Sevilla & the Barrio Santa Cruz

Sevilla is one of the prettiest cities I’ve ever been in. The architecture is amazing; in fact, I think I’ve taken the same picture about 15 different times. My hotel is right around the corner from the Cathedral and I feel the need to take a picture of it every time I come out in the morning. What? You don’t think it’s changed overnight? Whatever.

It’s hot as the sun here so I have fully embraced the Sevillian custom of siesta. There is nothing better than pulling into a tapas bar for snacks, cerveza, and sangria for a couple of hours in the late afternoon. After that, you have plenty of time to head back to the hotel, shower up, and head out into the cooler night. Dinner doesn’t really even begin until 10-11pm and after that its drinks. Really? This is soooo my kinda town!

Tonight I´m going to a Flamenco show and tomorrow I´m headed to Cordoba to see the big mosque there. A British guy almost has me convinced to go to a bullfight on Thursday night. I was dead against it, but now I´m strangely intrigued. . . and it´s a very Sevillian thing to do. Apparently.
outside walls of the Alcazar, the royal palace that is heavily influenced by Moorish architecture.

Cathedral of Sevilla . . . and this is only half of it!

amazing architecture in Sevilla

The white building was the setting for the opening scene in Cervante´s play, Don Juan, which he wrote while in prison in Sevilla.

The cloisters of Hospital de los Venerables, a nursing home built for old and sick priests in 1676. The sunken fountain in the middle was very cool.

This balconey was the inspiration for a scene between two crazy kids hooking up in Rossini´s opera, The Barber of Sevilla

Jardines de Murillo, part of the old orchards and vegetable plots of the Alcazar

Plaza de las Cruces

classic tapas bar in Santa Cruz with pork legs hanging from the ceiling, lots of them have these things.

the main courtyard that whole palace is built around

the colors and gold are just beautiful

The Doll Room (called this because there is a little doll head on the left arch in the corner set.

more amazing Moorish plaster work

Gardens of the Alcazar

Legend says this is the tomb of Christopher Columbus in the Cathedral

Plaza Virgen de los Reyes from the top of The Giralda (church tower)

Cathedral at night

Sangria face by the Cathedral

The entrance to the Alcazar at night