July 23 Seville

---

We saved the best for last (kind of). We decided to see the Cathedral of Seville, which is kind of the star attraction and what many people see first, on our last day in Seville. The Cathedral is in the middle of town, which makes it right next door to our hotel and we figured that by the end of our trip that might be as far as we could walk. The cathedral certainly is astonishing, but we actually think that if you can see only one thing in Saville, the Alcazar is better, which is really saying something

Anyway, like lots of old buildings in Seville, the cathedral started during the Moorish period, then was completed in the Christian period, so the style is very eclectic. From 1181 - 1198 part of the building served as a Mosque and in 1218 it was consecrated as a cathedral so we are talking old . Construction and renovation continued from 1431 to 1601. It took more changes and adding bits and pieces and finally in 1928 the building was considered finished. It really is huge and is the most extensive Gothic Cathedral in the world. The only thing that isn't impressive is the Alms for the Poor box which is a plain iron box in a dark corner. Everything else is either carved, covered with gilt or in some other way attention getting. There are 30 chapels, the High Alter (which is covered in gold leaf) and the Silver Alter (which three men with a crane and ladders were polishing) and what is reported to be Christopher Columbus' remains. It is hard to describe (and the pictures don't really capture it either) but for those of you who have been to Notre Dame in Paris this makes Notre Dame seem a small dark cathedral. Jim and I decided to be ambitious and climb the Giralda Bell Tower which is 98 meters high if you include the weather vane. We only went to the level of the bells and can attest to the fact they are loud when they ring the hour. Fortunately we were there at 2:00 o'clock. It was actually easier than I imagined because it has ramps instead of stairs so that the person in charge of calling the faithful to worship could ride a horse up the tower.

After all that you can imagine we were ready for beer and to sit down. Fortunately we knew there was an Irish pub just outside the exit. We cancelled any thought of going to the art gallery and went back to the hotel for siesta.

After seiesta we did what we have been doing for the past couple of days, a kind of farewell tour of our favourite bars. We have one bar which we prefer for sangria, one we prefer for sitting outside beer, on we prefer for at the bar beer, one we prefer for tapas, one we prefer for the bull heads hanging over the bar, etc.etc. It's way too hot to eat until at least 10 pm, so working your way from bar to bar, having sangria, beer and the occasional tapa is kind of a normal thing to do here.

---

Photos

stained glass
The catherdal has some very nice stained glass windows but they are very high in the walls. I took this example as the sun was coming through it so the colours show.

Pipe prgan
So ornate that it takes awhile to see what it is and this is only a small part of the pipes

floor of Choir loft
The floor is grey, black and white and at first look the usual mosaic until you notice these faces embedded in the design

Cathedral tower
This is the tower we climbed. The view from the top was excellent- see next picture