South of Spain

I arrived in Seville after dark last night and awoke to a beautiful day this morning. I went for a two and a half hour walking tour, hoping to get somewhat oriented to the city. Like all cities with a history that extends back 2,000 years, the streets are tiny and crooked and totally confusing, also very picturesque. So on my walk I saw many Important historical landmarks. I hope I can figure out how to get there again so I can explore them in more detail. The first thing was this former minaret completed just before 1200 by the Moors. It was repurposed as a bell tower in the renaissance. It is quite tall and impressive which this picture fails to show.


Our tour guide explained that this building typifies the buildings in Seville as the expectation that buildings will be either white or gold and red. I think I understood that the gold represents the sand in the bullring and the red represents the blood of the bull.



This is the monument to the voyage of Magellan who left from here to lead the expedition that was the first to circumnavigate the globe. They started out with over 200 guys and five ships. Three years later they made it back to Seville with 18 of the original guys and just one ship. Magellan died in the Philippines but a guy named Elcano took over and got them back.


This is the Plaza Espana, used as the set for princess lea's castle in the star wars movie.


The moat is so pretty








And the bridges are covered with beautiful tiles.


This is our tour guide in the orange shirt. He is explaining one of the 48 "seating areas " that were made to highlight the 48 states(?) of Spain .


After this we went to a restaurant and had lunch consisting of a pork dish which I believe was "pig cheeks". The guide kept telling us it was really bull testicles but I think he was just teasing us. I am pretty sure you would pay more than seven euro for that. I hope tomorrow is just as fun!

Location:Seville, Spain