Andalucia 11

Tags

Andalucia, Andalusia, domestic cat, Donana National Park, Iberian lynx, lynx, myxomatosis, Naturetrek, Sierra Morena

Andalucia: Felines, at last!  It has been suggested to me, from Canada, that if I wanted to see lynx I should have travelled to that country, where they are abundant.  Ah – but our quest was for Iberian lynx!  There are estimated to be only about 400 of these left in the wild, though recent conservation efforts have meant that this figure is fourfold what it was 15 years ago. It remains the world’s most endangered feline species. The two places we tried to see them, the Doñana National Park, and the Sierra Morena, are the best places to do so; there are more in the latter, but they are much more widely scattered there.  Naturetrek did not guarantee a sighting – how could they? – but 80% of these trips had had positive outcomes.

The Iberian lynx, considerably smaller than the Eurasian version, is about the size of a boxer dog, and has wonderful ear tufts and a short stubby tail. Its main prey is rabbit, and there is great concern for its future because the rabbit population has considerably declined in recent years, the result of myxomatosis and other disease.

We saw no lynx during our first, morning, drive – but a pug mark, thought to be made the night before.

Notice the claw marks

And on the roads there were warning signs. As we set off for our second, late afternoon, drive, we were told that a lynx had been spotted that morning eating large prey.  We (Sergio and the driver) found the prey:

Probably a small deer

The lynx would not be likely to be far away from such a larder, and could well be sleeping its meal off.  And eventually he – a magnificent nine-year-old male named Dardo (dart) –  was spotted resting in the shade.  

He has a collar

After a while, it was decided that we should move on to the one remaining patch of water in the vicinity, (see previous blog) and hope to see Dardo again on our return.

Lynx staple diet

He had scarcely moved, 90 minutes later. 

Not fazed at all by humans in a van staring at him, perhaps 50-80 metres away

Night was closing in.  Huge sighs of relief from all leaders, and huge smiles of pleasure from wildlife tourists.

 

We returned quite early the next morning hoping to catch the lynx eating.  He had finished though by the time we arrived, and was hanging around near where we had seen him the previous day.  This is the best shot I could get, partly because it took me a while to spot him, despite others’ efforts to help, and partly because I was on the wrong side of the van to get into a good position.  But I was able actually to see him walking around for a few minutes, in and out of and behind the bushes.  We decided to move on once he had finally disappeared, but just then a rangers’ van came up, someone leapt out, and went over to where the prey had been, and came back holding something.  We were most privileged to be shown the pictures his camera trap had taken the previous afternoon, before we had arrived there.  Serendipity or what!

No, we didn’t see any lynx in the Sierra Morena, just this old piece of lynx poo.  But there were compensations for cat lovers back at the hotel!  Cats (domestic) and more cats and more cats! Mostly happy to accept caresses, with just one or two rather more nervous – perhaps having had bad experiences from previous guests, and some very friendly indeed. It was impossible to know how many there were, especially since they were nearly all black and white.  There were two mothers, one of which was a sort-of Siamese, and it seemed to me that the rest were mainly 6-month-old kitlets with a couple of 3-month-olds.

I do know there were at least 13 cats (and I suspect more), because when we came back to the hotel on our last day, I had a load of chicken ham on me, left over from lunch.  As a result, when I got it out of my back pack, there were kittens into said back pack, after the smell, and then around my feet – 12 of them. One mother cat was absent from this feast, so that meant there were at least 13 cats in total at the hotel.  I didn’t manage to get a photo of the blissful experience of having 12 cats round my ankles, as I didn’t want to get my camera greasy, but here is a selection of the photos I got at other times. (Felinophobes, jump to the last picture.)

This is the one I would have kept in my back pack and brought back to the UK!

Or perhaps this one, though it was a little shy

I counted 6 in this hidey hole at one point, but it is not easy to get a good picture of six blackish cats in the shade!

One of the two mothers

I believe this granite piece was once used to crush olives

Apart from treats from guests, the staff made sure the cats were well fed and watered. This final picture shows a completely different and very admirable creature profiting from their bounty, at the start of a long journey, presumably back to a nest.  I really, really enjoyed my eight days in Andalucia, and it has really given me a great desire to go back – to see more of its rich cultural heritage, and also, perhaps at a different time to year, once more to explore Doñana National Park.

