The Real Alcazar Palace and Flamenco

Saturday, June 30^th – The Real Alcazar Palace and Flamenco

We enjoy a wonderful breakfast at our hotel’s roof top café bar. Art is able to get a soy latte and I order a cappuccino. Breakfast is an array of freshly squeezed orange juice, buttery croissants, tiny sweet pastries plus bite size quiches and fresh fruit on a skewer. 

Tiled store front.

Uptown Seville

 Art wants to see the Metropol Parasol, designed by Jurgen Mayer and completed in 2011 and more intimately referred to as the mushroom building. We enjoy a relaxed walk across town, I have no idea what to expect but I am delighted with the waffle like pods growing skyward in the striking morning light. I love the juxtaposition of this modern building in contrast to the surrounding old town. Skateboarders and bicyclists ride on the upper plaza but unfortunately the elevator to the very top of the structure is closed. 

Metropol Parasol Plaza

Art taking the escalator up to the plaza

Metropol Parasol Plaza

The old city surrounding the Metropol Parasol

Metropol Parasol

We wander leisurely and then walk to the Museum of Belle Arts to see their collection of Golden Age Sevillian paintings and a special Murillo exhibition. The rooms of the museum surround a lush cloistered garden and the walls of the courtyard are decorated with Sevillian tiles.  

Bartolomé Esteban Murillo Painting

Bartolomé Esteban Murillo exhibition

Bartolomé Esteban Murillo

Museo Bellas Artes de Sevilla

Museo Bellas Artes de Sevilla

We continue to feel relaxed until we suddenly realize that we have not checked the closing time of the Real Alcazar Palace. It is after 2:00 P.M. and it closes at 5:00 P.M. today. We walk across the city as quickly as our feet will carry us. Fortunately the entrance line isn’t too long and we only have a 15 minute wait. The day is slightly overcast and just as we enter the immense courtyard of the Lions, it begins to sprinkle.  Every stone surface has intricately carved patterns and vividly colored tile and mosaic work abounds.  

Aquaduct arch - Real Alcazar Palace

Entering the Royal Alcazar Palace

Palace facade

To my tastes, this palace is much more beautiful than the many Renaissance and Rococo palaces I have visited.  We wander the labyrinth of rooms and courtyards each more stunning than the last. Scalloped archways open onto geometrically perfect courtyards with immense reflecting pools. I am wearing a geometrically patterned blouse and I am almost camouflaged when I stand against the richly patterned walls.

Inner courtyard of the Real Alcazar

Reflecting pool

Ceiling detail

Architectual detail 

Window opening onto a courtyard

Scalloped archways

Art posing like the painted tiles

Marty in Palace archway 

The Royal Alcazar is an fine example of Mudejar architecture which is a unique style that evolved in the Christian Kingdoms of the Iberian Peninsula. The style incorporates Hispanic-Muslim style elements that blossomed during the coexistence of the Moors and the Christians between the twelfth and the sixteenth centuries.

Iron gate 

Architectural detail

We wander the tiled pathways in the palace gardens; a manicured labyrinth of box hedges, palms and reflecting pools. The walkways are slick and the smell of fresh rain hangs in the air.

Palace garden

Palace garden

Palace garden

We return to our hotel, sit for a drink at the rooftop bar and have dinner a second time at Bartola, the tapas restaurant around the corner. We can’t resist ordering the ricotta stuffed squash blossoms a second time and sample a few new tapas. Yummy!

Rooftop view 

Port at our rooftop bar

Hotel Amadeus rooftop bar

A Rick Steves tour group is staying at our hotel and yesterday we shadowed the group to a nearby Flamenco theatre and purchased tickets for tonight’s show. Rick’s guide book recommended several Flamenco venues but we figured the best option would be the one where he takes his group. I walk over early to secure front row seats while Art finishes his drink on the terrace. There are no bad seats in the theatre that seats just 100. There are just 4 performers; the guitarist, two female dancers and one male dancer who’s provocative moves and skin tight pants leave little to the imagination. The dancers lightening fast feet reverberate with syncopated rhythm on the wooden plank floor and the guitarists fingers fly. I am not disappointed with the intimate performance. 

Intimate Flamenco performance

Not quite ready to call it a night Art and I wander our neighborhood filled with bustling cafes and restaurants. We sit for one last drink and return to the lovely Hotel Amadeus.

Cafe's in Seville's old city