03 October - on the rooftop, once more

I have been down from the rooftop, in fact it is 17.30 on Wednesday and I have only just come back up. It's cooler up here, 30C at street level today, and evidently it's going to get hotter towards the end of the week. We should be closer to the coast by then, further west and away from large urban settlements.  Seville is large, sprawling both sides of the Guadalquivir river, but it is not an oppressive city. An admirable amount of it is pedestrianised in and around the area of the old city.  Even though many of the streets are narrow and winding, there is no sense of crowding. It is also a very clean city, yes there is a small amount of litter, but not enough to really cause offense.  The pace of life here also seems laid-back and casual. There are vast numbers of cafes, bars and tapas places, all overspilling out onto the pavement, most of them with people sitting, eating, drinking, all day long and on into the evening and night.
Here in Seville I have no sense that this is a country on the verge of bankruptcy, of severe financial restraints, of people angry with the austerity measure imposed upon them.  The streets are busy with shoppers, clutching large expensive looking bags, coming out of glamourous expensive looking shops.  Some small number maybe tourists, but the majority were speaking Spanish.  There were a few beggars and buskers, but no more than I would expect to see in any U.K. city, Norwich included.
It will be interesting to see what we will find when we move on to the more rural areas, to see how the small farmers and people in smaller towns and villages, away from the tourist trails, have been affected.
We did the three main sights of Seville today.  As the Cathedral didn't open to visitors until 11, we went first to the Alcazar. It was an impossible act to follow. If you only ever see one place in Seville, in my opinion it has to be Alcazar. It the complex of palaces which has been occupied by various Spanish rulers since Roman times. The fortified palace was probably built in the C8, and added to significantly during the reigns of the Moorish Abbadid and Almohad dynasties. Unfortunately a great deal of the original Islamic influenced building and decoration was lost when it was taken over by the Christians in 1248.  However, having seen some of the beautiful buildings in Fez and Marrakesh, sufficient remains to allow us to appreciate how magnificent it was.  It still is breathtakingly awesome, I use that word intentionally. I was honestly overflowing with awe, as we moved from one palace area to another, I was constantly repeating, "this is just unbelievable!". Then there were the gardens, stretching on and round, further and further, trees, bushes, plants, exquisitely landscaped and arranged to show off their best qualities and create an architectural impact all of their own. It was all so beautifully tended, it must cost so much money to maintain.
I reluctantly left the Alcazar, if I lived in Seville I think I would spend many hours, days, just sitting in the gardens, feeling the peace, the reverence.  We went to the Cathedral next, and as you may have guessed, it didn't make anywhere near such an impact on me.  The building is large and impressive but I found it characterless, without impact. I compare this to the reaction I felt when going into both The Blue Mosque and Aghia Sofia in Istanbul.  In both of them there was a sense of 'being', of 'presence'.  I didn't feel any of this in Seville Cathedral.  It was a showcase for an obscene amount of idolatry and wealth. There were so many depictions of 'baby Jesus', with his cherubic face and blond curls, so many saints, suffering in their devotion.  It went on and on, there is possibly enough wealth there to pay off the national debt a couple of times over.
The Giralda, accessible from inside the Cathedral was worth a visit. It was originally the minaret of the mosque which stood where the cathedral now is.  It is a wonderful example of Almohad architecture and was used as a model for the minarets built later in Rabat and Marrakesh.  As well as its use to call people to prayer it was also used as an observatory.  We climbed up very high indeed, and had it have been dark, we might have been very close to the stars.  As it was we had amazing views over the sky-line, and a bird's eye view of the exterior of the Cathedral building, which I found more impressive than the interior.
The Muslim occupants attempted to destroy it before the Christians could take it over, but threatened with death they relinquished it and it was extended to become the bell tower of the existing Cathedral.  This has spoilt the fine lines of the original design, but the bells are impressive.
So, it has been a full day, we have trudged many miles.  We enjoyed some excellent tapas and a good lager beer at lunchtime.  Having rested our weary feet up here on the roof, and now that the sting has gone from the sun we will soon venture out for the evening, maybe more tapas and a nice bottle of Spanish wine.