 

Andalucia 10

Tags

Acebuche, Andalucia, Andalusia, azure-winged magpie, black-winged stilt, Blue rock thrush, Cattle egret, cinereous vulture, cormorant, Donana National Park, Eagle owl, Egyptian vulture, El Rocio, Eurasian black vulture, grey heron, greylag goose, griffon vulture, Iberian great grey shrike, Iberian magpie, Imperial eagle, Jandula, lapwing, littel egret, Naturetrek, Red-legged partridge, rock pipit, Sardinian warbler, Sierra Morena, spoonbill, starling, stonechat, White stork

Birds in Andalucia.  Look, I’m not very good with bird identification, but I do know that eagles tend to soar.  So when Simon said, incredibly excitedly, ‘There’s an imperial eagle on that post’, I quickly zoomed in on it and took this. I was not alone.  And not alone to realise, on examining the photo enlarged on the camera screen, that ‘that’ post’ was not that post!  What Simon meant was this – perhaps half a mile away.   When you go on a Naturetrek trip, they provide you in advance with a checklist of all the creatures you may see, with a column for each day.  There are always hundreds of species of birds on this list, and when we’re out I am in such awe as I hear naturalists/guides (and others) crying’, ‘That was the call of an X’, ‘There’s a Y.’  ‘Where, where?’ we all say, and they all do their darndest to help you see the creature.  I’m probably about average in being able to pick something out visually, no better, and am certainly poor on birdsong.  At the end of each day we gather together – nothing compulsory about it – and go through the list.  Of those seen or heard by someone, I will have seen perhaps a third to a half, the bigger the bird the more likely I am to have seen it.  I will have managed to take a photo of very few indeed. Here’s what I did get, with their identifications to the best of my recollection, (totally subject to correction, please).  Firstly in the Coto Doñana.

Original identification corrected to female or first-year male stonechat (Ack. BL)

Iberian great grey shrike

Stonechat

???

Cattle egrets living up to their name

And why not  take a bunch of starlings?  Especially when they are beautiful Spotless starlings, with wonderful glossy coats (though ordinary ones are pretty wonderful too!)

Griffon vultures

Griffon vultures

Best I could do to get a griffin vulture in flight

Easier to take this

We had driven a great loop and were now nearer to (but not very near) the Imperial eagle.  Only about 4500 left in the world

And then Simon spotted another, incredibly far away, and I’ve magnified this many times, but the nest can be seen in silhouette, and the eagle in a direct line with it, on the right.  Two Imperial eagles in view at the same time!

Almost as exciting to the leaders were a total of 6 Egyptian vultures coming in to two trees.

White storks and a heat haze

More cattle egrets doing their thing. To quote Wikipedia, ” It was originally native to parts of Southern Spain and Portugal, tropical and subtropical Africa and humid tropical and subtropical Asia. In the end of the 19th century it began expanding its range into southern Africa, first breeding in the Cape Province in 1908. Cattle egrets were first sighted in the Americas on the boundary of Guiana and Suriname in 1877, having apparently flown across the Atlantic Ocean. It was not until the 1930s that the species is thought to have become established in that area.”

We were taken to a tiny patch of the wetlands that was still wet.  I would have expected that there would have been vast concentrations of waders there.  There were not.  In addition to these Little egrets (I think) and lapwing/black-winged stilts (which, or something else?) we saw spoonbill and other species further away.

Greylag geese, on the ‘lagoon’ at El Rocío

Then at our picnic spot at El Acebuche, I managed at last to see an Iberian (or azure-winged) magpie.  I had heard them mentioned a few times, but this was the first time I had properly seen the beautiful creature, rather smaller than the common ones (and there were plenty of those around).   A few new birds (in terms of photographic opportunities) in the Sierra Morena. We saw a fairly rare Cinereous (a.k.a. Eurasian black) vulture over our picnic stop by the Jandula dam, but sadly this is not one, but a griffon vulture. (Identification BL)

Rock pipits at the dam

There is a Blue rock thrush in this picture, also at the dam.  Half way up the slope there is a bit sticking out.  The bird is not that bit. The bird is the bit sitting on that bit!

