Where exactly are we?It's from here that Queen Isabella and King Fernando fare-welled Christopher Columbus in 1492; it was also the centre of the Inquisition; the home of Don Juan; home to Spain's only interior port -the river being 93k from the Atlantic( I can only assume the Atlantic salmon had for dinner that night was fresh!) and prior to Madrid becoming the capital it was the administrative hub of Spain.
Once again, there is a progression of takeovers of many cultures but the the French occupation was achieved with the least resistance. Apparently Bonaparte asked permission from the Spanish King for access through Spain, to Portugal, because they had interests there. permission was granted and the French moved in, took over and it took an uprising from the revolutionaries,originating from Fez, to oust them out some years later!!
We climbed the minaret which is the only remaining structure of the mosque which stood here prior to the now existing cathedral. An elderly man rode 31 levels of wooden ramp, within the minaret, on a donkey seven times a day to ring the bells for prayer. You reach the top and you're in the belfry overlooking the cityscape...the heat haze lay over the buildings and blurred the horizon..not so great for photos...however it was pretty speccy to see over the city and to realize the size and diversity of it.
The Belfry
My Favorite place in Seville- La Place d'Espanol
We were located in the Santa Cruz ( Jewish Quarter), a really pretty area dotted with cafes, eateries, galleries,bakeries and shops selling a variety of wares from tourist junk to upmarket pieces. This was my first attempt at hard-core shopping on the trip.. restraint won out however , only managed to pick up a gorgeous piece of pottery .
Ronda: Re-known for bullfighting, it's bridge and it's food, which we indulged in that night, on a patio overlooking the gorge," the bad moon rising" the only people for most of the night. Magic!
The Bridge
Our accommodation was located in a narrow street where four lanes converged..so we need to find a place where we could park the van. Man ..it was not easy. These roads are really only big enough for one car, so driving is slow and frustrating :( Up and down streets, around plazas, into church car parks and in the end we found what we thought might be one, in front of a building which proved to be the police station.
Admittedly there were signs which pointed to this fact, several police vehicles, policemen, yellow tape with "police" stamped on it, however we did see a car pull out of this spot and there others parked, so we thought why not give it a try (just think at least 35 in the car, way past our lunch time and overdue for the inevitable toilet stop :)!!)
We finally manouvered in and Andrew became aware of the witches hats which were lined up at the back of the car...the ones we must have had to weave our way through to park in the first place.. and said "mmmm I don't like the look of those" and promptly stacked the three up and moved them to the grass area at the front of the car. By the time he was at the back of the van there was a cop making his way towards him!! Tony goes the dumb tourist...uh we didn't know etc and Andrew tries to do a runner..not so quick says the cop...points to Andrew, points to the hats, indicates where they were and spreads his hands apart and waits, shaking his head. Andrew gets the hats, we get in the van, Andrew replaces the hats and we're back at square one !! We ended up in the carpark of a museum dedicated to the tools and methods used to torture Christians (we gave that one a miss!! :)
Gibralter: On Tony's wish list of places to see...we traveled the 50k from where we were staying, to see The Rock, knowing we would be back again early the following morning, to catch the ferry to Morocco.
It was well worth going..though we actually couldn't go over because we needed passports and we had left them in the convent(yes that's right a convent!! Not a place you would normally associate with either Andrew or Tony!! ask Tony about the lunch he had there..partridge). However we were able to see it from quite a long way back and we enjoyed the ice-cream and intended walk on the beach.
The following morning ,on our way to the ferry,we did go across. Gibraltar is an island linked to Spain by a causeway which is also used as a runway. We were lucky enough to be waiting in the queue of cars lined up at the edge side of the runway while a plane took off. Absolutely amazing!
The following morning ,on our way to the ferry,we did go across. Gibraltar is an island linked to Spain by a causeway which is also used as a runway. We were lucky enough to be waiting in the queue of cars lined up at the edge side of the runway while a plane took off. Absolutely amazing!
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