La catedral de Sevilla

Yesterday morning, the 23rd of December, Lucia and I got up and got ready and ate breakfast. Breakfasts here consist of a lot of chocolate, sugar, and bread. I'm not complaining. :) Then, Lucia's friend, Andrea, met us to take a bus to the center of Sevilla. Once there, we met up with Andrea's boyfriend, Luis, and Lucia's other friend, Silvia. Our first stop was the Cathedral of Sevilla. I felt kind of bad because obviously Lucia, Andrea, Luis, and Silvia have been to the cathedral thousands of times; but me, being a tourist, took my time and listened to my audio guide. I feel like we could have been in and out really quickly, but we (I) took my time, so we were there for about two hours. Also, did you know that the remains of Christopher Columbus are there? I didn't know that! And according to my audio guide, they have moved around a lot. Also, the remains of his son, Diego, are at the cathedral as well. The cathedral was really cool and had a lot of different chapels (shrines) and a treasure room and a cool organ and choir area. My favorite part though was probably the tower, La Giralda. I always like seeing the views from the top. :) Also, the tower was a ramp all the way up so it was super cool that it wasn't stairs. Ha. La Giralda has 35 ramps and we walked up 47 meters (154 feet) and the whole Giralda is 104 meters tall (341 ft). It is the tallest building in the city center and there is a law in place that says no other buildings can be taller than it. However, Sevilla does have one skyscraper that is significantly taller than the cathedral, but it is just across the river and technically outside of the historic center. However, I can tell that most of the sevillanos HATE the skyscraper and to be honest, I agree. It is extremely out of place and looks pretty dumb. Anyway, here are some photos...

Part of the organ at the cathedral

Stained glass window featuring La Giralda and
Santa Justa and Santa Rufina, who are the patron saints of Sevilla

I should also point out that the Sevilla cathedral
is the largest Gothic cathedral in the world and the third
largest church in the world
after the Vatican and St. Paul's Cathedral in London.

The tomb of Christopher Columbus held by four men
representing the four original kingdoms in Spain:
Castilla, León, Navarra, and Aragón

View from La Giralda

View while climbing to the top

Me in the Patio de los Naranjos (Court of the Orange trees)
 with La Giralda in the background

I guess I should also point out that the cathedral was once a Muslim mosque, so the Court of the Orange trees actually used to be a place where people would wash themselves before entering the mosque.

After visiting the cathedral, we sat down for a little bit and ate a palmera de chocolate, which is a pastry that is typical here in Spain. You can eat a plain one or one covered in chocolate. We had chocolate covered ones. :)

Palmeras

Then, we took a walk through the neighborhood of Santa Cruz, which is the Jewish neighborhood in Sevilla and then we walked to Plaza de España, which is a really cool plaza to walk, take a ride in a horse and carriage, or row a boat. We got some pictures taken and then of course we rowed a boat. It was really fun!

Plaza de España

Plaza de España has a bench for every province in Spain,
so here is Luica and I next to the Madrid bench. :)

Me rowing the boat

We then walked to Parque de María Luisa, where we feed the birds some lentils. I think they enjoyed it. :)

After all of that activity, we walked along the river and took the bus home. We got home around 6 o'clock and that would be when we ate lunch, and what I considered my dinner. Lucia's friend, Isa, came over and we play Ratonera and Cluedo, aka Mouse Trap and Clue. Not to make myself feel good or anything, but I won both games! Woo! It was Señora Blanco in the comedor con la cuerda. (Mrs. White in the dining room with the rope) The names of the characters are different in Cluedo, which was weird, but it was fun. And while we were playing, the T.V. was on and we didn't pay attention until the end of the game and it just happened to be the movie Clue! What a coincidence! CRAZY. Anyway, after all of this, I sat down to write a few blogs, while Lucia watched the movie, The Pianist. Another fun day in Sevilla down, only a few more to go.Hope you are all having fantastic Christmases.