A Quick Trip to Sevilla

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We departed Casa Palmeras y Mar Friday morning and drove 3.5 hours north and west to the magnificent city of Sevilla. You turn north from the coast at Malaga and drive up and over the mountains for about 30 minutes before making the rapid decent into a lush and lovely valley of rolling hills with some flat areas of farmland. Not many animals to see like cattle, sheep or pigs, but there are olives. Miles and miles of olive groves. Everywhere! And there are tanker trucks devoted to the transport of aceite de oliva. (We get our locally grown olive oil at the co-operative in town. Great stuff!)

Seville arrives in a rush of development and soon we were in the old city, prayerfully negotiating it's narrow streets. We stayed overnight in the Hotel Las Casas de La Juderia. It's named after the section of town where it is located; the ancient neighborhood of the Jews.

Here are some photos of the interior of Casas de La Juderia.

The piano bar. Strictly Classical Music

One of the lobbies from above

When we arrived we met up with Maggie and boyfriend Josh who had flown over to spend a week and with my cousin Roy. As I mentioned earlier, Roy is my cousin's grandchild and he lives and works in Madrid.

Dinner at our place!

Like Madrid, Sevilla was a remarkably beautiful secret to me. Because it lies in southern Spain (Andalusia), it was occupied by Muslims for 500 years, until sometime in the 1200's.

On Friday evening, Diane, Maggie, Josh and I took a walk to the Plaza de Espana built for the Ibero-American Exposition of 1929. It is surrounded by a moat and a long, beautiful ceramic fence.

The beautiful ceramic fence

The buildings are Moorish, Christian, Jewish, everything. In fact the cathedral (massive!) and the Alcazar are a hodge podge of every type or architectural design of the times.

The Alcazar:

There is beautiful tile work everywhere. Here, the 8 pointed star of Islam
is evident

The baths

The balcony featured in Game of Thrones

The gardens were also featured in GoT

Diane tuning in with the earpiece

The cathedral:

One of many locations where Christopher Columbus remains are interned

The main altar

View from the top of the bell tower

Okay, back on the road...

Seville is the Europe's warmest city and it did not disappoint. We had great weather as we visited the sights. The Alcazar is a must visit especially for Game of Throne fans as you'll recognize interior and exterior sights from the show. And the Cathedral is across the plaza so not much travel is involved.