Two red-legged partridges. Some colleagues went out for a short early evening birdwatching trip on the second evening in the mountains, and came back saying they had seen an Eagle owl.  We all went to the spot the next day, and this is where we were searching.  (Well, the rock face was much bigger than this actually.)  A third of the way down, and a quarter of the way in from the left there is this. And within that there is this.  The Eagle owl is in one of these holes. See it?  No I don’t either.  Yeah, right, we’ll believe you Simon!

 

Several birds joined us at our last picnic spot, including this grey heron, which flew gracefully towards us after a while.  And then a troop (is that the word?) of Iberian magpies arrived at the same spot, and gradually made their way towards us, taking over the picnic tables as we left them. (Actually, the collective word for magpies is a murder, or a charm, or a congregation or a gulp. Take your pick.)

If it’s one for sorrow and two for joy, what do 14 magpies signify? (BL suggests for two secrets never to be told!)

At the spot where we had seen the big fish, a kingfisher swooped along the river and under the bridge – no photo sadly – and these cormorants stood for a while and then took off. Next (and last) post: felines!

 

Andalucia 9

Tags

Andalucia, Andalusia, bats, bullfighting, burrowing beetle, Donana National Park, Donana Nature, fallow deer, mouflon, Naturetrek, red deer, rock ibex, Sierra Morena, Spanish ibex, wild boar

Andalucia: non-feline mammals and a few other natural things.  In Doñana National Park to start with. This was the first creature of interest we saw, a long way off and in poor light – a wild boar.  Later in the week, in the Sierra Morena, we had a good but distant and fleeting view of a large family of boar, great and small.

In both places there were many deer, but horses – in abundance – only in our first location. Everywhere we went there were dragonflies, but they very rarely settled for more than a second or two. This was the only half-decent photo I managed in five days of trying.  What follows only happened to us once, but it is a frequent occurrence apparently in the National Park.  All out and push! No, we didn’t actually have to push.  Our driver and our excellent Doñana Nature guide, Sergio, pawed away the sand in front of the wheels, and all was well after a few minutes.  The unexpected stop gave me time to look around, and take this photo. I had seen these before, but now I had the chance to ask what they were, each sandy strand about a centimetre wide. The answer was a burrowing beetle cast.

Did we see lynx? The final post in this series will answer that question!  Moving on to the Sierra Morena, there was a greater variety of mammals to be seen, but still dominated by deer.  We had two excellent sightings of courting mouflon. They are not rare animals, but we were lucky to have two such sightings just minutes apart from each other on our drive.   This was sad.  We saw many magnificent bulls like this at one point – on farmland, being bred for bull-fighting. Horrible.  I had deliberately not been to see Seville’s bullring.

Magnificent red deer stag, the other side of a wire fence

Simon’s eagle eyes spotted this exciting creature for us shortly after lunch. We stood on the dam, the rock ibex (also known as Spanish ibex) being at a very great distance from it.

My camera at maximum (x24) zoom

The same photo cropped and enlarged

It wasn’t around for long, and not everyone even managed to see it before it jumped down. But it was far to far away to have been disturbed by us.

Then we walked through a totally dark tunnel at the other side of the dam, and saw…

… bats roosting. Here are about eight, huddling together, lit by Simon’s head torch.

A single bat. Whether these were Daubenton’s (myotis daubentonii) or Large mouse-eared (myotis myotis) bats, I cannot say, but we saw both.  There were several more holes sheltering bats in the tunnel.

Continuing on the afternoon’s drive, we saw more deer…

… including fallow deer. This male has magnificent palmated antlers.

We drove back to the second of the chilly morning’s stopping points, and stood on a bridge there.  This is not a Monet painting, and I don’t know what the fish was – but it was big!  At the spot where we had awaited the sunrise, we took advantage of the shade of trees to keep out of the now very hot sun.  These deer used other means of keeping cool!

Maximum zoom again – it had required binoculars to see what the black smudges were

Cropped and enlarged

Left alone, this one appeared to be throwing around and then eating weed!

