Day 10: Reales Alcázares
“Dorne has danced with dragons before… and I would sooner sleep with scorpions.”
October 15, 2019. 9:42 AM. It was our last day in Sevilla. We were packed and ready to be on the move. Dropping our keys to Ramon’s flat, we headed as always to our only saviour in the city: the autobus.
Although I said that we checked around Plaza de Armas bus station for baggage deposit counters, I wouldn’t say that was entirely true. It was what we should have done since we knew we’d be needing it on our final day in Sevilla, but we just Googled instead. We were going to be in a pickle had the bus station not had a baggage counter, for we were effectively shelter-less in the city.
We bought some M&Ms to get chhutta Euros to pay for the baggage lockers and had a genial looking staff help us out with the locking system. We passed by Torre del Oro, a military watchtower but decided against checking it out from the inside since we didn’t have time in the morning and felt that it certainly wasn’t worth the €3 entrance fee.
By the time we reached Reales Alcázares, it was almost noon and there was a super long queue (as much as for Lalbaug? No. But for Siddhivinayak on a non-festive Tuesday? Yes!). This may have been the only place where we didn’t prebook our tickets online, which I’d say was still a smart move, since our itinerary for Sevilla was largely centred around the skydiving experience which was to be on a Monday (for extra discounts). Everything else was open to being reshuffled. This meant that we were now ticket-less and would have to stand in this extra long queue.
This is when an English-speaking guide spotted us and asked if we’d be interested in skipping the line and hiring her as the guide (very legitimate, although we viewed her with professional skepticism and declined her offer, at first) and we reluctantly agreed. We were to pay her just prior to the entry, and were free to go grab something to eat in the meantime (Chitale’s unbeatable bakarwadis!). Finally at 1:20 PM, we were through the security gates of the Alcazar (and we confirmed later that we had indeed beaten the crowd and the few extra euros were definitely worth it).
While it was always an important monument (and also the Spanish royals’ home when they come down to Sevilla from Madrid), it shot to unfathomable fame with Game of Thrones choosing it to be the seat of the warm, sunny and feisty kingdom of Dorne. Alcazars are basically castles or palaces built by the Moors (muslim rulers of Iberia).
We had initially planned to get an audioguide for the Real Alcazar but the guide we got was not phoney at all, and had some very interesting lessons in history to impart to us.
Instagram has taught me, in retrospect, that one must always carry a tripod to click a photograph that one is satisfied with, but it so happens that tripods are not allowed at places such as these and we anyway hadn’t carried one. Although we can do magic with selfies (sorry Antoni Porowski, we know you disapprove but we got to make do with what we have) but there comes a time when all you want is to have a portrait picture clicked with the Patio de las doncellas (where Doran Martell is killed) in the backdrop. And for that you need to ask for help. We helped a fellow tourist couple with their photograph and they returned the favour in a very satisfactory manner.
This was all after the guide had ended her tour and let us wander about freely. We decided to cover our Game of Thrones bases before we left the Alcazar. We therefore headed to Los Baños de Doña María de Padilla (Baths of Lady Maria, King Pedro’s mistress, who stayed with him till his death) where Ellaria Sand schemes with her daughters (we’ll never know whether that symbolism was intended or just coincidental).
After that we headed to the magnificent gardens of Alcazar which would make one fall in love with them (there are peacocks lazing around). We came across the Estanque de Mercurio (Mercury’s Pond) and loved the creation. But it took us several walks around the gardens to find the spot where Myrcella and Tristane met for the last time — the fountain statue of Neptune. Here, we again tried our luck with having a fellow tourist click a respectable photograph, but you don’t get lucky every time, do you?
By the time we exited the Alcazar complex, it was almost 4:30 — which was our vacation lunch-time. Fun fact: quite a few restaurants don’t agree with us about it being time for lunch and shut their restaurant for business post 3 PM. After facing sufficient rejection, we went to Taco Bell, which always had our back and gave us good wi-fi for uploading Instagram stories.
Flamenco was another activity that we had reserved for Sevilla. The previous evening we did check out an authentic flamenco house only to learn that it was booked for the day! So we’d booked a show on our final day in Sevilla. We loved everything about the flamenco house — it was very intimate, not overtly touristy, and the performances were spectacular.
It was almost 7 PM and we were technically done with the activities we’d planned for the day. We had an 11:59 PM overnight bus to take to Lisbon, and had 5 hours to kill. We were in love with Plaza de España, and admiring the sky turn all shades of purplish-blue as the sun set, was a prospect we weren’t going to miss.
This time, we decided to row a boat! Shreya is an expert at rowing and taught me (a poor student) the technique. In fact, she also manoeuvred our boat in a way that avoided a minor collision (of boats rowed by the likes of me). I hope when I’m reading this piece the next time, there is a photograph of the evening sky that I’m struggling to describe here: it was blue, pink, purple and simply magical. This is where we crossed paths (and exchanged smiles) with the Korean nose-eating cuties from our train journey back from Córdoba.
Around 9:15 PM, we decided to check out the Festival of Nations, which we’d stumbled upon on our very first day in Sevilla. It was a 15 minutes walk away, and they’d a multitude of dining options. Remember the little incident at Barcelonetta where we learnt that there isn’t really a thing called ‘vegetarian Paella’ or the one at Granada where we were in fact served a chickpea Paella? Yeah, well in essence, I’d missed out on having the authentic seafood Paella despite coming to Spain, and Shreya was going to have none of that BS. It was decided, I was going to order a very tempting seafood Paella for myself, however small my appetite was, and I was going to devour it. I cannot thank her enough for pushing me that evening, for the Paella (replete with mussels, prawns and tuna) was heavenly. We also had a delish chocolate bubble waffle!
We know from the Granada flight episode that I cannot be trusted with making it in time to any place, Shreya knew that well, of course. So we followed her lead and decided to reach an hour or two before time… just in case. The bus was late though. Also, it was cold outside.
It was 12:15 AM by the time we boarded the bus. We took a loo break around 2:55 AM near some border town. It was an 8 hours-long journey.
To nobody in particular, I would love to state that we can totally travel by ALSA buses! I was a bit apprehensive at first since it was an overnight cross border journey in a foreign land. But a well travelled friend of mine (thanks, Ankita!) pointed out that the 2/5 stars rating to ALSA’s services is by firangs, that I am an Indian who has travelled by state transport buses, and that in comparison to those, ALSA is luxury.
She was right. It was luxury, in comparison. Also just €27 for a 448 kilometres journey? Sign me up!
