Travel Sized Bites.

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seville

By Author: Katie Monk
E-mail: katiemonk@hotmail.co.uk

Submitted on Saturday 21st May 2005

You can tell a lot about the character of a place by the way the locals dance. A Parisian cabaret, a Texan line dance, a Basingstoke nightclub. In Seville, the flamenco says it all. This heady mix of strength, passion, colour and more than a little bravado, is the embodiment of Seville. Even the pace follows the same pattern – a long burst of action, followed by a quick rest, followed another burst of action. It is as if flamenco’s roots go through the very cracks in the pavement to the soil below and are now wired to the city’s heart.

The best places to see flamenco are in La Carboneria and the Casa de la Memoria de Al-Andalus, where Spain’s finest turn up to wow locals and tourists alike in the candlelit courtyard. Tickets sell out quickly so book ahead and turn up early for a front-row seat or you may spend the evening watching the hot-blooded performance from the couple in front, instead of the one you came for. It is also forbidden to take photographs during the show, although there is an allocated time for pictures at the end (usually when the best bits are over).

You can see most of what the city has to offer in just three or four days. Any less and you won’t have done it justice, any more and you’ll be risking your blood pressure. Walking is by far the easiest way of getting around and appreciating the sights. However, as with many old cities that have had to accommodate the invasion and subsequent reign of the car, pedestrians are now second-class citizens. The cobbled streets are narrow and often pavement-less, so when Juan and his mates come hairing down the road on their Vespas, you have to be ready to jump wall-wards. Not only that, but Sevillians have an obsession with scrubbing their (often tiled) streets, rendering certain areas a liability. Heaven help you if it rains. You have been warned.

Once you’ve got the obligatories out of the way – the cathedral, the Giralda, the Alcazar palace and Plaza de Torros – you can begin to relax. Take the pulse of Seville, wander at your leisure (or peril, depending), soak up the sun, smell the jasmine and generally do as the locals do. Tapas is by far the pastime of choice, but it must be tackled with the requisite degree of confidence. This is no time to start reciting your dietary requirements and incomprehension of the native tongue. Sidle up to the counter, order your tipple of choice in as loud and brash a manner as you can muster after having been pinned against the wall five times on you way there, and make a few educated guesses at the menu. Your terrain will be marked out on the bar with a piece of chalk and your bill will be totted up for you as you go. What can be simpler? Good stomping grounds are around Plaza Salvador, Calle Mateos Gago and Plaza de la Alfalfa, which also turns into a buzzing night scene after 11pm.

If all that excitement has left you a little worse for wear, rejuvenate yourself in the Turkish hammam on Calle Aire 15. There are three baths: hot (calidarium), warm (tepidarium) and the less-appealingly-named frigidarium (cold, in case you hadn’t got the gist). Think of it as like playing Goldilocks for the day. Treatments include massage, reflexology, algotherapy and lymphatic drainage, and entry to the baths is just €15 if you go at 10am. Again, reservation is highly recommended. The building also contains an incense-infused tea room adorned with lanterns and cushions, so you can sip your mint tea while gazing out over the rooftops.

On sunny days, the river provides much-needed respite. Grab yourself a bocadillo, an ice-cold drink and a book and while away the afternoon on the grass. Be sure to take a rug, though, as the four-legged locals have been very generous with their presents, as have half the country’s smokers. And that’s not even mentioning the ants. Nearby, just to the right of Isabel II bridge, is the outdoor bar Compote, a quiet café by day and hip bar by night. The sandy floor and palm trees have more than a little of the Costa about them, but who cares when it’s pushing 90?

If you have time, pay a visit to the Museo de Bellas Artes to the north of the city. Housed in an old convent, the museum boasts an extensive collection from the masters of the Seville Painting School – Murillo, Valdés Leal and Zurbáran – as well work by Pedro Millán. Room five used to be the convent’s church and is by far the most impressive. Its domed ceiling is a sight to behold. The museum is free for EU citizens.

While you’re in a religious frame of mind, continue up to Monasterio de San Clemente on Calle Reposo 9. The gates will be shut and all will look decidedly closed for business, but once you’ve stated your purpose on the intercom, all will be revealed. The nuns here bake a range of cakes to suit every taste and whim. They even make sugar-free variations. Their dulces, jams, marmalades and honeys get placed on a turnstile under a grate for you to peruse, and if you want to buy, you put your money down and the goods get passed under to you. This is a great place to stock up on souvenirs. What can be nicer than a gift created by a nun’s fair hands? It’s practically absolution in food form. And if they are a present to oneself, well, there’s nothing like a spot of flamenco to burn off any guilty pleasures…