Sevilla, Spain

Got up ate and got on the bus to Seville.  Nice ride up – saw lots of cotton growing, olives, some grapes and orange trees, an few cattle and horse and lots of sheep.  Guide was very good – did lots of talking.

 

The city of Seville is located on the plain of the Guadalquivir River, which crosses the city from North to South.  Our first stop was to the Plaza de Spain, built for the 1929, Latin American Exhibition.  It was a very unusual building built in a u shape – opening to the exhibition and the halls for each country participating.  It is not very impressive from the back entrance, but once inside it is beautiful.  Lots of balconies and beautiful tile courts for each of the providences of the country line the wall of the courtyard.

 

Next stop was The Alcázar facing the cathedral was developed from a previous Moorish Palace. Construction was started in 1181 and continued for over 500 years, mainly in the Mudéjar style, but also in the Renaissance style. Its gardens are a blend of Moorish, Renaissance, and English traditions.  The Almohades were the first to build a palace, which was called Al-Muwarak, on the site of the modern day Alcázar. The palace is one of the best remaining examples of mudéjar architecture. Subsequent monarchs have added their own additions to the Alcázar. The upper levels of the Alcázar are still used by the royal family as the official Seville residence and are administered by the Patrimonio National.  From Wikipedia

       

(These pictures do no justice to the extraordinary beauty of the place!)

We walked through the narrow streets to a nice restaurant for tapas.  Here defined by Wikipedia:  The tapas scene is one of the main cultural attractions of the city: people go from one bar to another, enjoying small dishes called tapas (literally "lids" or "covers" in Spanish, referring to their probable origin as snacks served in small plates used to cover drinks.)   We had bread, olives, bottled water and wine on the table when we arrived.  A potato frittata or pancake was first served, followed by mushrooms in olive oil, fried rings of calamari, very thinly sliced ham, pan fried asparagus with almonds, stewed chicken tights, with French fries, and finally pork tenderloin with sliced potatoes.  Dessert was a strawberry mousse.

 

After lunch and the morning church services we went to the Cathedral of St. Mary was built from 1401–1519 after the Reconquista on the former site of the city's mosque. It is amongst the largest of all medieval and Gothic cathedrals, in terms of both area and volume. The interior is the longest nave in Spain, and is lavishly decorated, with a large quantity of gold evident. The Cathedral reused some columns and elements from the mosque, and, most famously, the Giralda, originally a minaret, was converted into a bell tower. It is topped with a statue, known locally as El Giraldillo, representing Faith. The tower's interior was built with ramps rather than stairs, to allow the Muezzin to ride on horseback to the top to announce the five-time daily call to prayer.  

    

The Cathedral features Columbus's burial place!

 

We left the group then and walked on to the church of the Salvador, it was free with the purchase of our cathedral pass from earlier in the day.  It was OK.  We then proceeded to see the modern building our guide suggested, Llao Llao.

   

We then got a taxi, a white Prius and went to the train station.  Bought tickets and they were pricy, but the train was quiet, cool and fast – we were in Cordoba in less than 45 minutes.  We then walked 25 minutes to our hotel.  We could not get any thing to turn on in the room nor did we have a password for the Wi-Fi, so Barry went up and asked.  You have to place your room key into a slot on the wall to get anything like lights or the AC to work!  One way to make sure you do not leave them on when you leave your room!