Saturday, April 4, 2009

Seville

April 4
Today Lanny, Stacey, Monty and I drove an hour and a half to Seville while a friend of theirs from the Bible study came with her two children and stayed with the 5 Groves kiddos. It was such a sweet sacrifice for Krista to do that. (If you ever read my blog....Thanks so much!!!)

Seville is the fourth largest city in Spain. The population is around 710,000. The good thing about going there on a Saturday is that they all leave for the week-end to go to place like Rota, where we left. So, it actually turned out to be an easy day for getting around the city. We had an easy time parking, even....which made Lanny very happy indeed!! He was pleased with the stress-free drive in the city!!

We first visited the beautiful Plaza de Espana that was built only in 1927 for the Expo '29. The tile work was beautiful. Stacey and I bought some black and white etchings from the artist himself there in the Plaza. We also bought some scarves from the vendors there for the bargain price of 5 Euros (anyway, she told me it was a bargain!!!).

From there we walked to the Cathedral of Seville, where the remains of Christopher Colombus are in a fancy sarcophagus held by four statues. It was pretty impressive!! Of course, it dates back to the early 16th century. I laugh when I visit "historical" places in the USA on the East Coast where things are 200 years old!! Big deal!! We saw things that dated back to the 1100's!! In fact, they have trees in the parks that are older than America!!

The Cathedral is now reckoned to be the world's largest church. There are steps from inside the Cathedral to the top of the 90m high Giralda which is the minaret of the former Mosque. The climb to the top provides some great views but they warn some to stay at the bottom and buy the postcard if you've got a weak heart! But we climbed it........and Monty made it all the way up and down!! Praise the LORD! It was quite a climb.....for all of us!! But what a great view of the city. (You might remember that his cardiologist told us that he could make this trip at his own risk!! He wasn't telling us not to come, but couldn't give him a clean bill of health either!!) So, for those of you praying for him.........THANKS!!

There is nowhere else in Spain that complies so closely with the foreigner's perception of stereotypical Spain as Seville. For it is here that flamenco, bullfighting and fiesta are a way of life, none of which we personally experienced. Much of it begins the two weeks after Easter. We saw them setting up chairs all around the cathedral for upcoming parade for Holy Week. So, we are thinking we came at the perfect time..........before all the masses arrived!!

view of the largest bullring in Spain from the Tower of Giralda

4 comments:

Unknown said...

This post is just lacking pictures.... i need visuals :)

Unknown said...

What a wonderful trip.

I am praying for you both, too.

Unknown said...

Did you know you can google Mimi Churchill's blog and find it? I'm so impressed! The photos are great, but you need more with you guys in it. Get busy!

Shelly said...

I am soooo jelous! I wish I was there with my Stacey girl! But so glad you are having a great time.