Seville

We spent our first evening in Seville getting lost in the winding ally streets of the Bario Santa Cruiz. This area was once the Jewish section...until the Inquisition that is. The streets are wonderfully tiny and cool (temperature and uniqueness). Jordan and I found buildings that had stucco painted on top of old Moorish tile designs that were so beautiful. This area of the city is truely something out of an old book, cobbled streets, allies so narrow you can almost touch the buildings on both sides at once, bright colors layereed with Moorish desings, and tables squeezed outside tiny tapas joints where whole legs of ham hang from the celing waiting to be sliced. Our day today in Seville was hot! We had to come back to the hotel for a repreve before venturing out for the eveing. I am so glad that I made sure all of our hotels had ac! We found a place that served fried eggs and bacon for breakfast and we were so happy! Breakfast is not really a meal that has spcial food here. After breakfast we went to the beautiful and mysterious Alcazar. The Alcazar is a place which orginally was teh Moorish Governers residence prior to the late 1200´s and the Spanish reconquista. After the Spanish defeated the Moors and took control of the Andalucian Provence, it became the palace for royalty in Spain. The Spainish kings didn´t destroy what teh Moors began, only built upon it to create a beautiful and unique styel of architecture called Alhambra (a mix of Rennesaince, pre classical Christian, traditional Spanish and Moorish. It is both striking and beautiful. We took probably 200 pictures and didn´t feel like it was enough. The geodesic desings and colors, as well as the lay out was enough to keep us wandering for over 3 hours. I´ve been many places in my life including many heritage sights in the US, palaces in Iraq, ruins in Mexico, Indian cave dwellings in New Mexico and daring modern builidngs in China-nothing was as beautiful as the Alcazar. It was a true testament to the power and influence of the Spanish Empire.

After we finished we wandered the palace gardens for another hour. It had dozens of fountains and a unique irigation system fed by the aquiduct that brought water to the palace. There were thousands of bitter orange trees and after the Spanish took over, they painted many frescoes on the wall and planted it with dozens of spices from Inida.

Afterward we headed to the river and walked `past the torre del orro which was built 1st as a Muslim minarette but then used as a watch tower to protect the river harbor while Spain was at the height of its naval power. It was very interesting but too hot out to go far, so we headed back to the Barrio. Finally, we ended the day with the most wonderful flamenco show ever! It was set in a courtyard in the middle of a building, with only three rows of chairs around the little stage. We got to sit right up front to watch. Words cannot describe how cool it was!

We are now in Portet, which is so beautiful, so hot and so peaceful! On the way here we almost missed our train and had to run to the trainstation. Jordan got in a Spanish cussing match with someone who was asking us for money and got in his face when he said no. Very scarey at the time, but pretty funny now! We took the train to Alicante, winding through vineyards and shanty towns. Portet has tons of Brits, so we are enjoying being able to speak English for a bit. We are having a hard time finding internet that is fast enough to add pictures to the blog. Sorry! If we find it we will add pics, otherwise we might just have to share them when we get back.

In two days we head off to Barcelona.