SEVILLA

Sevilla, or Hotvilla, as I called it during my stay, was nothing short of spectacular. This city is alive with passion in the food, the people, and the architecture. Although it was hot, it was nice dry heat like I am used to. I finally busted out the shorts and and labeled myself a tourist. Up until now I hadn´t worn shorts, even when it was warm. You see, for some reason the Spaniards don´t wear shorts, except in the coastal regions. I was trying to fit in. Heehee.

They used this building in Star Wars! I think it was Amidala´s palace.

Here´s a front view.

The bridge was made of ceramic tile!

Each major city in Spain has a plaque below the columns.

On the porch of the Plaza de España. I walked around here for hours just exploring!

This is one of my favorite building so far during this trip.

This is another neat building. It houses a bank and a few restaurants.

These crosses are in a plaza called ´Las Cruces´ which translates to ¨the crosses¨! Go figure.

This is a restaurant I had lunch at. It was an old Arabian bath back in the day. Pretty cool!

After lunch I went to the Alcazar, or royal palace. This is also the offical residence of the current king and queen of Spain, Juan Carlos and Sophia. I didn´t see them :o(

A grand tapestry room.

One of the tapestries. So vivid!

These were some steps in the garden. I liked the lighting. Let´s see, doors, windows, stairs...yeah I guess I am an architecture geek.

One of the many founatains and patios at the palace.

This is a pic of the dome in the older part of the palace. Like Cordoba, there is a strong Mudejar presence here.

This window looked out onto the main garden.


This is the porch to the garden.

The architect who built this palace also built the ones I saw in Marrakech. I saw a lot of the same tilework, patterns, and colors. Pretty neat, eh?

A nice place to take a breather!

This is the Giralda, which is the tower at the Sevilla cathedral. No stairs, just 44 levels of ramps. They built it this way so the Imam could ride his horse all the way up to the top during the call to prayer.

A view from the Giralda tower.

This is one huge candelabra! It was over 15 feet tall! Behind it are some big doors that are only used for special occasions. One of them is when a new Archbishop is appointed and another is to carry him out during his funeral.

As previously mentioned, this is the largest gothic building still in use today and the third largest cathedtral in the world behind St. Peter´s in Rome and St. Paul´s in London! Lots of bats hovering above at night...so eerie!!!

It even looks scorching hot at night!!!