Day 107 The Alcazar and Bella de Artes Seville

Today was the final day in Seville and one of the best days for sightseeing. We started the morning with a trip to the museum that yielded more tile photos, yes...it is possible and a big exhibit from Murillo. The museum building itself was one of the best sights as it is a former convent.

Then we visited the Alcazar which is a huge palace built in a Moorish style. Many people say that it is a great warm-up to the Alhambra that we will see in Granada in a week or so. The building was huge and the gardens were bigger. I am guessing that even after the four hours we spent there we still missed a great portion on the palace.






Tile benches


Tile stairs


Beautiful Gardens...and lots of them




weird caves, but cool picture


more islamic style tile....mesmerizing

Day 106 Monday is the worst sightseeing day ever!

Monday Monday Monday. It is hated in the school world, work world and now the travel world. In Europe most museums and sights are closed on Monday. So while you plan and hope to find your way around little does happen and it can be a wee boring. I decided that Monday would be a great day for the free walking tour. Well, not free but thats a different story.

The walk was two hours around the historic district. While I did learn some interesting facts. Feria de Abril is a huge deal in Seville and the reason for all the flamenco dress stores. The Moors had a huge influence in the city's architecture. Finally, I decided that if you are a truly dedicated history buff, like our tour guide, you are pretty much a conspiracy theorist.... Here are a few photos I snapped along the way.


Pretty tower with tile


tile as advertisements


a cute cute kittie cat


Jewish Quarter

Day 105 Sevilla the good Catholics

Today was an early call. I got up to attend mass in the third largest church in the world. It was an experience to be in such a small congregation in such a big big place. The entire service was in Spanish and while I understood little it was still intriguing to see some of the traditions that are particular to the Catholic church and maybe even the spanish sect. Honestly, the big draw was saving 8 euros on the entrance fee but it turned out to be a good experience all the way around



The mammoth church

Upon leaving church we found ourselves in a procession's path. There were about 200 people with various jobs, some being just walkers, others participating in the Catholic marching band. Now we are still rather confused about what exactly they were celebrating. We asked the tourist office and they were just as baffled as us. The cutest participants by far were the kids. Such big jobs for such little and easy distracted people.


The procession


The bishop tent




This man has cleregy written all over his future

After church we meandered the riverfront and neighborhood of Triviana. There were lots of adorable house, colorful tiles and people. It being Saturday lots of families were out having tapas, drinks or coffee.


The waterfront


blue tile babies


to be personanified in tile...every persons dream







For dinner that night we went on a tapas tour with our hostel. Tapas are traditionally little side dishes that are served along drinks. They used to be free but now in most areas range from 1 - 5 Euros. I guess in Granada they are still free and we will be taking some advantage of that. After a bunch of good food and Sangria we took off for a Flamenco show. It was interesting enough but I hope to see a better show before we leave. This being the only freebie in town it was busy and there was a lot of talking so I think that is why the show was cut short.


flamenco man

Day 104 Hola Seville

Back in Espana. I really have liked being in Spain. Gracias Senior Hedger for teaching me enough spanish to get stay alive. It is weird how much I really do remember, not that I am fluent or even really that functional but I can get around and read a few signs, ask for a bill and understand directions. It's nice after all this time of really not communicating with people.

Seville is very different from Madrid. First it is small. It seems as though we can walk everywhere we want to go, which is awesome. Also, it is super sunny. Funny thing to say as there was rain but in comparison to some other places it has been great! Warmer for sure!

For our first day we took a tip from the hostel staff and stopped at Casa de Pilatos. This mansion is known for every room being decorated in a different century. The decorations were elaborate to be in a house that people still live in, or had until 50 odd years ago. I guess one member of the family still resides in a private area of the estate.

My favorite part of the casa was the courtyard. Walls and walls of tile. I love tile. I wonder if I can get one of those shirts? Anywho I took a disgusting amount of pictures while stopping to glance around the gardens as well. All and all the day was a success.


my new love







At night we headed to a well touted bar as it was full of other hostelers. This bars claim to fame is kitch. It is some serious kind of decorated with all sorts of religous wares. Their famous drink is a concoction of champange, whiskey and grenadine and its cleverly named the blood of christ. After one disgustingly expensive cocktail and a few hours of conversation with above mentioned travelers we took off. Sight seeing is tiring here. I mean seriously. I am exhausted everynight I do more than board a bus. So ta for now.


Me and my "blood of christ" drink


some of kitsch

Day 103 Tavia, Portugal

Looking at a lot of days before our flight out of Morocco we decided to slow down or speedy tour of Europe and settled on seeing a bit of the small towns in the Algarve. For the most part it was a place to finally relax. We went out for a bit of dinner at an English pub on recommendation of the hostel staff. The place was interesting and had a few ex-pats milling around. Their suggestions on what to do with our one day in Tavira was much different than what ended up on the agenda.

They suggested all sorts of wonderful things that included hiking up some hill, going to the beach, finding our way to an island. All sounded great but also a massive undertaking. I was a little over getting up at 8am and getting back at 9pm. So we instead slept till 11am in our room that somehow got to ourselves for the duration of our stay. Had a repeat lunch at the English pub and meandered around the town. It was cute enough to keep our interest and we stopped for a coffee a few times. We decided to tackle one "sight" and strolled up a small hill to a church. Now the church was closed but the gardens were open so we walked around a bit and got some great views of the town and such. Overall I wish we had stayed an extra day and done one of the activity days that the kind people at the bar had planned out for us but we had obligations in Seville and had to get back on the road.


Clocktower that dinged very frequently at odd times...

Day 102 Obrigado Portugal...but with one last stop

Because of the Easter holiday all our sightseeing got a little screwy. In Europe most museums are closed on Mondays and that left all the major sights for the two days that we had where things were actually open. So much for the take it easy and see things at a normal pace plan we had hoped for. That left one more stop before we caught a bus to Seville.....The Calouste Gulbenkian Museum. This museum is the private collection of an American who really wished to see all of his findings put under one roof and shown to the public. Vialo! Our Wednesday morning activity.

The collection had some highlights that included a few big name painters such as Renior, Manet, Monet and others. There was a decent selection of artifacts from Egypt and China. Most of the place was filled with old furniture which might intrigue some but to me it was a glance or two at the most. I guess I don't have a future on the Antique Roadshow...darn.

For an extra Euro we were able to see a temporary exhibit of still life art from Europe. This was interesting as still life really encompasses so much. It always baffles me what was seen as worthy of months of painting. A bowl of onions? A dead pheasant. Beautiful, yes. Something I could look and work on for that long...probably not.

Day 101 - Lisbon...Belehm neighborhood and Portuguese tile museum

Busy Busy Busy. That is the word of the day. Because of the Easter holiday we left with a little too much to see today, but we did it. We started the day off in the cultural center of Lisbon with a stop at The Monestary of Jeronimos. The church itself was beautiful but the real reason that most visitors find themselves at Jeronimos doorstep are the cloisters. These cloisters are beautiful and surround a great fountain. A sign told me that prominent members of state are often received here.


cloisters and some of the monestary



Next stop was the tower of Belehm. This was less impressive than its name as most people expected a high rise view of the city and what you get is an old watch out tower. Still cool but hard to maneuver with all the tourists so we only stayed for a few minutes.





Final stop of the day was the National Museum of Tile. Yes, only in Portugal would it be possible to have something titled that me so interesting. Well, to me at least. I have fallen in love with all the tilework in this country. Here are a few of the goodies.