and bringing it back to the hotel when I noticed we were passing a restaurant that was open, and it said “ḧealthy food”, and it turned out to be really good choice. It was called Local, and Cheryl had Braised Tuna with Roasted Vegetables, and Baba Ganoush, while I had Lentils and Roasted Vegetables on a bed of Hummus. Delicious! From there it was a short walk back to the hotel.
Rikardo has told us that the rains have been pretty continuous all March, and we witnessed a lot of flooding during our drive today. The forecast is for light rain in the morning, which is when we are to do our walking tour of Lisbon, and that is easily handled. But a big storm is forecast for the afternoon, with flood warnings. We have done better than we feared on this trip, since when we first started checking the weather for here it seemed to be rain every day, but so far the only rain was for a short time in Sevilla, and we spent most of that time indoors at the Alcazar. But we agreed that if there is a big thunderstorm tomorrow afternoon we might just stay in the hotel instead of venturing out.
Wednesday March 19
Our local guide was held up a little by transportation issues, so we didn’t set out until 9:30am. We drove for about a half-hour covering some landmarks of Lisbon, then left the coach in the old town area, the Alfama. As you might suspect, the name is Arabic. This is down by the river, and we walked through old streets and saw buildings covered in tiles, which is a major thing in Lisbon. But no rain, which was good. We stopped at the Cathedral, which was surprisingly plain after what we saw in Sevilla. Then we walked to a plaza by the river with a big statue in the middle, then we went through a large arch that led into a commercial street with restaurants and stores. This took us up to the train station, and then to a funicular. From the time we hit the square there was light rain, as was promised in the forecast, but our raincoats were sufficient.
We got back on the bus and headed to Torre de Belem (Tower of Bethlehem), a 16th century fortification guarding the river, and point of departure for the voyages of exploration. The Torre was closed because of the weather, and by now the winds were fierce.You had trouble walking or even standing because of the wind. But no rain, so it was tolerable. If it was raining at the same time we would have all been soaked to the skin for certain. We then went to a recent monument to the explorers and to Prince Henry the Navigator, who organized the expeditions. On the ground of the plaza in front of the monument they had a map of the world with places and dates of the voyages, and you could see the progress by following the dates down the coast of Africa. The monument was huge, but it was hard to get pictures because you couldn’t be steady with the winds.
We then crossed the street to visit the site of an old monastery and church named for St. Jerome (San Jeronimo), who first translated the Bible into Latin (The Vulgate). We did not enter the monastery, but did visit the Church, which was only partially open because of restoration work. After that Rikardo got pastries for the group (which Cheryl and I declined, of course), then we took the coach back to the hotel. I was too beat to go out to the tile museum. I only had 9,000 steps at this point, but fighting the winds took something out of me. So we rested for a couple of hours back at the hotel, and then went out to get dinner. This time we found a restaurant just around the corner that was open, though at this time (4pm) we were the only customers. I had vegetable soup and grilled sardines, while Cheryl had sausage and vegetables. Then it was back to the hotel for the evening.
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