We joined a large queue of tourists and entered all together. We had to go through metal detectors but it was fast.
We woke up fairly early, 8-8:30am. Had breakfast at home with the olive-oil cookies and that terrible moka pot coffee again. We left the apartment at around 10am and went to the Alcazar, which we had booked for 10:30am. We did not look at the map to get there and just went based off vibes for fun; it worked (we had taken those roads a number of times already). The entrance was from a gate called Puerta del Leon, which sounds majestic but we nearly pissed ourselves once we saw the lion in question, it looks so goofy, like it was drawn by a child:
We joined a large queue of tourists and entered all together. We had to go through metal detectors but it was fast.
The Alcazar is huge and there are few directions besides a couple worn-out maps (this was common everywhere, we noticed); it was hard to tell whether we had completed the tour or not. We started from a room displaying some historical decorated fans from places like France, Italy, Japan, followed by a room with portaits of the royals. In a chapel adjoining the latter room there was a large painting (XVI century I think) called La Virgen de los Navegantes. Still fairly medieval in style but very interesting for the presence of the 7 main types of ships in use at the time - like a catalogue. Both galleons and galleys, as this was the age when the focus shifted from the Mediterranean to the Atlantic. We then entered the older parts of the Alcazar, a series of rooms decorated from top to bottom with intricate geometric motifs full of colours. A dazzling display really, but the rooms are otherwise completely empty. The geometric motifs meant there was little in the way of iconography, but in some of the rooms we noticed some plaques up high that used to depict scenes. They were white and worn out (or the colour had faded entirely), but we could make out some shapes: knights, devils, sword fights, animals, castles, ships. Probably part of a tale, or collection of tales; too bad it was hard to see much at all. Another room was lined up with ancient portraits of spanish kings, every one of them in the same pose holding a sword in their right hand; these too were hard to appreciate as they were several meters up. We wandered a lot more, visited some sort of cellar, then the queen's bath, a long narrow pool underground lined with rough columns (it did look like something out of a Harry Potter set). Then we moved upstairs, where we found a number of beautiful illustrated medieval manuscripts. These were not originals but reproductions made by a spanish company called Moleiro that specialises in this niche - very good work, look them up. A polyglot girl manning the company's stand approached my wife just to compliment her hair, which may or may not have been a way to make a pass at her (her hair does look incredible, to be honest).
Finally we entered the extensive gardens of the Alcazar, which we toured in a more or less random order (again, no directions were given but we made do). I was quickly drawn to a hedge maze I spotted (love 'em) that looked a bit silly at first, but we actually got lost there for a little while; it was fun. You can see it from Google Maps. After that we climbed the stairs to a long open gallery that sort of parts the gardens in two, called something like Galeria del Grutesco - for reasons that are frankly beyond me. From up there we spotted a troop of ducks that were crossing the length of the park in a single file; made us smile. We got off the gallery on the other side of the park and completed the tour, walking then back to the first part. At the very end of it we found a group of peacocks gathered under a couple of trees, and alongside them ducks with about 20 adorable ducklings. They were still not sound on their legs and had barely developed wings that were still little stumps. They had drawn a large number of tourists. We went back inside and walked around once more to make sure we had not missed anything: turns out we had, we found a room upstairs we had not yet visited. It hosted a small display of historical azulejos and various other ceramics. Went down and shopped for some mementos: a bookmark, a fan for my wife who likes them, and a fridge magnet with the goofy lion from the Puerta del Leon because it made us laugh.
When we left we were legitimately starving and we went to Bodeguita Romero (we did check out Casa Moreno first but the place was too small). We had to queue for a place at the counter as it was packed, but after seeing the plates we had decided the wait was worth it. A kind spanish couple got up and left us their seats, and I offered to pay for their drinks to return the kindness, but they refused. We ate very well: bonito en escabeche, salmorejo, albondigas de choco (we knew it was some type of squid but realised only later that it's more precisely the cuttlefish), croquetas 'caseras', tortillitas de camarones (this one is a typical dish as well - a fried pancake of mixed flour [regular and chickpea] with small shrimps embedded in it). We drank an Albariño and a Verdejo but I did not manage to write the names down, it was too chaotic. Once finished we left our seats to another couple that looked as desperate as we had looked earlier.
