This log covers the month of April where we take in the April Fair
and head out on a quick trip to Granada. We also sadly say "Good-Bye" to many
fantastic people as we head out of Seville for another cruising season.
Sunday, April 3 - El Palacio Andaluz Flamenco Show
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| Flamenco Performance. |
April finds us still settled into Seville with the visit from Chris's parents coming to an end. Before they leave, Chris's mom treats us to a professional flamenco show while Granddad spends some last quality time with the boys. The show is an assortment of flamenco guitarists, single dancers and groups of dancers as shown here, all wearing traditional flamenco costumes. Percussion in flamenco is provided by stamping or tapping feet, clapping hands and sometimes castanets (those clickity things). Our chairs would literally vibrate at times as the dancers feet pounded the stage in rhythm with the music. Very nice show.
Thursday, April 7 - Joel's stitches out
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| Elizabeth and Joel |
Two weeks ago, Joel unfortunately tripped on our dock and fell into the swim ladder bracket on the side of Tioga. Just above the knee, his leg split open into a 12 cm gash, requiring a trip to the local emergency clinic where he received a long internal stitch woven from end to end of the gash as well as stitches over top of the wound. For 15 days he was unable to bend his leg in order to help with healing and minimize scarring. Amazingly, he learned to run and carry on as usual with one peg leg! Here, Elizabeth from s/v Nakita, who is as a registered nurse in Sweden, patiently helps remove the stitches. Funny, for the first week after removing the stitches, we had to remind Joel to bend his leg while walking and running!
Friday, April 8 - End-of-winter cruisers' party
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| End of winter party |
Well, where has our time in Seville gone?? We find ourselves into our sixth month here and now our departure date begins to loom. Many other cruisers are planning to leave throughout April as well, so we decide to plan one last get together before the bulk of our winter companions leave. With still some projects to complete on Tioga (like getting the engine back together!) we enjoy another great pot luck dinner on the terrace at Club Nautico that extends well into the wee hours of the morning....at least for some of us it did!
Sunday, April 10 - Feria de Abril (April Fair)
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| Carriage Parade |
Seville's April Fair always comes on the heels of Semana Santa (Easter Week) and it is a big release after all the solemnity associated with the crusification of Christ. It takes place on the special recinto (site), El Real de la Feria, in Los Remedios, across the street from where we are staying at Club Nautico. What once began as a group of horse traders getting together for drinks to buy and sell horses, has now become a city festival the likes of which are hard to imagine. On the Sunday before the fair starts, there is a carriage show that culminates in the Plaza de Toros (Bull Ring). Those who have a horse and carriage parade about in their finery. The colors are stupendous and what are normally traffic jammed streets, are now carriage jammed streets!
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| Carriages culminate in the Plaza de Toros |
Monday, April 11 - Ceremonial lighting of the Feria Grounds
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| Gerrit and his mom enjoying the ride. |
Since our arrival in Seville many months ago, we have watched the flat, open grounds of El Real de la Feria, transform into a mini city, complete with sign posted streets, lights and beautifully decorated buildings of all sizes, called casetas (see below). Historically, the ceremonial lighting of the fair grounds is at midnight on the Monday of Feria week. The literally thousands and thousands of lights that have taken months to string and hang, along with the huge arched fan built at the entrance to the grounds, will all come on at once, causing an electrical brown-out to other parts of Seville!
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| Ferris wheel during April Fair |
With a few hours to kill before midnight, we head off to the huge fairgrounds which also accompanies the Feria. The fair grounds have been in full swing for a couple days now and our boys already have the inside scoop on rides they like, thanks to Mark from s/v Arcturus, who took them last night as well. There is no wasting time tonight as our guys know exactly the rides they want to repeat. Yikes, they are much braver than when we were in Disney Land!
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| April Fair entrance arch |
By midnight, we are strategically placed on a corner to see both the fan arch and the street lights come to life. Like clock work, the lights ablaze at midnight and you'd swear it was the middle of the day! This lighting of the lights is the starting gun for six nights of eating and drinking, flamenco dresses of every size and color, and music and dancing till dawn!
