Seville - Day 13

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Today is our final full day of our Spanish adventure. We spent the day in Seville, hitting all of the places we were unable to yesterday. We started our day at the Cathedral and all of the surrounding sites, including "La Giralda," or the bell tower. The Cathedral itself is the largest Gothic cathedral in all of Europe. It is home to numerous smaller chapels on various sides of the Cathedral. The main altar is quite the spectacle, as it looks like it is covered in solid gold plates and has theologic figures from floor to ceiling. The tomb of Christopher Columbus is housed within the Cathedral. We probably would have done better with audio guides through the museum, as it was not very English speaking friendly, but we made do. All of the placards and kiosks of information where in Spanish, so it took us a little longer to make it through the information, but luckily we have years of Spanish under our belts. Even before we made it to the bell tower it took us over an hour to get through all of the parts. The bell tower itself was different than our Italian ones, as it was 34 ramps to get up to the top plus 17 steps versus the 400+ step towers we climbed throughout Italy. The reason for this was the person who was to ring the bells could ride up on horseback versus climb up. How genius! The views from the top viewed all of Seville.

Our next stop was the Castille de San Jorge, or Saint George's Castle. This was the main site of the Spanish Inquisition, and housed the Inquisitors, prisoners, and townspeople who supported the Inquisition. It was underground in the excavated sites, so it was neat to see what the different rooms were within the castle. We were able to get some of the geological history out of it, but it didn't contain as many artifacts or stories as we were hoping for. The Museum de Lara in Ronda, surprisingly, contained more of what we were looking for to learn more of the Inquisition.

We next went to the Museum of Folkart and Traditions in Seville. This museum contained a lot of the craftsmanships of Spain, describing the main industries over time with exhibits. Spaniards did metal work, pottery, leatherwork, among other things, and it was neat to see all of the crafts put into their specific exhibits. The main floor of the museum was unfortunately closed down, so we went through this museum relatively quickly.

We next walked around Seville, and I got my shopping fix in. Unfortunately, I didn't find anything to buy, but it never hurts to window shop! We enjoyed some vino/cerveza before pit stopping to our Airbnb to take a break before dinner. We found a few craft brew places to venture to in the evening, including a brewery. Cody got a flight at Son's brewery, containing an APA, Helles, Stout, and Blonde. The Blonde (according to the officianado) was best, followed by the Helles, APA, and Stout. We next went to a craft brew joint / book store that is where the hipsters of Seville seemed to hangout. Our last stop was Bier Kraft, which had beers on tap and a bunch in bottles in fridges to choose from. Here, we talked Spanglish with the bartenders for a while. One of the bartenders will be going to NYC/Chicago later this year and wanted to know some good recommendations. We really enjoyed our conversations with both of the bartenders. This was just another testament to how nice the Spaniards have been throughout our trip. 😊

Our final meal was at Bar Peloya, a tapas place near the Cathedral. We enjoyed some traditional tapas, sangria, and cerveza, and it was definitely a great way to go out on a high note in our quest to eat all of the Spanish food. Cody will be venturing to Beef Shack tomorrow to indulge in some good quality fast food American - I guess he's had his fix of Spanish food!

Tomorrow our day starts early with a train from Seville to Madrid, followed by the fight home. The trip has been great!! Hopefully we'll be able to compile one last entry of the overall favorites from our journey through Lisbon, Barcelona, and Southern Spain. Thanks for following!!

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