Sevilla, Spain

From near Gibraltar, we got on a bus on Sunday morning and headed to Sevilla, Spain. After about 4 hours, we made it to Sevilla and found our hostel after much looking. Sevilla was more along the lines of other cities we have visited, such as Salamanca or Toledo. It definitely wasn't as unique as Morocco or Gibraltar, but it did offer some really cool sites.

We started off by going to the Torre del Oro located along the Guadalquivir River. The fortress apparently served as a protection for precious metals brought from the Americas during the time of exploration (hence the name, "Tower of Gold"). Now, it serves as somewhat of a naval museum, highlighting the importance of the river. The views from the top were awesome of the city/river, especially of the Cathedral.

The next site we ventured into was the Alcazar, or castle of Seville. It was originally a Moorish fort and was built with extreme detail. This was by far the coolest castle I have seen yet. The pictures don't do justice to the extreme attention to detail and the amazing architecture. The gardens were just as spectacular as the building. It was a safe haven in the middle of the city. We spent around an hour on the grounds and still didn't cover the whole thing. Before lunch, we decided to go across the plaza to the cathedral.

The Sevillan Cathedral is built on the site of a former mosque and is basically a "one-up" of the Muslims. Apparently, it is the largest Gothic Church in the world and the 3rd largest Cathedral in the world. The inside was of course spectacular, like every other cathedral. But what made it unique was its bell tower, La Giralda. It's about 100 meters tall and interestingly, ramps, rather than stairs, lead to the top. The reason for this is that back in the day, they "used to ride donkeys to the top, on the same route we are walking right now" (Loose quote from my too intelligent friend, Spencer) The views from up here were also incredible and gave a bird's eye view of the Alcazar.

That night, we stumbled upon this cool festival called La Feria de las Naciones. There were tents set up representing different countries and selling "native" goods. Let's just say it was more my kind of market, as opposed to the Medina in Tangier. Also, they offered foods from all over the world, so we indulged in a chocolate crepe "from" France. The next morning, we went to Seville's Plaza de Espana, which was also my favorite of all the cities. Once again, the pictures couldn't capture the amazing architecture and sheer impressiveness of the plaza. After a long weekend, we were more than content to call it a short day. We checked out of our hostel, gathered our bags, and headed to the bus station to return to Madrid. Another successful weekend in the books.