Christopher Columbus

Elizabeth is suppose to be standing in front of the coffin of Christopher Columus. The black & gold coffin-bearers represent the eternally greatful kings of Castilla, Leon, Aragon & Navarra.

There is a mystery as to wheather Columbus' remains are actually in that coffin. Chances are they are not.
I think the only person held in higher esteem in Spain is the Pope.

The bottom is just Elizabeth pretending she in in jail. She is actually behind a gate.

Inside the Cathedral

Most of the pictures I took inside the cathedral did not turn out so good. But, I thought this one was cute. Elizabeth is trying to get a picture of the top of the cathedral.

I have learn when going to these cathedrals to tell them I am 65 and that Elizabeth is a student. So, it cost of each 2{ to see the cathederal.

Cathedral Minaret

This minaret is all that is left of the former mosque. It was built in 1198. It's twins are in Marrakesh & Rabat and they are the oldest surviving Almohad minerats in the world. The lower walls are 2.5 meters thick. In the 16th century the added 25 bells.

This also seems to be the logo for Sevilla.

The Cathedral of Sevilla

In 1401, Christians destroyed the 12th century Almohad mosque to clear space for this massive cathedral. The reconquistadors constructed a church so great, they said "those who come after us will take us for madmen". It took more than a century to build and is the world's third largest cathedral and the biggest Gothic edifice ever constructed. It truly is so massive I really do not think I need to go to another catherdral any time soon. It was 3pm when we left the catherdral and Elizabeth wanted to get some lunch. So, we did not make it to the museum of the Indies, which is where Christopher Columbus' diary is.

I will post pictures of the inside tomorrow. It is very late and I am getting tired.
Until tomorrow.

Carmona cathederal

In Carmona they take siesta seriously here. And everytime we tried to go in the door was locked.

Carmona city gates

These are the Roman gates to the city of Carmona. At one point those two small frames one either side were for pedesterians and the large opening was for horse & buggy I guess. There is another gate at the other end of town. There were at one time 4 gates.

Carmona & Sevilla

For the Sevilla area we stayed in Carmona which is about a 20 minute ride from the Sevilla airport and another 20 minutes into Sevilla town center.
The man at the front desk told us not to try to drive into Sevilla as it was to crowded and to many one way streets. So, Ray opted not to go into Sevilla and drove Elizabeth and I to the airport where we caught the bus into Sevilla. Ray said he just wanted to chill out and read his book and I thought having Elizabeth all to myself for the day sounded pretty good to me.
On the way into Sevilla, Elizabeth said she thought Ray's ankle was brothering him and that was his way of staying off his ankle that day. And I think she was right about her observation. But, she & I had a glorious day in Sevilla. I told her if she ever did a semester abroad in Spain that his is probably where she would live.

We did not get into Sevilla until about 12 noon. And seeing that cathederal was my top priority.

But, first these are pictures of our parador. It was built in the 1500 as a palace for some king. He kept his lovers upstairs and his enemies in the dungeon.

It was rough dragging our luggage over that parking lot. And you have to drive through the gate to get to the parador. That is Ray driving our little Leon through the gate.

view from htl

This is the view out the other window in our parador. The yellow in the background is sunflowers. The trees in rows are olive trees.

Tomorrow Sevilla!! Should be more to do there. But, this has been a good resting day.

Until tomorrow.

St Peters

This is St. Peters. Which is where I took the picture of the Last Supper. LOTS of gold in there.

St Mary's

I think I just figured out how to send more than one picture to an entree. Anyway..........This is St. Mary's. It is closed for repairs so we did not get to go in. There is also a St. Peters. In previous entry. Anyway in the 1500 their was some diapute as to who they would pray to. Some wanted to pray to St. Mary others to St. Peter. So, the church had to step in and tell them we all had to pray to St. Mary.

St. Mary's is older than St. Peters. It took the Spainards 200 years to drive out the Moors. And when they drove them out; they tore down their mosque and built Catholic cathederals on the foundation of their mosque. Case in point.......Ray & Elizabeth are are sitting on the mosque fondation of St. Mary's. The mosque was built by the Moors who occupied Arcos 711AD until 1262AD. The Spanish also left this Tree of Life ancient feminine symbol and this masculine phallic symbol. At least that is what the brochure said.

typical street

This is a typical street in Frontera. Yes, cars drive down this street. But, mostly there are alot of mopeds.

Get out of the way Elizabeth

This is actually one of their streets. Now you know why once we get to our parador we do not get into the car again. If we cannot walk there we just check on it on our way out of town. And you have to walk on these streets. So, you do have to listen for on coming traffic and dart into a business. We are in the old part of town so, ALL the streets are like this. But, we managed to get here without any mishap.

St Peters

This is the way I have felt at some of our Gourmet dinners.

St. Mary's

This is the view out one side of our room. And YES, those bells actually ring!! They ring 24 hours a day twice an hour. Actually I like hearing them. You really feel like you are in Spain in this town. We are out in the country. And there is VERY little to do here. We toured the town this morning on foot and that took about 2 hours. I will send you some pictures. It has a little taste of Greece.

On the way to Arcos de la Frontera

Leaving Ronda was sad. Everytime we leave a place I think I wish we had one more day. Today we are on the way to Arcos de la Frontera. This area is famous for their sherry. Everynight they start the meal with a sampling of their sherry.

On the way to Frontera we passed miles and miles of SUNFLOWERS!!. How glorious. It was like being in Iowa and seeing all the corn. Only this time it was sunflowers. I have always wanted to see hugh fields of sunflowers and it was not disappointing. When we got to Frontera and saw the sunflowers the fields were also covered with birds.

Roman gate

Remember the Roman gate I told you about in Ronda? This is a closer view of it. I wanted to walk to it........but I was the only one. It would have been at least a 30 minute walk each way and their was not a tree to stop at in between. But it is pretty amazing. Their are Roman ruins everywhere.

trouble blogging

Yesterday I had trouble downloading my pictures. But I finally figured it out. But I can only get one picture per entree.

decision time at happy pills

You put your purchase in a bottle and label the botle for your ailment.

The Happy Pill Store

Elizabeth found this little store. It is truly the smallest store I have ever been in. It is no larger than a walk in closet. Sure I thought it was a pharmist. But, it turns out to be a candy store and the cutest one you will ever see.

happy pills

I hope Ray buys the store out!!!