 

Andalucia 8

Tags

Acebuche, Andalucia, Andalusia, Andujar, Charente, Doñana, Durer, granite, Great piece of turf, Guadalquivir, Jandula, Naturetrek, Sierra Morena

From El Rocio to Andújar and beyond, Wednesday to Friday. Taking a rest after our last morning drive at El Rocío, we set off at midday for the three-hour drive, broadly following but sadly not aware of the Guadalquivír river, to our second hotel, the Hotel los Piños, 14 kilometres above Andújar, in the eastern  Sierra Morena.  But first we went backwards a little into the National Park, to have a picnic lunch at a lovely visitor centre, El Acebuche (the ‘wild olive tree’ already noted in El Rocío).  The temperature was rising (from about 25°C in Seville to about 30°C at the end of the week), but as long as one was in the shade, the dry heat was very welcome.  The visitor centre was informative:

National, Natural, Parks etc in Andalucia. Doñana is the orange patch to the west, on the Atlantic, and the Sierra Morena the central and smallest green patch at the north.  The very tip at the south, on the Straits of Gibraltar, is Tarifa, near where our migration-geek Naturetrek guides, Simon and Niki live. Gibraltar itself is the little southward-pointing spur just to the east.

El Rocío is where the dark and light green parts meet up with the yellow, and Acebuche is nearly at the coast to the south south-west of the town.

“Travelling without frontiers”

An unusual sundial.  It works both sides, depending on where the sun is.

The scenery changed as we drove: Our all-day outing the following day showed the dry landscape of the Sierra scattered with boulders (Pictures also snatched from moving vehicle).

Taken from a picnic spot as we had lunch, overlooking the…

reservoir of the Jándula, a tributary of the Guadalquivír

Arty-farty picture taken that day. (Ever since becoming aware of Dürer’s wonderful painting, ‘Great piece of turf (1503)’ I have been very sensible of the beauty of clumps of grass, etc.)

Sitting around looking for wildlife, no 23

Returning to barracks in the late afternoon, a view of distant mountains, not nearly as pretty, sadly, as when we had seen it in the cool mists of the morning

Another a-f picture. I loved the sun coming through the seed-heads.

The following morning, Friday, we got up very early indeed, before breakfast, in quest of our ‘prey’.  It was SOOOO COLD!  But beautiful.  We were very glad to get back to a good breakfast.

Clockwise round the table: Simon (guide-naturalist), Trish, David, Hugh, Stephen, Niki (guide-naturalist, and here waitress), Judy, Penny, Sharon, Margaret (hidden), Jason, and Henry.

Again we took a picnic lunch (Simon and Niki, our Naturetrek guides, did us proud each time!) and our stopping place made me nostalgic for my previous life in France. Where we ate so reminded me of lazy picnics on the banks of the Charente river – though perhaps there were no mountains in the French setting.

Sitting around looking for wildlife, no 34.

Interested in geology, I had been fascinated in these two days to see many extraordinary granite formations as we drove along, but I was able to get a photo of none of them.  This, right by our picnic spot, is a poor representative.  We ended the day where we had watched the dawn arrive hours earlier.  The final three posts will be about the wildlife we saw during those five days in the National and Natural Parks…

 

Andalucia 7

Tags

Andalucia, Andalusia, Donana National Park, Egyptian grasshopper, Egyptian locust, El Rocio, Hotel Toruno, Iberian lynx, Naturetrek, red deer, Romeria del Rocio, Wild West

Andalucia, El Rocio and Doñana National Park.  The Doñana wetlands are the largest in Europe – except that they were almost dry at this time of year, the effect exacerbated by the farmers who take much of the water for irrigation, especially of strawberries.  We were staying at the Toruño hotel.

Note the hitching posts

On the wall of the reception area showing the species we might expect to see

The hotel restaurant, over the way from the main building. What appear to be tall hitching posts are bar counters for horsemen!

This was in the small town of El Rocío (‘the dew’), quite the most extraordinary town I have ever visited.  It was like driving into the Wild West. When you think of it, the Wild West may well have been modelled on such places in the first place – except that in this case much of the town has only been built from the 1950s onwards,.  We were told that it is known as the International Town of the Horse, though my researches since have not been able to find out much about that.  But what El Rocio is known for is a pilgrimage, the Romeria del Rocío, at Pentecost each year, which attracts up to a million people. These can arrive on horseback, in horse-drawn carriages and in wagons.  For there is no tarmac in El Rocío itself. The ‘roads’ are laid entirely with sand.  (Another blogger has written much more fully – and elegantly – about the town here.)

