jdc26

Shanti,

I'm so enjoying your report, especially Nice, as I also rented an apartment for a week last year and had a wonderful time. I know too well what you felt when you first saw the Mediterranean. I also "don't understand why anyone would take a tour of Eze". While in Nice, I took the bus, train and tram everywhere such as Antibes, Menton, Villefranche-sur-Mer, Monte Carlo, Monaco (no tour guides needed). Did not make it to Cap Ferrat, but from your description it is a must see on my next visit.

Glad you enjoyed the food at La Zucca Magica (even if it way too much food). I did not get a chance to eat there because the day I decided to go, they were already closed and did not get a chance to return.

I'm also one of those that didn't get the Rome thing. Liked it well enough, but is not one of my favorite European cities. Most do and that's okay. As they say, "different strokes for different folks".

Thanks again,
jdc

yk

Shanti & Mara - thanks. I've always imagined a car is needed to visit S of France, so I never considered going there by myself. Now you guys have convinced me that I can do this solo!

Shanti

Visiting Nice 2-3 times a year? Scatcat & Kappa1, I am trying not to be jealous, but I'm failing. And thanks for pointing out that the 4€ ticket is a daily pass.

jdc, I think Nice and Rome are two different environments with Nice being laid back and full of natural beauty while Rome has a lot to offer but it's definitely not laid back. I just happen to prefer Nice to Rome but I've met people who absolutely love Rome. Like you said, "different strokes for different folks."

yk, you could easily visit Nice and other areas around the Cote D'Azur solo and without a car. Go for it!

Cries_Van_Notebook

I think many people take a tour of Eze because most of the tours include stopping at the Fragonard Perfume Factory.

Keith and I am leaving for Germany and Rome in 7 weeks. Yippee!

I have been to Rome once before and whilst really liking the city, I didn't care for any of the Romans I encountered.

Thin

Shanti

Thin, this may be a good year to go to Rome. Both tour guides told me that there were a lot fewer tourists in Rome, at least in June. The only place that I went which was crowded was the Pantheon. (Well, St. Peter's Square was crowded one time, but that was right after the Pope talked from his apartment.)

Shanti

BACK TO SPAIN FOR CORPUS CHRISTI

Before I started planning for this trip, I had never heard of the holiday of Corpus Christi so ending up in two cities - Sevilla (on Corpus Christi) and Granada (the following Sunday) - where Corpus Christi is a HUGE holiday was pure coincidence.

Corpus Christi always occurs on a Thursday but the celebration can last several days. In Seville, for example, there's a concert by Banda Sinfonica Municipal de Sevilla,
accompanied by singers, on Wednesday evening. In Granada, there's a carnival just outside of town that lasts for about a week or so. During the week I was there, I saw a lot of little girls & toddlers dressdc up in flamenco costumes - they were so cute.

The procession area is also dressed up. Balconies are decorated with banners and sprigs of rosemary carpet the ground.

CORPUS CHRISTI IN SEVILLE
On the day of Corpus Christi there's a service in the cathedral, then a traditional dance by a group of boys, and a procession of floats (I'm not sure that is the correct word, but it describes them) that starts at the cathedral and follows a set route thru the center of Seville.

The first float carries the monstrance, The other floats typically carry statues of saints and are carried by a
group of men who are underneath the float. It's considered a great honor to be one of these men and some people have waited years to be able to do this.

The cathedral in Seville is huge. According to a tour guide it's the third largest after St. Peter's in Rome and St. Paul's in London - but he added that St. Peter's is a basilica not a cathedral and St. Paul's isn't Catholic so you could that Seville's cathedral is the largest

In addition to being huge, the choir is situated in the center of the cathedral, and both of these factors limit
the view for many who attend services. The tour guide said that his grandmother would say that she was going to the cathedral to "hear" mass - because she often couldn't see it.
That certainly was true on Corpus Christi.

All of the closest seats were reserved for either priests and other members of the clergy (I have never seen so many priests at one time in my life - and that includes St. Peter's Square immediately after the pope spoke from his apartment.) and VIPS - from the looks of them and the fact that they were almost all male, I'd guess they were politicians.

Regular people (including me) were in the back. There were movie screens set up throughout the cathedral so we could watch the proceedings, although I could see a bit from my pew. A group of us moved closer (to just behind the roped off area in the front) to see the seises dance.

After the service, a group of boys - the Seises - perform a traditional dance at the front of the cathedral. They're dressed in traditional costumes and they reminded me of figures from a cuckoo clock - they stand up and down on their tiptoes and move at right angles.

Before the dance ended, I noticed some of the VIPs were leaving. I wondered why they weren't waiting for the end of the dance. They knew something I didn't know. If you don't leave before the procession starts, you can't leave until it's finished. They close off all of the other exits,
and nobody leaves until the procession and all the priests and all of the people from the front of the church have left.

By the time I was able to leave the cathedral, the military marching band, the very last section of the procession, was passing by. After it ended, I saw a gypsy women, holding
a sprig of rosemary in her hand, with a befuddled look on her face. How could she offer the rosemary to passers-by when the ground was carpeted with rosemary?

