Seville, pretty city!

We met up with my (Megan’s) parents in Spain – 2 nights in Seville, and week Malaga. I was so excited to see them – the last time we had seen them was the previous summer, before we left on our travels.

We all had a long day of travel and met up for a great Italian dinner (and wine!).

The next morning, we took a walk around and saw some of the famous sites. We were there during Semana Santa (Holy week), so the city was really crowded. Unfortunately, the processions were canceled because of the rain – which would be extremely devastating to the participants since walking in the processions is a once-in-a-lifetime honor, with no “rain-checks”.

The waterfront of the Guadalquivir River:

The Torre del Oro, built in the early 13^th Century as a defensive watchtower for the river. It was later used as a prison.

The Palace of San Telmo, built in the 17^th Century, now the seat of thee Andalusian Autonomous Government:

The Alcazar

The Alcazar was originally a Moorish fort started in 1181, later becoming a palace of the Catholic Monarchs and subsequent rulers. Unfortunately, it was closed on Good Friday, so we were only able to see it from the outside.

The Cathedral of Seville

This cathedral is the second biggest in Europe – only St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican is bigger. It was built from 1402 to 1506. It is a maze of aisles, chapels (80 chapels!), courtyards, and domes. It was built over the Almohad Mosque (Reconquista of Seville happened in 1248 – by Ferdinand III).

As with so many of the cathedral pictures, it’s good that there are people in this one to show the scale of how huge the building is.

The choir:

The high alter was completed 1526, the work of one craftsman, Pierre Dancart. Again, the pictures hardly show how big and how ornate it is.

In the treasury, there are priceless works of art and the crown jewels. This priceless gold crown is the Crown of the Virgen de los Reyes:

It’s hard to believe how many rooms and different styles of architecture there are. Truly a maze of rooms and courtyards.

Christopher Columbus is buried in the Cathedral, in this unique and extensive tomb. Due to some controversy, the remains have been DNA tested – it was confirmed that the remains are almost definitely those of Christopher Columbus (it’s “almost” definite because they could also be a very close relative, like his brother). Either way, a Columbus is buried there.

You could spend days in the cathedral to take in all of the floor mosaics, ceiling domes, art works, stained-glass windows, chapels, statues, etc.

The cathedral is that it is built over a mosque, and there are a few remaining architectural clues to its origins – these parts would have been built by 1198.

More walking:

Plaza de Espana

This plaza is a huge, beautiful place full of colorful tiles, archways, and even a small waterway with walking bridges. It was built for the 1929 World’s Fair. Now it houses government buildings, including the Town Hall.

Each region of Spain has its own (fountain?) with colorful tile-work and a scene depicting a key point in it history.

More gardens, squares, and narrow streets….

Seville at night. I would recommend this city to everyone!

Faro and Tavira, middle of the Algarve

Our final destination in Portugal was Faro, part of the Algarve region on the southern coast. There is a stretch of seaside towns that people from Europe flock to, especially in the summer. We were there a little before the high season started, so it was nice to be surrounded by relatively few tourists, but the weather was so-so.

Although Faro is one of the larger cities in the region, it is still fairly small. It was a short walk from the bus station to the main shopping area where our motel was conveniently located. From there we could walk to the old part of town that is really only a few square blocks. The city sits along the Ria Formosa Lagoon, a protected wetland that you can take boat tours of to see the local wildlife.

We also took a day trip to Tavira, a tiny town that we saw in entirety within a couple hours. We enjoyed the hillside town and the winding cobbled streets leading down to the riverfront.

In the middle of a main traffic circle, a huge bird decided that it was an ideal location for a nest. These pelican like birds are enormous and they put up these enormous nests in all sorts of strange places like this one and along rooftops.

The Arco da Vila is the main gateway to the old city. It is originally of Moorish and Roman architecture and is part of a medieval castle. The building around it was created in the 19^th Century.

Along the lagoon are these old seaside cabanas that are no longer in use. They are just there for nostalgia.

Once a day, we made our way across town to the Moorish inspired library, since our motel failed to deliver the advertised Wifi. Luckily, the public library provided computers with internet and was very loose on their one hour limit. The library sits on one end of a little park that has a mini golf course (European standards, which means made of concrete), a turtle pond, bird cages, and an exercise area that included this wonderful bench-cycle.

Here is Megan being greeted by a friendly Portuguese gentleman.

The Cathedral sits in a square that is flanked by the buildings belonging to the church and the Town Hall, seen below on the right.

We climbed to the top of the Cathedral to get a view over the city and the surrounding Lagoon, and also got an up close look of the church bells.

The interior of the church features this red 18^th century organ, finely painted with Chinese motifs. There were several opulent chapels in addition to those pictured below.

In less than an hour on a train along the beautiful coast, we found ourselves in Tavira, a quaint town along a river near the coast. This is a medieval city gate that still exists in the middle of town on one of the main streets leading up the hillside. The Romans originally settled the area, and the Moors also created a settlement here in the 8^th to 13^th centuries.

At the top of the hill lie the ruins of a fortress. A wall from Neolithic times was the basis for the fortress and later on was rebuilt by the Phoenicians, then reinforced by the Moors. Now there is a nice garden within the ruinous walls.

At one end of the fortress was this tower that we climbed to get a view of the town below.

After descending from the fortress, we crossed the Roman Bridge behind us. It is said to be from Roman times, although there is some controversy as to its authenticity. The few blocks along the river were nice and we ate our lunch on a bench along it.