Sevilla

This is a tale of a weary traveler on a rainy day with a broken umbrella.

Sevilla is gorgeous. Little streets wide enough only for two people to pass. My little hotel (budget) is on such a cobblestone path:

Casa de la Luna

The city has a fabulous history — Romans built a fortress which was later transformed into a palace by Muslims. Christian Spaniards eventually took over the whole place and made their own architectural changes. This is El Real Alcázar.

This exterior wall of El Alcázar is about a 2 minute walk from my hotel.

Inside the walls — lovely gardens, more Roman arches.

An abundance of tourists here, although nothing compared to the hoards in Barcelona.

The Moorish interior is exquisite.

I loved the details, the tiled walls, tiled floors.

Even the ancient brick floors were decorated with tiny colorful tiles.

This design, repeated in many places throughout El Alcázar, reminds me of the stone knots I saw in China.

Here's a detail of carving in the wooden doors and window shutters.

In the gardens — and there are many, many gardens, full of orange trees among others — I was attracted to the beautiful flowering trees. I don't know their name. Here, the blossoms are pink. In Barcelona, they were yellow.

Here's a close-up of a blossom that had fallen to the shrub below.

After lunch, now thoroughly dampened by rain, umbrella broken, I walked a couple of blocks to the enormous cathedral, built upon the site of a former mosque, which the Spaniards demolished in order to build this over-the-top church.

This is only one tiny part of the cathedral. It's impossible to get it all in one shot.

Other tourists walked around here for hours, listening carefully to their audio-phone explanations. I was too tired, too wet, to care that much.

This is the "new" interior of the dome, built in the early 16th century. The original collapsed a few years earlier.  I decided not to press my luck, so did not stand directly under it.

So that's it. I do not care to look at more fabulous churches, one built upon the ruins of another, each succeeding religion exclaiming that their god is better than the previous culture's god. Maybe when it stops raining, I'll summon up the courage to see some more, in some other place. For now — I'm off to get some good food and then to catch a train to Cordoba!