Sorry for the rather rushed description but I've got to get ready for work. I'll post about Corpus Christi in Granada later.

Shanti

A FEW MORE SEVILLE RECOMMENDATIONS

REALES ALCAZARES
Wow! Absolutely stunning. An excellent companion to visiting the Alhambra. If you're staying in Seville for
a few days (which I highly recommend) save this for the end of your visit and spend a few hours both in the buildings
and in the gardens. I went here before visiting Casa
de Pilatos and Hospital de la Caridad. When I visited the later two, I couldn't help but think "This is nice -
but the Reales Alcazares was so much better."

I don't mean to imply that these two places aren't worth visiting, (Well, I'd recommend skipping the second floor at
Casa de Pilatos. There wasn't much to see and the tour guide regurgitated his memorized presentation.) but they do pale in comparison to the Reales Alcazares. So see them and then visit the Reales Alcazares.


SEVILLA WALKING TOURS
http://www.sevillawalkingtours.com/ingles.html
22€ for all three
I went on three tours - the Alcazares, the cathedral, and a general walking tour. While they weren't as comprehensive
as the tours in Rome, they didn't cost remotely as much as the tours in Rome and they provided a useful introduction to
all three sites.


GARDENS/PUBLIC SPACES
I love Spanish style gardens - not only the plants but also garden structures such as fountains, benches, and arches decorated with elaborate tilework. So I enjoyed visiting Jardins de Murillo, Parque Maria Luisa, and Plaza de Espana. They're beautiful & free.


THE WHITE VILLAGES ITINERARY
http://theotherspain.galeon.com/
53€
There's another thread here where someone posted that visitors really should stay overnight in this area - and that poster has a good point. But I didn't have much time and I didn't want to drive so this tour worked for me. I wish I could have spent more time in this area, but was happy with having a chance to visit here, even if only for one day.


One more thing. Well, two or three. Seville is a wonderful place to visit and I could have easily spent more than 4 days there during spring or fall - but it's very, very hot in summer. It was unseasonably cool when I first arrived, but by Corpus Christi it was so hot that I decided to leave a day early for Granada. And I say that as someone who currently lives in Sacramento County and used to live in Tucson. Seville gets even hotter than those areas.

If you do visit in summer, pack some shorts. I read some threads before I left on vacation where posters recommended wearing lightweight pants (e.g. linen) and not to wear shorts because you'll look like a tourist.

Well, if you want to look like a sweat-drenched local, wear pants. Personally, I'd rather be comfortable. Andalucia can be hotter than hell.

Shanti

ALHAMBRA

Based on recommendations here, I wanted to get a reservation for entering the Nasrid Palace at 8:30 am. The web site for buying tickets doesn't make this easy. It only gives you a choice of morning or afternoon ticket. If you select morning, it will randomly give you a half hour time slot. So I kept selecting morning and getting later time slots. Eventually, I was offered the 8:30 am option and grabbed it. I am so glad that I did.

I tried to pick up the ticket the evening before. I read that the grounds close at 8pm but missed the part about the ticket office closing at 7 and arrived there a few minutes after 7. I'm not sure why they close the ticket office, they still had a couple employees working, mostly explaining to people that the ticket office was closed. Why they couldn't have been working in the ticket office is beyond me. But one of the employees showed me the location of the machines where I could pick up my ticket the next morning.

I woke up early the next day and I was so excited that I walked all the way. It wasn't a big deal to walk down from the Albaicin where I was staying, but then it's uphill to the Alhambra. It's a lovely walk, surrounded by trees. Feels like a walk through a park, albeit an uphill park.

At 8am, a security guard opened the entrance to the ticket machines. Then we had to wait at the entrance gate which didn't open until 8:15. While waiting for it to open, I picked up an audio guide which turned out to be pretty hokey. The entrance to the Nasrid Palace opened promptly at 8:30.

I forced myself to walk through the Mexuar, past all the people staring open-jawed at the first couple rooms, and proceeded to the Comares Palace. I reached the Courtyard of the Myrtles and had it almost entirely to myself. Only a couple and their infant were also there. It was like that for about 45 minutes. I kept walking, staying ahead of the crowd. Sometimes, I was the only person there and in a couple places it was just me and the cleaning crew.

About 9:15 I started moving backwards to spend more time in various rooms and courtyards, listening to the audio guide (not worth it IMO) and reading from my guide book. In a way, this was disappointing because by this time it was not only crowded, but soon there were a bunch of noisy tour groups to navigate around.

But for about 45 minutes it was (excuse the term) magical. It felt almost as though I was in the Nasrid Palace when it really was a palace, and had woken up early and was walking through the palace while the rest of the Palace's residents were still asleep.

josele

I agree with skipping Casa Pilatos' second floor. Besides, it has its own ticket.
I rec. wearing pants instead of shorts because of legs getting sunburnt. I've seen it. I wear linen pants, and it's ok, really.

Ifnotnow_when

Bookmarking for future trip to Spain.