Seville, Spain

Wednesday March 26, 2008

Early on Wednesday morning, we headed out on a bus excursion with 48 other Canadians. Our first destination on this trip was Seville. The Spanish border is about an hour from Portimao and then an hour or so to Seville. We first saw many of the world expo sites from both the 1929 and 1998 fairs, including previous pavilions, now remarkable feats of architecture, like the pavilion of Spain from the 1929 fair (below). In both Portugal and Spain we’ve marveled at the extent that ceramics are used in exterior decoration


Two major locations were toured in Seville- the Santa Cruz Cathedral and the former Jewish ghetto. The Jewish quarter had narrow serpentine streets in which one could easily get lost. The Cathedral ranks as the world’s largest cathedral in overall interior area. It has numerous chapels that alone would put many North American churches to shame. The decoration in Santa Cruz, is totally over the top with tons of gold and silver glittering up the place.


The tower of Santa Cruz was formerly a mosque, which, when Christianity claimed a foothold in this area, was added onto on the top. In a muslim city, no building can be higher than the mosque, so due to the earlier muslim origins, the Giraldi (tower) is most prominent. Many famous people are intered in the cathedral, including Christopher Columbus, who sailed in 1492 not far from Seville and who came to the cathedral before he sailed to find India to pray. So much for that prayer!

Leaving Seville, we headed south towards Algeciras, through rolling hilled cattle country and more specifically bull fighting bulls. In both Spain and Portugal, killing the bull is against the law, but because the bull is so badly beat up and stabbed during the fight, the bulls have to be killed – humanely of course – after the fight. As we got closer to Algeciras, we got our first sights of Gibraltar, called the sleeping lady. You can see why when you see the following pictures.
We checked into the Almar Hotel, right on the esplanade in Algeciras that afforded nice views through the container port cranes, of Gibraltar. It was a fine hotel, with an extensive if somewhat questionable buffet for dinner.