Today, after breakfast, we looked around a local university on the way to the Alcázar, the old Moorish fort which is now a palace. It is still used by the royal family of Spain when they visit from Madrid. The tile patterns and scroll work decorating the arches are amazing. Like the other Islamic achitecture, there are many courtyards, fountains, gardens, and domed rooms.
We then went to the National Archive to see documents from the discovery of the Americas. Christopher Columbus left for America from Seville, and it became an important port because it was the only place allowed to receive the riches from the New World. It is on the River Guadalquiver. Although it is 50 miles from the Mediterranean, it is the only river port on the Iberian peninsula. Besides Columbus, we saw original documents from Raleigh and Drake, among others.
After lunch in a restaurant that had the stuffed heads of bulls that had been killed in the bullfights, we walked across the river to the tile district, but everything was closed because it was during the siesta hours. When the shops close, they put down metal doors over their awnings, so you can’t even look in the windows or tell what is normally there. We walked back to the Plaza España, which was under construction. It was very interesting architecture though. It had a little lake/moat in front (empty due to construction) where you can rent paddleboats. Along the outside of the building there were little alcoves with benches that each depicted an area of Spain. They all had intricate mosaics with pictures showing something that the area is known for. Along the way we saw a bike rental vending machine. After you make an account, you can rent bikes by the hour, day, week, or month. We saw these all over Seville and Barcelona.
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