Tuesday, April 12 - Feria by day
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| Street of the fair |
By the light of the day, the grounds are still busy with the added craziness of every horse and carriage in the country on site. Street sweepers continually make their rounds and people mull about waiting for their true desire....night time, so that the partying and dancing can start again and continue until dawn.
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Non stop carriages.
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Tuesday, April 12 - Casetas
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| Rows of Casetas |
These pictures give an idea of the colorful rows of casetas, or small buildings built literally, over the past months for these six days of party. We are told there are 1047 of them on site this year, each privately owned in order for that host to invite friends to wine, dine and dance till you drop for free. Each caseta blasted out its own music and the people danced in the streets as much as the inside crowds did.
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| Colorful casetas and people |
As we wandered the streets, we saw many styles of dance, the most popular being Seville's own Sevillana, involving some very intricate steps and maneuvers with arms, hands and bodies. Oh, there were 3 public casetas which we visited a couple of times, but they were clearly not the 'in crowd' and you had to pay for food and drinks. Though the whole affair was a bit exclusive as outsiders were not openly invited in to these private casetas, we still enjoyed experiencing the passion of these Sevillana's in their glory. Clearly, the love of the flamenco music and dress, combined with the ability to dance the traditional Sevillana dance was an honour.
Thursday, April 14 - Granada, Spain
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| The Alhambra Palace |
With the party for Feria still in full swing, we decide to head out of town for one last quick road trip in order to see the famous Alhambra Palace in Granada. Once settled into our hostel, we head out to explore the streets and are amazed at the Muslim influence still alive and well. Kabob stands and tea houses complete with hookah pipes line the streets. As evening sets in, we hurry to the famous lookout to view the sun setting on the solid red walls of the Alhambra. Stretched along the top of the hill known as La Sabika, the Alhambra was a fortress from the 9th century, turned into a colossal palatial city by the Nasrid Sultans (emirs) of the 13th and 15th centuries.
Friday, April 15 - The Alhambra Palace
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| Palacio Nazaries |
An early start finds us on site of this monumental complex in awe at the mix of all the artistic styles which flourished in the late Muslim period. Once again we can not even begin to show pictures of this place and we'll keep the history short! Basically, after Cordoba fell back to the Christians in 1236 and Seville in 1248, Muslims sought refuge in Granada where various leaders had recently established an independent emirate. This allowed Granada to flourish over the next 250 years and to become one of the richest cities in medieval Europe. Two centuries of artistic and scientific splendor peaked under emirs Yusuf I and Mohammed V with the building of the Alhambra's crowning glory, the Palacio Nazaries. Palacio Nazaries is considered the true gem of the Alhambra and the most beautiful surviving example of Western Islamic architecture in Europe. Its perfectly proportioned rooms and courtyards, fine carved wooden ceilings and elaborate muqarnas (honeycomb/stalactite) vaulting all in mesmerizing symbolic, geometrical patterns. Notice the size of the people in this photo!
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| Beautiful courtyards everywhere |
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| The GeneralIfe. |
The Generalife, or Architect's Garden, was the home of the Nasrid sultans, high government officials, servants of courts and elite soldiers. Holding to their traditional use of water, the Muslims created a paradise-like garden in which fountains and water are a central feature among the tall trees and flowers of every imaginable hue. We could only begin to imagine the complete peace a ruler would have had in these elite gardens
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| One of the many Alhambra pools |
By the 15th century, internal rivalry developed amounst the Muslims and the Christian armies seized their opportunity. By 1491, Christians had laid siege to Granada and eight months later, the city was surrendered in return for 30,000 gold coins, plus political and religious freedom for its subjects. On January 2, 1492 (the same time Columbus was discovering the Americas) the Catholic Monarchs (Isabella of Castile and Fernando of Aragón) entered Granada. After the Christian conquest the Alhambra's mosque was replaced with a church. Carlos I, grandson of the Catholic Monarchs, had a wing of the Palacio Nazaries destroyed to make space for a huge Renaissance palace, the Palacio de Carlos V, which sadly still sits incomplete even to this day.
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Restored garden
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In the 18th century, the Alhambra was abandoned to thieves and beggars, and during the Napoleonic occupation it was used as a barracks and narrowly escaped being blown up. In 1870 it was finally declared a national monument and since then has thankfully been salvaged and heavily restored. Whew, that's history in a nutshell!
