We walked a bit, exploring our Santa Cruz neighborhood shops, alleys and attractions, then found a cute cafe for tapas lunch. The waiter was very kind and helpful, and Sam and I were able to relax over tapas and sangria (noticing a pattern here?) before heading off again.
We walked down to the cathedral and spent several hours touring and photographing its opulence, including the tomb of Christopher Columbus (Christobal Colon). Apparently his body had several resting places (Santa Domingo, Cuba, Spain); although in his will he asked to be buried in America.
The cathedral is built on the ruins of an Islamic mosque, and the bell tower, the Giralda, was built on the top of the mosque's minaret. There are ramps to climb the tower -- wide enough for two men on horseback to ride abreast. There are beautiful views of the city as well as the cathedral garden -- filled with orange trees -- which was originally the gathering spot where muslims performed ablutions before prayers.
From the cathedral we walked some more (!), headed back to the hotel and then out through the palace gardens (behind our hotel) to Plaza d'espana and the Parque Maria Luisa for the sunset.
Plaza d'espana was apparently George Lucas' inspiration for the palace of Naboo in one of his Star Wars movies. For me it was inspiration to sneak videos of boat renters who could not manage to row a boat around the little canal at the plaza!
The Plaza is beautiful; sunset was gorgeous. We headed into the Parque, but I got creeped out by some shady looking characters who seemed way too interested in my and Sam's activities, so we walked back to the Santa Cruz district and hunted down food and entertainment.
We found a flamenco place, but then realized neither of us really wanted to see flamenco, so we walked on in search of -- wait for it -- tapas and sangria! First we found Las Capitalas -- touted as the best tapas in Seville -- but as the wait was over two hours (!) we continued to Levie's -- which turned out to be the best for us as we could eat right away (and the food was delicious)! Besides, there was a guy dressed up as Lady Gaga, so we were entertained.
We headed home and collapsed into bed!
No comments:
Post a Comment