Wednesday, May 13, 2020

Virtual Tour of Spain: Day Six: Sevilla, Casa Anselma (May 13, 2020)

Welcome to our "Virtual Tour of Spain" May 8 to 22, 2020!
Day Six: Wednesday, May 13, 2020
Train from Cordoba to Sevilla
Sevilla and Casa Anselma

 Sevilla's legendary Anselma, founder of Casa Anselma in the Triana district.  Cover photo from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=svK_i6n0wGM

Good evening everyone!  On our sixth day of our Virtual Tour of Spain, we departed this morning from Cordoba on the 10:20am train (AVANT 08694), arriving Sevilla Santa Justa station at 11:05am.  Sunny on our arrival, but there's a forecast for thunderstorms this afternoon, and then clearing for the magic evening in the Triana district at Casa Anselma.

We check in to the Hotel Patio de las Cruces, about a mile walk (20 minutes) from the train station.  The hotel is in the center of the Jewish section of Sevilla and very close to Alcazar with many places to eat lunch, dinner, and tapas, and to wander the cobblestone streets.  It's only about 20 minutes walk, too, to Casa Anselma, to the west over the Triana bridge.  Here's our orientation map for today:

Orientation Map: Sevilla
Note the starting point at Hotel Patio de las Cruces, the location of Alcazar, and then our destination for tonight, Casa Anselma, across the river and over Triana bridge. With this Google Maps view, use fingers or mouse to navigate. Like we have presented over the past several days, you can navigate by zooming in with the + control on lower right, and then use two fingers to swipe left or right, or up or down to navigate position:


We'll do some navigating from the hotel to Alcazar via Google Street View.

Tech notes about navigating in Google Street Views: When viewing the "Virtual Tour of Spain" daily entries on a phone, you may find that you can get "stuck" within a Google Street View while you are swiping up or down on the page. That's because the Google Street View image is live and responds to your finger swiping. Just swipe up or down on the LEFT or RIGHT MARGINS (outside of the Street View image), and your navigation up or down the page continues normally.

In the Google Street View, below, let's navigate straight ahead down Calle de las Cruces to a bit left then right to Calle Mariscal, then right at the Plaza onto Calle Mezquita to Plaza de Santa Cruz to the Tablao Flamenco Los Gallos, where we'll pick up tickets for tomorrow evening's flamenco show.


After securing our tickets for tomorrow night's evening at Tablao Flamenco Los Gallos, we walked a lot through the town today before the rain in the afternoon.  We'll talk a bit more about what we saw at Alcazar, and along our walk, but let's move straight ahead to our evening adventure -- the legendary Casa Anselma.  Anselma was a well known flamenco dancer whose love of the music and flamenco led her to create Casa Anselma where locals (and tourists) could come and pay homage to dance, song,  wine, and Anselma.  Her place is open six days a week, from 11:30pm.  You'll need to arrive right at opening time in order to get in and get a seat, and then you are in for a treat for the next couple of hours as locals and tourists sing, dance, and listen to the two or three musicians playing that night.  When we were there, Anselma wandered the room taking drink orders and then collecting the tabs, and it was an unforgettable evening.

Writing this now, it's after sunrise in Sevilla on Thursday ... we arrived at Casa Anselma last night (Wednesday) at 11:30pm and left at 3am then walked across the bridge back to the hotel.  For orientation, below is the Google Maps Street View, in the Triana District at the corner of Calle Pages del Corro and Antillano Campos, with Casa Anselma right on the corner.  This is how it looks in the daytime, with all the street level windows rolled up tight.  At 11:30pm, it's open nightly (except Sunday).  If you are going to walk back to the center of town, best to try out the street view navigation, below, leaving the front door of Casa Anselma, turning left and walking along Calle Pages del Corro two blocks, left at Calle San Jacinto, and then straight ahead across the bridge, the Puente de Isabel II, and right turn off the bridge to go back into the Santa Cruz district for the hotel.  A fun stopover, at 2 in the morning or so, is the bar right before you go over Puente de Isabel II bridge.  Go up to the rooftop for a view of the river and Sevilla across the river, and to get something to eat, which I assure you, you will need after your evening at Casa Anselma!  Last night was a beautiful night, though a bit chilly, about 55 degrees. Had fried calamari! Total walking time from Casa Anselma to the Santa Cruz area of Sevilla is about 20 minutes, but easy to get totally lost if you haven't practiced it with Google Street View :)



YouTube Visits to Casa Anselma
Now for our YouTube visits to Casa Anselma! In the balance of  today's post, I invite you to grab a couple of glasses of wine and view the following YouTube videos that, collectively, give you a very good feeling of "A Night at Casa Anselma"  -- unforgettable.















The following YouTube video is distorted, but provides a great interview of Anselma (in Spanish). If you overlook the distortion ... it's a good final wrap for our visit to Casa Anselma and its matriarch.



That's our DAY SIX!  Enjoy your evening! Tomorrow we'll explore Sevilla in earnest, including its Moorish, Jewish, and Christian heritage, but the heaviest focus on flamenco, leading up to a wonderful evening of flamenco music and dance at Tablao Flamenco Los Gallos. Ole!

Abrazos
--Don

UP NEXT TOMORROW:  Exploring Sevilla and Flamenco
Links to prior days of our Virtual Tour of Spain:

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