Friday, April 15 - Granada's Islamic quarter, the Albayzin
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| Mon at his Kabob Stand |
We are famished after hours at the Alhambra and decide to check out the Albayzin district. The Albayzin name derives from 1227, when Muslims from Baeza moved here after their city was conquered by the Christians. It survived as the Muslim quarter for several decades after the Christian conquest in 1492, and though there were many tough years of religious persecution and expulsion, the Albayzin still largely exists. We were happy to find this 'kabob house' ran by Mon and his family. His family was actually from Syria and we had a great conversation with him. Funny, we were so engrossed in our conversation and eating, he forgot to give us the bill when we left! Luckily, we remembered and returned for this photo and to clear the bill! Late in the day, we head out of Granada, south to the Costa del Sol for a night before heading home to Seville.
Saturday, April 16th - Back to Seville via Ronda?
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Road to Ronda
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Well, all good things must come to an end... Unfortunately our car, BUC, died on us on our return trip from Granada and area (sigh). We were driving home via the beautiful green hills of the Serrania de Ronda, when BUC began to sputter and spurt. Chris quickly diagnosed a failed alternator and a totally flat battery. A kind man helped us get a new battery, which allowed us to get safely back to Seville. Sadly, Ronda will have to be next time around.
Thursday, April 21 - Good-bye BUC (Black Ugly Car)!!
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| Good-bye BUC! |
Now, with our depart date looming, we decide we don't have time or energy to have BUC repaired, then drive him back to Portugal where he/it is registered for a potential sale that we do not think will happen as he's showing his age! We didn't feel comfortable abandoning BUC, so we did the next best thing....called an auto wrecker to come pick him up and pay us 30 Euros! Sad end to BUC, but we don't have time to deal with a car and a boat. Good-bye BUC...you added tremendously to our time in Spain.
Friday, April 22 - A good-bye to Seville day out
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| Sheila and her favourite building. |
We decide to spend our last day in Seville in the centro, seeing some favourite things and eating some last tapas. The Spanish like their 'tapas' or saucer-sized minisnacks, which come in infinite variety. You can either make a meal of them or simply have a drink and sample a few. Some typical tapas include olives, paella, potato salads, gambas (prawns), cured meats and cheeses, and on and on. We joke that we will use the 30 Euros we got yesterday for our little car and enjoy some last tapas, so we literally spend the day 'eating BUC'! The day is quite nostalgic for us as we are both sad to be leaving such a wonderful place with great memories, and yet we are excited to get moving now that the time is here. Late in the day walking back to Tioga, Sheila has to have this last photo of her most favorite building of all in Seville. Something about the sun hitting those colors that was special.
Saturday, April 23 - Hasta Luega Sevilla!
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| Tioga leaves the dock at Club Nautico, Seville |
Well, our time in Seville has actually come to an end. We have worked hard the past week getting our boat stowed and ready to move again after months of pulling stuff out! The tennis rackets and other land paraphernalia have been given away to local kids and final good-byes said. With over 20 people on the dock sending us off, we know we have made some very special friends here in Seville. The 5 o'clock bridge opens on time, and once through the lock, we are once again on the Rio Guadalquivir heading for the ocean. We have already decided since it is late in the day, that we will not make the 90 or so km journey out to the ocean in the dark, so we anchor for the night just past the lock. Tomorrow at 7am begins a falling tide with the currents we need to help us make it out in one day, and we take it!
Tuesday, April 26 - Gerrit's 9th birthday in Sancti Petri, Spain
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| Sheila, Gerrit and Joel |
Here we are a few days later, successfully out of the Rio Guadalquivir, having moved about 40 miles towards Gibraltar. Gerrit is posed with the question of choosing to either postpone his birthday until Gibraltar, or stopping in the quaint village of Sancti Petri and celebrating on a beach filled with sand dunes. The dunes win out and not being a cake fan, he requests crepes layered with cherries and jam for his candles. Having stopped, the forecast is now showing big easterly winds through the Straits of Gibraltar so we'll safely spend the last days of April enjoying being back at anchor and swimming again.
Don't miss Log 35.., Gibraltar and Morocco....hope you're still enjoying our travels.
