Day 12: Seville

We started off our first full day in Seville by visiting the Seville Cathedral. It was very impressive, both inside and out!

At the center of the cathedral was the choir room (bottom left) surrounded by very intricate wood carvings. There were also many detailed stained glass windows all around.

Some of the highlights for this cathedral were its very large organ, and Christopher Columbus' tomb (right).

The cathedral was originally a mosque, which was converted when the Christians reconquered Seville in 1248. The only remaining parts of the original mosque are an orange tree courtyard (bottom left) and the lower two thirds or the Giralda bell tower which converted the original minaret.

The climb up the Giralda tower was interesting because it had no steps! It was a spiral ramp designed to let people ride up to the top on their horses. The view from the top was incredible.

After leaving the cathedral, we went for another walk through the Santa Cruz district to look for a nice place to have our picnic lunch.

After lunch we went to the Alcazar of Seville. This royal palace used to be a medieval muslim fort and is a beautiful example of the Arabic influence on the Iberian peninsula.

A reflection of the arabic tradition of decorating walls and tents with carpet, there are lots of areas in the palace that are extensively tiled with beautiful decorated ceramic tiling.

The Alcazar is very large, with many courtyards and gardens. It is fascinating because everything is so detailed, and obviously built with a lot of care.

After dinner, we went for another neighbourhood walk. We came across the Metropol Parasol, apparently it's the world's largest wooden structure! It looks like one of those models that you can put together from slots of wood, but much much larger.

Most of the streets in the old district can hardly be called streets. Even though they have names and are on the maps, it's obvious the city was established before there were cars, because most "streets" are better described as gaps between houses!

There are three columns in the centre of the old town, which are left from when the Romans founded Seville. They are believed to be from a temple built in the 1st century A.D. The base of these columns is a few meters lower than the current street level, showing how it has changed since that time.

This is the view from the terrace on the roof of our apartment building. The brightly lit building is the tower of the Seville Cathedral.