Seville

We got up this morning and checked out of our hotel in Madrid. Boy, are we going to miss that place! What a wonderful city! At least we get to come back at the end of our trip for a few days.

We caught a cab to the Atocha Station for our 11:00 am high speed AVE train to Seville. Over 500 miles in just under 2 1/2 hours. Not bad.

Seville is a bit warmer than Madrid. Highs in the low 80’s. The streets are narrow and the sidewalks even more so. They say it’s like this to keep the sun from hitting the sides of the buildings. Makes sense. As long as you are in the shade it’s quite pleasant although I would imagine that’s not the case in the middle of the summer when temperatures soar up around 105 to 115 degrees fahrenheit.

The hotel is nice. The wi-fi (pronounced wee-fee in Spain) does not work well in our third floor room so I am in the lobby updating and checking e-mail.

We took a tour of the Alcazar of Seville which was pretty spectacular. The lines to get into the cathedral and the bell tower were too long to deal with so we hope to try again in the morning when crowds are usually much smaller. Plus Sundays are free admission so it could account for the longer lines and will not be a contributing factor come Monday morning.

Pictures later. Now is time to find food!

Seville – Day 1

Having arrived in Seville and doing a little exploring our attention turned to the matter of negotiating travel from Seville to Gibraltar. It would seem that the Spanish have no desire to provide easy access to the British territory that occupies the southern tip of Spain.

It would require over 5 hours on a bus each way to get in an out of Gibraltar and that’s only if everything came together perfectly.

We discussed our options and decided to eliminate the one day Gibraltar leg of this journey.

This left us with a need to decide if we wanted to go somewhere else, or just stay an extra day in Seville. Once we decided that we would just stay here we had to see about accommodations. We checked with our current hotel and they were booked. Fortunately we were able to book a room at the hotel down the street so we’re all set.

Tomorrow we’ll see if we can get into the cathedral and perhaps on Wednesday we’ll day trip to Cordoba. It all depends on how we feel. For now we’re just relieved to have all the details re-mapped so we can rest a little easier knowing we won’t have to hunker down for the night in some dark alley or at the train station.

Alcazar of Seville

If you find your way to Seville be sure and visit the Alcazar, you won’t be disappointed. When we first passed it, I was not so sure I wanted to go inside but Cynthia was ever so slightly insistent so I agreed.

We queued up in a relatively short line and we were inside in no time.

The place really gives you a sense of the Moorish history of this region of Spain.

In all honestly, it was difficult to shoot in a way that captures the size and the magnificence of this place. All I could do is try to highlight some things that caught my eye:


Click for full size


Click for full size

The detail in much of the ornamentation was just gorgeous

The most surprising feature was the garden/park within the fortress walls. Fountains, giant palm trees, rose gardens and more on a scale as to boggle the mind. I bet we could have wandered for hours and not seen it all


Click for full size


Click for full size

Interestingly enough, the garden was very cool temperature-wise. It also seems to be the home of some wild parrots. They fly way up in the canopy of the tallest trees so we haven’t had a good look, but they appear to be some type of green ring-neck. Hopefully one of us will grab a snapshot of one before we leave.

Cathedral And Bell Tower


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The Cathedral in Seville is the third largest church in Europe (behind St. Peter’s in Rome and St. Paul’s in London) and the largest Gothic building in Europe.

Dimly lit and with flash photography not being allowed, it’s hard to shoot. Even then, it’s hard to capture the sheer immensity of this structure.

The cathedral houses one thing I was glad to be able to capture, the Tomb Of Christopher Columbus


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That thing is magnificent! Even if there’s no actual proof that the remains of Christopher Columbus actually reside in the monument…

Some parts of the cathedral are grim and gloomy

While others are a bit more bright and hopeful

There was one thing Cynthia kept going on and on about and that was climbing the The Giralda which is the bell tower of the cathedral. At 320 feet, it’s daunting to consider for old fogies like ourselves

Fortunately it a series of ramps leading to the top rather than many, many tiny little stone steps as I recall was the case in the York Minster when we climbed that years ago.

The climb is worth it, though. Just for the view


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We’re resting now. Tomorrow there is talk of taking the train to Cordoba