Sevilla Day #3

Sevilla is also known for their flamenco. Flamenco came from Andalusia, the southern region in Spain. Flamenco is a genre of song and dance that includes cante (singing), toque (the guitar playing), baile (the dance) and, palmas (the handclapping).

As we were planning to come to Spain, one thing I really wanted to do was see a flamenco show. I also wanted to learn flamenco but after seeing the show, we could live here for 10 years and take classes everyday and I still don’t know if I could do it. We had heard of a flamenco museum that also has shows. We headed to the museum in the morning to check it out and buy tickets. On our way to the museum, we walked through some of the smaller plazas and the less traveled areas of Sevilla. It was a pretty walk. The museum was fun. It was nice to learn a little about flamenco before seeing a show.

After the museum we went to the Archivo de las indias. When the New World was discovered, Sevilla became a major port to do trading because the river came right into the city from the ocean. Merchants started to do trading in the court yard of the cathedral but the priests were not happy about that and complained to them. The merchants built a new building right across from the cathedral so they could carry out their trading. Eventually, another city along the coast became easier access for ships so merchants stopped traveling to Sevilla. The trading building was abandoned and eventually turned into living quarters. Then, one of the kings decided that Spain needed to centralize the documentaries and discoveries of the New World. People set out to look for a building that would suit these needs and they found the old trading building. This building fit their purposes and Spain began to centralize all information pertaining to the New World to this building, El archivo de las indias. The archives contain a lot of important documents, including correspondence from Columbus and Cortés. We also saw manifestations from various countries in South America claiming independence from Spain. It was pretty neat to look through.

After the museum we went to Parque Maria Lisboa. It was fun to walk through and very pretty. 

That evening we went to the flamenco show. It was absolutely amazing! If you don’t know what flamenco looks like, youtube it right now! The speed at which their feet and hands move at times is unbelievable. It is a beautiful dance to watch. What amazed me was how they used their clothing as part of the dance too. Mainly the women do this when they wear the longer dresses but the man would incorporate his vest into the dance too. I told Ben that not only would it be hard to learn the steps and moves to the dance but then to have to learn how to move with the dress and when to kick the train out and to what side and how to do it so that it falls perfectly and not all folded up would be very difficult. Needless to say I very much enjoyed the show. However, I also enjoyed watching the man sitting next to me every once in a while. A British couple sat down next to us and like us they came early to get good seats. As soon as the man sat down, he fell asleep. I figured “Well hey, there is 30 minutes till the show starts so he is just getting in a little cat nap.” I think I saw him open his eyes twice throughout the hour long show. It was so funny! First of all, why would you pay to go to a show if you don’t plan to stay awake for it? Second of all, with all the tapping and clapping and thigh slapping involved in flamenco it sounds like a thunder storm! Add in the guitar player and singer and it is a very loud show. How the man managed to sleep through that is beyond me. He did however add some extra entertainment to an already very entertaining show. If I had been his wife I would’ve been elbowing him every 5 seconds telling him to wake up and enjoy the show!

After the show we were headed to a tapas bar when we walked by the cathedral and saw that there was a service going on. We walked in the back door because it was one of the areas we were not allowed in during the tour and we wanted to see what it looked like. The hall was pretty big and there were quite a few people there for mass. After a minute or so I leaned over and asked if it was inappropriate that we were in there. He whispered back "Extremely" but didn't move to leave so I thought maybe I had heard him wrong. We stood there a couple minutes longer and then left. I asked him if he had said it was inappropriate for us to be in there and he said yes. I laughed and asked why we had stayed and he said it was because he wanted to see what was going on! We continued on to the tapas place after that.

For tapas tonight we found a place that fries fish. Ben was very excited for this place and it was actually quite good! Fortunately they had the menu in English too because I do not know my fish Spanish vocabulary. We learned bacalao is cod fish.

It was raining pretty hard again so we didn’t get to see Plaza de España lit up at night. It will have to wait for another trip when I come back to eat pringa. 

Some of the plazas we wandered through on our way to the flamenco museum. 

We saw some more Audis. 

The Flamenco Museum. Most of the museum was videos you could watch but one part had clothing and trinkets from famous dancers.

These are the combs the women wear in their hair.

The red dress was worn in an opening ceremony for the Olympics.

Archivo de las indias

Parque Maria Lisboa

We saw an albino peacock!

The museum of archaeology. We didn't go in though because we were museumed out by this point. 

The flamenco show: 

I loved this one!

The end.