Last night's dinner was a bit of an adventure. We discovered how vegeterian unfriendly Spain is -- it's amazing that they can construct a whole tapas menu that is not veggie friendly. So we ended up tapas hopping... which is apparently a Sevillian tradition. I was happily eating jamón ibérico and octopus with paprika while Sudha had to settle for sheep's milk cheese, quiche, and stuffed mushrooms. As an example, here's a picture of today's lunch tapas -- chorizo, paella, and fried potatos.
Sudha tried an orange from one of the hundreds of trees here in Seville. Well, she learned why there are so many oranges left on the trees. Within moments, she was rushing to spit it out -- it was extremely sour. Later we learned that there are so many oranges on trees here because they're of a variety that is inedible.
Today we went to the Real Alcázar, the Royal Palace. There are actually sections that the royal family uses when they come to Seville, but the sections we went to were a museum. They were open to the air and cold! (The temperature here is around 40F.) The tilework in the palace was impressive. Almost everything was tastefully edged with tile. In the attached picture I'm standing next to some nice tiles. There's also a nice wooden cupola, but I don't think the picture does it justice. You can also see the Moorish influences here. Unlike in Istanbul, it is the Christian / European architecture that was built on Islamic buildings.
Another highlight of the palace were the expansive gardens, although they're not as grand or manicured as Versailles. Sure there is a hedge maze, but these are more Spanish in style with smaller gardens carved out, often centered around a fountain. Occasionally you'd come across a peacock strolling through the grounds.
We didn't go to the official quarters as we figured we'd see similar places in Granada. 'sides, we were on a timetable. To make things easier I'll split today into a few posts.
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