The remaining posts about my trip to Andalucia will be by theme, rather than day by day accounts.

The remains of this one will introduce El Rocío and the National Park, the next the entirely different Sierra Moreno where we spent the second part of our wildlife tour, then the remaining three posts will relate the wildlife we found  –  and some domestic animals.  But back to El Rocío. Internationally known for it or not, it is certainly a town for horses, and there is much evidence of the pride of place given to them. Here are two ordinary ‘roads’ and the sign at the restaurant where we ate lunch at one day.

Yes, cars are allowed

When we got back from a morning drive on the Tuesday, instead of sheltering from the blistering heat, I went out to explore El Rocío for a short while. 

I thought I was perhaps the only person about (‘the English(wo)man out in the midday sun’) but these three horsemen greeted me cheerily.

Huge pilgrimage needs huge church

The sign says that in 2001 the Andalucían authorities had declared this species of olive, endemic to the region, a ‘Natural Monument’. (If only all regional declarations in Spain were so benign.)

There were two young cats entertaining us with their antics at each of our two outdoor dinners there, siblings probably, and here is one of them just before we left at midday on the Wednesday. Horses. I had looked round from my meal on the Tuesday evening and seen one of the high bar counters being used! And I took these two photos from the van as we returned from our second morning drive. 

The head of the woman exercising the horse at the end of rope in the ring is just visible

El Rocío is right on the edge of the Doñana National Park.  These four photos were taken a short walk from the hotel.  For most of the year, there is a lagoon hugging the whole of one side of the town. However, we could just see a very distant shimmer of water, all that remains until the rains come. (Nearly two weeks on, I don’t think they have done so yet. And yet my guidebook says that October has one of the highest rainfalls of the year in Andalucia.  Climate change?)

Horses are everywhere around the town, and in the National Park, grazing where they can, sadly some of them in an emaciated condition.

Most of the birds were too far away to be well identified.

Two-inch long Egyptian grasshopper, also known as the Egyptian locust, but no threat to crops and vegetation.  Here at a wildlife visitor centre.

Lizard with attitude, same place

These remaining pictures were taken out as we explored early in the morning or as the day drew to an end, deeper in the national Park, looking especially for Iberian lynx.

The long shadows are of humans. The flat brown bit would be under water earlier in the season.

And these red deer stags were a distant vision on the ‘lagoon’ just before we left El Rocío.

 

Andalucia 6

Tags

Alameda de Hercules, Andalucia, Andalusia, Andalusian rococo, Flamenco museum, jasperware, Kay Woo, Metropol Parasol, Museo del Baile Flamenco, Naturetrek, Pedro Moreno, rococo, San Salvador Seville, Sevilla, Seville

Last day in Seville.  I only had the morning.  I walked to the flamenco museum, the Museo del Baile Flamenco (baile is ‘dance’), just a few minutes from my hotel, and as I bought my entrance ticket, I regretted that I would not be there that evening to go to a show by the national flamenco dance company, (while not regretting my inability to attend the classes they offered!)  It being early on a Monday morning, I had the place almost to myself.  The first room in the museum had giant screens showing videos of various aspects and meanings of flamenco – I had no idea that there was so much subtlety involved.  I had never previously fully appreciated the skill and athleticism required of flamenco dancers.  Further rooms went into greater detail which was lost on me, but nevertheless gave great pleasure to the eye.  On the top floor was a temporary exhibition of beautiful sculptures by Kay Woo.  I loved them, and the pieces were so reasonable that I could have been tempted, but for various practical considerations.  I particularly loved these two, about 15 inches high. Finally there was, in the basement, a room of drawings by Pedro Moreno, costume designer.   I now understood why there were so many shops in the immediate vicinity selling very beautiful and very expensive flamenco dresses.  (I had been near the window of one of them the previous evening as I ate my tapas.)

With my cathedral entry ticket had come a free entry to San Salvador, the church on my hotel doorstep as it were, so I took advantage of that (while paying for an audioguide).  This was the second largest church in Seville, but I have to say that rococo is just not my thing.  Entertaining, but to my eyes not aesthetically pleasing, far too fussy – many no doubt would disagree. 

I could find nothing to tell me what this was – a processional item? It appeared to be of gilded solid silver.

