Monday morning started with an early and quick breakfast at our hotel before taking two cabs and two trains to our final destination for the day, Seville. With good planning by Kathleen we were able to drop off our bags at our AirBnb and start our sightseeing.
First stop was the Real (Royal) Alcazar Palace. We had advance tickets at 1:00 so her timing was perfect. We learned that the palace is still used periodically by the Spanish Royal Family. Our tour guide explained how for over a 1000 years the city has been ruled by Muslims and then Christians. During the tour she showed us signs of both within the palace grounds.
Next door to the palace is the Seville Cathedral. Parts of the Cathedral were once part of a Muslim Mosque. It is the third largest cathedral in the world after the Vatican and St Paul's in London. It was built in a very unorthodox manner. To be sure there are many, many opulent side altars and a very elaborate sacristy. One of the side altars is huge and contains 300kg of silver brought to Seville from Mexico.
We came back to our home for the night which is really quite nice. After taking a few minutes to settle in we took to a quick dip in a roof top pool to cool off. The pool is very small and comfortably fits 6 people max.
We walked down the street to a mom and pop restaurant for dinner. We all ordered something different and shared everything as it came out at different times. We finished dinner just in the nick of time to pay a quick visit to our neighborhood church just before they began 9:00 pm. Mass.
To say that many of the streets in our neighborhood are tiny would be an understatement. Pedestrians literally have to go into a doorway when they see a car coming down the stone paved road.
If I were an old time newspaper man, you'd say I have buried the lede (yes, that's how you spell it. Look it up) in this story. The temperature today in Seville hit 108 degrees Fahrenheit. The heat is truly opressive. We finished dinner at 9:00 and it was still 104.
We only have another half day here tomorrow before we head to Lisbon where we hope to meet up with our nephew Anthony Kolb and Anthony's cousin who are also traveling Spain and Lisbon right now.
First stop was the Real (Royal) Alcazar Palace. We had advance tickets at 1:00 so her timing was perfect. We learned that the palace is still used periodically by the Spanish Royal Family. Our tour guide explained how for over a 1000 years the city has been ruled by Muslims and then Christians. During the tour she showed us signs of both within the palace grounds.
Next door to the palace is the Seville Cathedral. Parts of the Cathedral were once part of a Muslim Mosque. It is the third largest cathedral in the world after the Vatican and St Paul's in London. It was built in a very unorthodox manner. To be sure there are many, many opulent side altars and a very elaborate sacristy. One of the side altars is huge and contains 300kg of silver brought to Seville from Mexico.
We came back to our home for the night which is really quite nice. After taking a few minutes to settle in we took to a quick dip in a roof top pool to cool off. The pool is very small and comfortably fits 6 people max.
We walked down the street to a mom and pop restaurant for dinner. We all ordered something different and shared everything as it came out at different times. We finished dinner just in the nick of time to pay a quick visit to our neighborhood church just before they began 9:00 pm. Mass.
To say that many of the streets in our neighborhood are tiny would be an understatement. Pedestrians literally have to go into a doorway when they see a car coming down the stone paved road.
If I were an old time newspaper man, you'd say I have buried the lede (yes, that's how you spell it. Look it up) in this story. The temperature today in Seville hit 108 degrees Fahrenheit. The heat is truly opressive. We finished dinner at 9:00 and it was still 104.
We only have another half day here tomorrow before we head to Lisbon where we hope to meet up with our nephew Anthony Kolb and Anthony's cousin who are also traveling Spain and Lisbon right now.
The remains of Christopher Columbus
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