Seville

On March 14 we began by taking final walks in Córdoba, going our separate ways. I went to see the remains of the Caliphate baths and the statue of Abu al Walid (Averroes). Then we met at the hotel to drive to Seville.
It wasn't a long drive, and the old centre of the city is easier to get into than either Grenada or Córdoba. Our hotel was quite close to the Alcázar, so the first thing we did after registering was to walk there to see it and the cathedral/mosque from the outside. Although we were in the old part of the city, close to the river and the main sites, there wasn't the same feel of being in an old town that there was in Córdoba and Granada.
The next morning, to celebrate Jay's birthday, we walked to and through the Alcazar. It's a huge palace complex that is still lived in by the Spanish royal family when they are in Seville. I don't think they were there when we were but I saw on tv a few nights earlier that their photos were being held upside down and burned by angry Catalans in Barcelona. Like so many other places we have visited in this part of Spain, the Alcazar consists of architecture from many different historical periods: Moorish (11th and 12th century), Gothic (13th century after the "Reconquista"), Mudéjar (14th century when Moorish design and decoration was incorporated into the buildings and the work was often done by Islamic craftsmen who remained in Spain and did not convert to Catholicism) and Renaissance (15th and 16th century after the Moors were almost completely expelled from Granada and all of Spain around 1492 by 'Los Reyes Catholicos').
We spent hours walking through the rooms, gardens and maze and then had a beer and snack outside at the cafeteria.







A part of the Alcazar that was modelled after the Alhambra





The Grotto section that I found fascinating, if rather ugly. According to the sign explaining it, it's a 17th century Mannerist style sometimes understandably called 'grutesco'. The mortar oozes out in rocky blobs from between the large stones. This supposedly creates the impression of nature integrated with architecture.





This was the day that the last of the Seville oranges in the garden were knocked off the trees. The almond trees were beginning to blossom.





Part of a very large Flemish tapestry





A peacock who joined us for lunch. They are the symbolic bird of the Alcazar.