All round the church were altarpieces of various degrees of ornamentation

I did like this more restrained and classical pulpit, one of a matching pair,and the soundboard above it, which made me think of Wedgwood jasperware.

This main altarpiece was described as being the ultimate expression of rococo art as interpreted in lower Andalucia.

After these two visits I was gasping for a drink, and I wandered on northwards into the Macarena district.  Sadly it would not have been possible to go up to the top of the Metropol Parasol, as it does not open on Mondays, but I found a simple bar, serving tapas as well, and partook there, looking on at these Roman columns, in the Alameda de Hércules, a boulevard originally laid out in 1574 on drained marshland.  It fell on hard, even disreputable, times, but is now, after very recent redevelopment by the authorities, becoming a pleasant place once more.  The columns, with weathered statues  of Julius Caesar and Hercules on top, were originally elsewhere in Seville, and three others remain there.

It soon had to make my way back to the hotel to pick up my luggage, but I had time to stop at the Italian icecream shop, open this time, and to sit in the Plaza Nueva to consume my choice there, and then to check on how I could buy a ticket for the tram which I was to take shortly.  That all went very smoothly, including a ticket inspection, but, 5 minutes into the 15-minute journey, I had a call from Naturetrek in the UK.  “Sorry, the flight you are going to meet is delayed by two hours.”  But as I was by now on my way to the airport, and had luggage with me, I decided to continue to where I would pick up the airport bus, at San Barnardo. There I received kind and unsolicited guidance from locals who, seeing my suitcase, told me this was the airport bus coming just now.

At the airport I met up with Naturetrek guides/naturalists Niki and Simon, who live in southern Spain, right by the Straits of Gibraltar, and who are, in their own words, bird migration geeks. The time passed quickly until my companions for the next five days came though the arrivals gate, with quite a tale to tell about the travails of their flight.  Soon forgotten though as we made our way to El Rocio, on the edge of the Doñana National Park, a most extraordinary small town.

Andalucia 5

Tags

Andalucia, Andalusia, Archivo de Indias, Bar Europa Seville, Christopher Columbus, La Giralda, Pierre Dancart, Sevilla, Seville, Seville Cathedral, St Paul's Cathedral

Seville Cathedral. Having indeed added to my stock of nougat, I made my way mid Sunday afternoon to the Cathedral, to be confronted with a long queue.  As I sat on the steps of the Archivo de Indias wondering what to do, feet sorely in need of a rest, I firmly resisted the temptation to take a pony trap ride – I felt so sorry for all those many creatures, trotting around the hot streets of Seville all day. When I eventually looked up from my guidebook, I saw that the queue had reduced in length quite considerably, so I joined it.

I had already taken these exterior pictures of parts of cathedral the previous day. This is of a replica, placed near the entrance to the cathedral, of the bronze weathervane depicting Faith on the top of La Giralda.   With almost no commentary, here is a selection of the photos I took inside. (Audioguides are wonderful, but you have no record of what they tell you.  I do recall however that listeners, English-speaking ones anyway, are informed that this cathedral is the third largest Christian church in the world, after the Vatican and St Paul’s Cathedral, London.  However, size depends on how you measure it – St Paul’s comes well down according to this list!) 

I loved the variety of marbles at the entrance to the retro choir

Tomb of Christopher Columbus

Above it, noticed by scarcely anyone, this magnificent clock

The Main Sacristy

Impossible to do justice to the oval Chapter House (above) in a photo, so here’s a video.

 

 

This grill was forged 1518-32, and protects…

The great altarpiece, the work of just one man, Pierre Dancart, who worked on it between 1482 and 1526

La Giralda, was the Moorish minaret, finished in 1198. In the 14th century, original Muslim spheres were replaced by Christian symbols, and in 1568 the renaissance belfry was added.  At the end of a tiring day, I had decided not to go up it unless there was a lift, which was unlikely.  However, when I found that in fact to go up meant walking up 34 slopes, not hundreds of steps, I decided to embark on them and see how I did.   At each quarter turn there is a little notice telling you how many slopes you have done, so, distracting myself with mental arithmetic to tell me what proportion I had done, I did find myself at the top of the 34 – only to find there were another 17 steps.  (I suppose that was the renaissance bit.)  There were slopes, not steps, originally, so that horses could be ridden up.  Splendid views of central and greater Seville from the top.  Somewhere near the middle of this one is my hotel. For the evening, after a long rest, I went out seeking another tapas restaurant, one which had a reasonable number of patrons, but which was not too noisy.  In fact being Sunday evening there were many fewer people around, and less choice of eating places. But I found the modest Bar Europa met all the criteria, and I had a really excellent meal.  Sadly the (Italian) ice-cream bar I had identified previously was shut, so I had to forgo a dessert!