Our Alcazar ticket entitled us to a free entry to the Antiquarium, which is an archeological site spanning many centuries (roughly I-X AD, though don't quote me on that). The remarkable thing is that it is underground, because it was discovered when they were working on building the structure known as Setas de Sevilla (some tall mushroom shaped towers that you can climb on for the view); the ground floor, just above the site, is the Mercado de la Encarnacion. The site is honestly incredible. The oldest part, from the I century AD, is called a salarium: it's a building with some deep square pools that were used for making salted fish for export. There are some more buildings from the I-II century, then some more from the V/VI century (this was the time when Spain was under Visigoth control); some later ones as well. Some were houses of people of assorted social backgrounds; one was a hostel, another one a bar. There were a number of interesting mosaics and also a number of interesting artifacts. The most interesting ones were a collection of small oil lamps that had been discarded for being defective. Each one had a small decoration on top, depicting things like a hunting scene, or a knight on his horse. But the most interesting one to me was one that had a sex scene, in which a man an a woman were doing it doggystyle on a bed. It made me smile because I realised these lamps were the exact equivalent of our modern lighters, most of which are decorated with some image, some of them sexy. I love these little moments when you feel connected to a distant past.
When we left the Antiquarium we toured the base of the Setas towers but decided against climbing on top of them because you have to pay for the entry and it didn't look worth it. My wife was starting to feel tired from all the walking so we went again to La Gata en Bicicleta for a café con leche and a slice of carrot cake. Then we went home to rest a little; it was about 4:30pm. We left the apartment around 6pm and headed to Bar Alfalfa for a glass of white - a Sobremar [Palomino]. The place is very popular but I did not like it much. It was hot and humid inside and the waiter was being a smartarse. So we finished our wine and left to go to Vinoteca De Sur a Norte, which was a little further north of Lama la Uva. In getting there we realised this area is a somewhat alternative/hipster one, hosting a number of vintage stores, tattoo parlours, music shops etc. The place was empty (it was too early for the locals), but that was fine with us. We sat down and drank wines recommended by the waitress. They were very good recommendations: we had a glass of Idrias [Chardonnay] that we fell in love with, and a glass of Bobal icon [Bobal], a rosado with a strong herbal smell. We then went to Espacio Eslava for dinner, which we had booked in advance of our trip. Inside it was a classic restaurant with small tables and white tablecloths; the waiters were friendly and looked like they enjoyed their jobs. We ordered a bottle of Enate [Chardonnay] because it was from the same region as the Idrias we'd had earlier, and it did not disappoint. At the table next to us sat a couple with a little girl - she too was fascinated with my wife's hair (lots of kids are, it's not just lesbians). We ended up ordering: foie micuit (duck paté), fried red mullet, sangre en cebollada (a sort of black pudding made with chicken blood, cut into cubes and cooked with onions), a cigarro para Bécquer (cigar-shaped brick pastry filled with cuttlefish and squid ink bechamel, dedicated to a famous spanish writer), charlota de calabacín (courgette charlotte), carrillada iberica (stewed pork cheek), octopus cooked at low-temperature with some tasty mash. We were too full for dessert at the end.
I left a fat tip and then we walked home wandering through the city centre once more. We opened a bottle of Verdejo at home, drank a couple of glasses on the sofa, talked about which women incarnate androgyny best to us, then about the fate of various Skins actors (the connection between the two was the actress who played Frankie); ended up in the bedroom. Later on the wine started to get to my wife, so I made her a green tea and helped her get ready for bed, into which we crawled together. We woke up at 4am, straightened up and went back to sleep.