Seville Spain (October 20-23, 2024)

I’m excited to visit. We have 3 nights in an apartment with a washing machine. Travellers know this is a highly sought appliance🤣

A much needed meal with a beer or a beer with a meal..?

Cathedral from inside the walls of the Alcazar

We took a walking tour with Miguel from Seville Unique Experiences. We enjoyed the tour as we only had 10 people and our guide didn’t need a little flag so we could track him. It was a great 2-hour stroll a bit further than we walked the previous day.

One thing I didn’t know is that in this area of Spain there were 2 major earthquakes in the 11th and again the 14th centuries that flattened many buildings built in earlier centuries. The one building that did not fall was the cathedral tower. There were of course many superstitions about why…

Building refurbished in the 1920’s due to the Latin American Exhibition in 1929. Many buildings were redone around this time period and it was up to each architect as to which style they chose. Mudejer, Renaissance, Gothic, Romantic and Art Deco

300-year-old “graffiti” found when the soot was cleaned from many of the older buildings in the 1990’s. This is the Seville Cathedral. Most of this graffiti was from students graduating from the medical school nearby

The cathedral tower that stood through the earthquakes

The Alcazar – being visited this day by the King of Spain so no entry was possible. We walked into the courtyard the night before!

The gold tower symbolizing the path to coin exchanges. No gold was ever kept here but apparently sparkles “gold” when the sun hit the tower

This building was formerly used to make cigars and is now part of the University. A moat was built around a large portion of the building as it was discovered many of the workers (women) would often come back after hours with their spouse and steal cigars to sell on the streets.

Next up a boat tour along the canal. Our tour guide, Cesar like the salad he says🤣 was very informative.

This river boat takes 4-day tours along the river to Cadiz, which is a main port for Spain along the North Atlantic Sea

Cesar enjoyed his next story a lot as he mentioned it more than once. This is about early traders from afar. Before the canal was created (because flooding was a problem) the river was subject to tides and flooding. Locals would often not share the tide info with traders and instead complete business with them, offer a meal and beverage and send them on their way. Often if the patron stayed too long enjoying himself, the tides would come in, swamp their boat and sink them. The locals gained new workers as a result as they just lost their purchases and could not afford a new boat. Quite mean!

Another story was about women who were married to sailors often took lovers as their spouses were gone 6 months or longer at sea. If the woman was happier with her new arrangement she might have her house painted in the hopes the returning sailor/spouse could not find it. Could that really work?