 

Andalucia 4

Tags

Andalucia, Andalusia, Archivo de Indias, Carlos V, Charles V, Mudéjar, Murillo Gardens, parakeet, Pedro I, Real Alcazar, Sevilla, Seville, Seville Cathedral

Real Alcazar, Seville, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, Sunday 22nd October. The Moorish rulers, who had conquered Andalucia in 711, had constructed the great fortress, the walls of which you can’t help but see if you are in central Seville.  At the re-conquest of Southern Spain by Christian rulers in the 13th and 14th centuries, not all the Moors were expelled.  Some craftsmen were allowed to remain, and we learned a lot about the Mudéjar (‘those permitted to stay’) influences on architecture as many subsequent rulers redesigned the former palace.  Pedro I ordered a complete redesign of the interior in 1364, and Carlos V (1516-56) was another significant contributor to its current appearance. Further developments continued up to the 19th century, notably to the gardens within the walls, which I had skirted the day previously as I walked through the Murillo Gardens and to the Archivo de Indias.  The palace is still used by Spanish monarchs when they visit Seville.

Public entry was by a fortress gate.  Here is a splendid Mudéhar interior entry.

It was not only to avoid visitors that eyes drifted upwards much of the time:

A rare chance to look at a floor, unencumbered by visitors.

So many thousands of details to be admired.

An organ in the renaissance part of the palace, developed by (Holy Roman Emperor) Carlos V.

Frustratingly I managed to delete a detailed video I made of this great tapestry of Spain and surrounding countries, seen, in effect from high over the eastern Pyrenees, looking south. To me it was amazing that those who could climb no higher than the highest mountain could imagine this satellite view of their country, and of north Africa, Italy and the south of France.

The Ambassadors’ hall, where kings did most of their governing, was a wonder, only partly captured even on a video.

 

There were peaceful – and not so peaceful – courtyards. 

Mudéhar architecture on the ground floor, renaissance on the first, and a glimpse of an original fortress tower top left

Known as the baths of Maria de Padilla

There were several acres of gardens, including those designated as French, and English.

The Fountain of Mercury

Today’s feline

As I sat in the gardens eating my apple, I was entertained by the squawking of these parakeets,

and was surprised to find, on zooming the camera, that they had not only been provided with perches in the palm trees but that some had identity tags.

 

Oranges

and lemons

 

One of several rose gardens

 

I was in trouble for stepping onto the grass to photograph this nearly moulted peacock…

and his hens.

Water and fountains are very important in Mudéhar style

I left the Real Alcazar mid-afternoon, with still the Cathedral to visit before returning to my hotel.  Not omitting another visit to the nougat shop.

 

Andalucia 3

Tags

Andalucia, Andalusia, Andujar, Archivo de Indias, Cadiz, Columbus, Cordoba, Donana National Park, Guadalquivir, Guadalquivire Hydrographic Confederation, Seville

An exhibition of maps and other documents about the Rio (river)  Guadalquivir (from Arabic, al-Wadi al-Kabir, or Great Valley). I adore maps, and this exhibition was about the river that linked all three places I was to stay in over this coming week.  Flowing roughly east-west into the Atlantic alongside the Doñana National Park, the river is navigable to Seville, once as far as Cordoba, and rises beyond Andùjar near where we were to finish our wildlife trip.

The Archivo de Indias, right by the Cathedral and the Real Alcazar, contains all the records of Spanish exploration (I did not see the word ‘colonisation’ anywhere) of the Americas. Among their most precious documents are the letters to Columbus from Ferdinand and Isabella. The building itself was, for a comparatively short time in the 16th and 17th centuries, the Trade Exchange, but the silting up of the river, along with disease, caused the main trading port, and so the exchange, to be moved to Cadiz. After some years as what we would now called squats, the building was attributed, late in the 18th century, for its present national use. It underwent great renovation to make it suitable.
But I was there for maps and river. And what a fabulous exhibition it was. It was to mark the 90th anniversary of the establishment of the Guadalquivir Hydrographic Confederation, and its themes were the river as a resource, a threat (mainly from floods), a tamed space, its projects, and technical aspects, with just sufficient English captions to make it comprehensible to me. This is how the exhibits were mounted, in the midst of thousands and thousands of filing boxes. Here are just a very few of the photos I took. 

