Today was my day to tour the Alcazar, Seville’s palace with a history of more than a thousand years. The day dawned cloudy with a morning temperature in the 50s. After breakfast in the hotel, I went to the meeting point at 9:15 a.m. for the tour I had reserved yesterday. Surprisingly, I was the only person signed up for that time with this particular tour company, so I had the guide to myself. Maria spoke excellent English, learned in Bristol, England and from cousins who live in California. With her as a guide, we skipped the long line of tourists waiting to buy tickets and went in shortly after the Alcazar opened at 9:30.
The history of the place is amazing and much too long and complex to talk about in my blog. But it involved the Romans, Vizgoths, Vikings, Moors, Jews, and then the Christian kings of Castile. It was the place where Christopher Columbus received the Spanish king and queen’s permission to explore. And it received much of the riches found in the Americas. Today it remains a second residence for the current Spanish royal family. The tour took 1.5 hours, with Maria expaining lots of history as we walked through the enormous labyrinth of a palace. There is a very large garden attached too, complete with peacocks. At the end of the tour, Maria left me there, after explaining how to find my way out when I was done exploring.
After nearly 3 hours at the Alcazar, I found my way out of the labyrinth of rooms and gardens and walked back to the hotel for a short break and a little souvenir shopping nearby. Then I walked to the river in a light shower – the first rain I’ve experienced in Spain. At the river, I paid for a short cruise and immediately got on the boat. It was still raining lightly, so it was nice to be inside the boat. It cruised up and down the Guadalquivir, which is more of a canal, for an hour with short automated narration in several different languages. The cruise and scenery weren’t that great, but it was a nice break in a dry spot.
After the cruise, I picked up a savory pastry in a small “take away” shop near my hotel and had that for lunch. It was pizza flavored, so was a little like a calzone.
Tonight after dinner, I’ll pack my bags once again, getting ready to leave Seville in the morning.
Lori's Travels 