Less than 24 hours later we had our train tickets in hand, a
centrally located accommodation booked, and excitement building.
We arrived in Sevilla on Saturday evening around 10:30,
after a six hour bus ride from Madrid. Our AirBnB.com hosts, Karren and Chris
met us at the bus station to give us our keys, a map, and a warm welcome and a
few minutes later we were walking up the steps to our next “home.”
The place was perfect; stylish, clean, and centrally
located. We rested up Saturday evening and Sunday we began our exploration!
We wandered, walked, and absorbed the city. We immediately
liked it. It was bigger than Toledo, smaller than Madrid. It had a great feel
and a unique character with its gorgeous old buildings that you see so much in
Europe that they almost become common,
except for that fact that we just don’t get them at home so they could never
get old! It had personality and style, old and new, hidden alleys and bustling
plazas.
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| A typical gorgeous sight in the city |
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| Drew and I in front of the Cathedral |
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| The Cathedral |
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| The Cathedral and fountain |
Around two, after exploring for a few hours, we decided to
take a rest on a fountain in a plaza near the Cathedral People had been setting
up endless rows of chairs outside the church and in many different parts of the
city. We had heard about the religious processionals that were supposed to
begin today, but hadn't seen anything.
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| Resting by the Cathedral |
Then we heard something; a marching band. We walked a couple
hundred feet to the main road outside the Cathedral and the procession had found
us! It consisted of a marching band, followed by hundreds or thousands of
people walking in white robes with tall pointed hats. Eerily they reminded us
of KKK costumes, but of course they were nothing of the sort. (Apparently the
KKK adapted the costumes from these religious processions in Spain into their
outfits, which most people now associate with a fearful and gruesome
symbolism).
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In addition to the robed walkers there were massive “floats” (for lack of a better term) emblazoned with gold, figurines of different religious scenes, and detailed adornment. As the first of these passed us, just inches away, we realized that these “floats” were not moving on wheels or motorized – they were being carried! We saw the human feet along the edge marching perfectly in sync, and even watched the men lower down, and later, pick up the structures. It was incredible! These things are huge, old, and must weigh a ton!
We watched the procession for an hour and decided to walk against its flow to find the end – it seemed that the robed people just kept coming! Finally we found the “caboose” which consisted of a second elaborate float with the virgin atop it. Behind the procession, people were swarming, heading to their favorite bar for a drink and some tapas. This is clearly one of the most important days of the year – everyone is dressed beautifully – men all in suits, women in cocktail dresses and their highest heels (I didn't envy them walking on the cobblestone streets!), and children fancied up in their special outfits.
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| Taking a break...this is how these "floats" are powered. Apparently people pay to carry them! |
Later that night we headed out to dinner at a restaurant that I read about online, Al Solito Posto – supposedly they had gluten free pizza and pasta and even prepared it in a separate kitchen from the gluten-containing food. I ordered meat tortellini and I even received my own (large!) gluten free roll and crunchy bread stick things. Drew got spaghetti and his was OK – mine was fabulous – but anytime I can get gluten free pasta safely prepared is an amazing moment, so it no longer takes as much to impress me. I guess my standards are lower – if I can eat it I am excited!
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| GF place mat to alert servers I need GF food! |
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| My gluten free tortellini! |
On our walk home from dinner we started to hear music. We
quickly came upon a procession. The streets were flooded with people again and
our route home was blocked. We managed to get around it for a moment, but
quickly realized that they were heading in the direction we needed to go and we
would simply have to follow them! And so we did. It was a long, drawn out walk
until we got to the plaza where they split off from us. It was exhausting,
crowded and a bit frustrating, but overall a pretty special experience.
During our next day in the city we ran into processionals
two more times and saw robed people several additional times, walking from
point A to B. It seemed that their outfits changed day to day, with the colors
evolving and seemingly having some type of important symbolism that was unclear
to us.
The next day we walked some more, visiting the famous Plaza de Espana and later the Plaza de Toros where we took a tour and learned about the history and current controversial practice of bullfighting (which is now illegal in several parts of Spain). Little did we know, six bulls are killed in every bullfight, and occasionally horses (and humans) get killed as well. That night we went to a local bar to get a taste of flamenco that is so famous here!
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| Plaza de Espana |
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| One of the bulls who was a casualty - notice the ear missing - this is part of the "game" |
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| The blur of a flamenco dancer in motion! |
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