Floods of 1772-3

Palace of San Telmo, 1873.

 

Andalucia 2

Tags

Andalucia, Andalusia, Archivo de Indias, Bizet, Carmen, Fabrica Real de Tabacos, Guadalquivir, Hotel San Alonso XIII, Iglesia de la Magdalena, Iglesia Santa Ana, La Giralda, Mérimée, Murillo, Puente de Isabel II, Puente de San Telmo, Real Alcazar, Royal Tobacco Factory, Sevilla, Seville, Seville Cathedral, Torre d'Oro, Triana, University of Seville

Continuing my ’90-minute’ walk in Seville. After those shops (previous post) the guidebook said that I would come across the Iglesia de la Magdalena, built in 1709 on the site of an earlier Moorish mosque. So I just walked straight past this of course.But it turned out to be the side entrance. Despite the fact that a mass was in progress, I was encouraged to walk around at the back and sides of the church by a member of the congregation standing by to greet visitors. The building proved to be anything but plain on the inside.

A reminder of Seville’s naval triumphs

And when, continuing on my route, I went round to the front of the church, it was more recognisable as such.I went on to the Triana district, the other side of the Guadalquivir river, over the Puente (bridge) de Isabel II, looking north
and looking south.Can’t resist an indoor market.
My route then took me by many ceramic shops.I was beginning to want a drink and a sit, and I was delighted to find a quiet square, that of the 13th century Iglesia Santa Ana, Seville’s oldest church.

Still on the Triana side of the river, I continued along it for a short while, with a view of the Torre d’Oro.

Then back over the Guadalquivir River by the Puente de San Telmo, and into the Calle San Fernando, with a sighting of the Hotel Alfonso XIII, built between 1916 and 1928 for visitors to the Ibero-American Exposition, meant to boost the Andalucian economy, but sadly co-inciding with the Wall Street crash.

What’s this then? Ooh, it’s the University of Seville. Open to the public, so there’s another deviation from the walk.

First floor – and here, it would appear, there are actually some students

Pretty impressive for a university.  But even more impressive when you know it was a tobacco factory before that. Not just any old tobacco factory, but the Royal Tobacco Factory, employing 3000 women. You know, the one employing Mérimée and Bizet’s ‘Carmen’.  There were signs over doorways of former occupation, amongst them foremen, loos (still in use as such, though out of order this day) and stores.

 

Once more outside, I was still walking alongside the huge ex-tobacco factory, and was level with its chapel, when I noticed a wedding party arriving, and managed to get a photo through the grill as the bride emerged from the car.

Note the head-dress!

Into the Jardines de Murillo, named for the painter,where I sat to eat an apple, all the lunch I needed after the very full breakfast and in the great heat. Looking at my map, I realised that I was not far from the Archivo de Indias. I had seen advertised a temporary exhibition there which had really caught my eye. Put the words ‘maps’ and ‘river’ together, and they are a magnet to me. So I diverted,

On my way I noticed a tour guide pointing out this garden.  No idea what it was.

A first sighting of the Cathedral

A first sighting of the Real Alcazar, (‘Royal Fortress’)

and serendipitous further diversion took me past – or rather into – a nougat shop where I bought a large bar of the softer version, with tropical fruits, with the thought that I might well return.

 

(The next post will be exclusively concerned with the map and river exhibition and the building in which it was housed.)

Afterwards, it was time for another sit-down, and a drink, of fizzy water this time. And a photo of a sleeping cat which didn’t move the whole of the time I was there.

Back to my appointed route

A young woman had been idly stroking this cat in a quiet square, as she read a book.

Approaching the Giralda.And back to my hotel, via the Plaza de San Francisco and the Ayuntamiento once more. Too exhausted to explore more widely, I just took tapas in the hotel’s own restaurant later on that evening.