Today, we visited Seville. Wow, what a beautiful city. The first photo is the Plaza de Espana, the pavilion Spain built for the Iberian-American Exhibition of 1929, a world’s fair. On the way into the city from the port in Cadiz, we passed a number of buildings that American countries had built for the fair that now serve as embassies for some of those countries or other useful purposes. This beautiful Spanish building is now used for government offices. It was also the site of the filming of the Kingdom of Naboo scenes in one of the Star Wars movies. The second photo shows a seal, beautiful fresco, and map of Cadiz. One of these stations for each of the fifty-two counties in Spain is positioned around the facade.

Our next stop was the beautiful royal palace, called Alcazar. The third photo shows the inner courtyard that gave the palace light as there were no exterior windows for security. In one room we saw a model of the Santa Maria and Christopher Columbus’ crest on the wall. This is the room where Ferdinand and Isabella met with Columbus when he returned from discovering the new world. Alcazar goes back over a thousand years when the palace was built by the Arabs over earlier Roman structures, such as the wall. When the Christians took over from the Arabs, further changes were made. The palace embodies much of the history of Spain and is now a very busy museum.

We strolled through the old town and saw many narrow streets and courts with beautiful balconies. One is said to have inspired Rossini in writing the opera, The Barber of Seville. This stroll brought us to the Cathedral of Seville, the third largest cathedral in the world. There, they were preparing for an Easter Parade. This is definitely a place that warrants further visits.