The alarm buzzes annoyingly and we both turn over. But this wont do, we have 9.30am tuckers to visit Seville Alcazaba and we have been told to arrive at least 20 minutes early to clear security and to make sure that we dont miss our time slotif the clock says a minute after 9.50am we will be denied access with no refund on our tickets!
We shower and eat a hurried breakfast then its off through the relative cool of early morning on the route we to know quite well. Passing the Cathedral and the Archive of the Indies, we arrive at Lions Gate at precisely 9am. We are the first to arrive, closely followed by a Filipino gentleman and his two American friends. We have started a queue.
Hmmm, looks like we didnt need to be here half an hour early then after all? Yes, we did the Filipino assures usyou will be amazed how quickly this queue will grow! Turns out hes an old hand at the game, having visited many timeshe has lived all over, but more recently in Alicante. He just came to show his friends the place. We cant have been chatting
The Lions Gate is open but they are not letting us in. Instead an aggressive uniformed woman is grumbling very loudly at us in Spanish. She us lugging out metal bollards and we get the gistwe have to move back! Everyone in the long snakey line shuffles backand as if to make her point, she gets an extra ‘no entry strap to make it clear that shes in the inside and we are on the out! With that the harridan disappears banging the huge wooden door shut behind her.
Ten minutes have passed and the lioness is back with two more bollards. As if ten was not enough! She gestures at us to shift and we all edge back again. We can no longer see the end of the queue. Its 9.25am and our lioness has disappeared behind the thick wooden doors again.
At 9.30am precisely- and seriously not a second either side of it - the wooden doors are opened and a cheerful chappie saunters out wishing us all a ‘bueno dia. Tickets are scanned and passports waved through (they dont
even open them to check) and our bags are in the scanner. Ian is setting all the alarms off with the buckle on his belt whilst my metal hip has no effect in it whatsoever.
So we are inside, and the first to enter today so we just have chance to take a few clean photos before the crowds burst through. Id hoped to find the ‘patio de las doncellas (handmaidens patio), said to be the prettiest, before anyone else but no such luck! Never mind, its certainly not as packed as the Alhambra.
The Alcazaba is similar to Alhambra; same moorish influence, built at a similar time, and rebuilt / reused by Catholic princes. Not surprising then that the interior rooms feel the same as Alhambra, although the Alcazaba has more public rooms that were ornately decorated. They also make more use of water - there are far more fountains and pools. Alhambra is situated on a high rocky outcrop, with imposing walls. The Alcazaba is on level ground, so its walls appear far more substantial and, because of the different cultures and timescales of build, there are concentric rings of walls.
centre, we pass through the moorish walls to the early Catholic gardens, a Catholic defensive wall, later Catholic gardens, followed by another set of Catholic walls. As each set of walls were added, the earlier walls became less defensive and more decorative/functional with balustrades and balconies giving views of the formal gardens.
The Alcazaba is certainly impressive, and, after more than 2 hours, very busy. When we leave, we see a long queue to buy tickets, and an even longer one to enter, once they had tickets - we are both glad that we bought ours online.
Our ticket states that it also entitles us to visit four other placesa pity that two of them are permanently closed!
We are very near the university (former tobacco factory) and today the gates are open. We are allowed to enter the central a couple of open air quadrangles.
