Sevilla Sights

  Seville, Andalusia, Spain and Canary Islands
Monday, May 21, 2007

We rested up this morning and caught up on our travel logs and such. After lunch we headed over to the bus station and bought our ticket down to La Linea, next to the border with Gibraltar. The plan to buy the ticket on a Sunday worked out as the station was nearly empty and only a few booths (ours) were open. On the way back, I did manage to confirm via the internet that Kansas City and Seville are sister cities. According to the website, there is a statue donated by Kansas City somewhere near the train station and Kansas City's plaza tower thing is a copy of the Giralda bell tower that is shown to the right.

Sevilla Cathedral Entrance

Around 2pm we headed over to the main cathedral for what we thought would be a free visit (all the guide books say it is free on Sunday). Somehow I knew things had changed once the line advanced so that I could see the people in front showing their Spanish passports to get in free on Sunday. So of course, we had to pay the 7.50euro entrance. I have to say though, as far as Christian buildings go, this is probably the best one I've yet visited. The Gothic construction and sheer size really are awesome to view from the inside. The ceiling is probably 100 feet high and the columns holding it up are at least 10 feet thick.

Sevilla Cathedral Inside

The main alter is made up of more gold work than I've ever seen (no doubt thanks to South America). Attached to the church is a the Giralda, a bell tower that was originally the minaret of the mosque (this cathedral was also built on top of an old mosque). The path to the top of the tower is a series of ramps that wind up to the top so that in the old days the guards could ride their horses to the top. Nowadays it's the tourists that follow that path. The bells at the top were redone sometime in the last few decades and chime the regular chimes for the hour. Near the exit to the cathedral is an grand orange grove that was originally planted by the property's Muslim owners.

KC Indian Scout Statue in Seville

Later in the evening I went off alone on a quest to find the monument to Kansas City. I must have walked 3 miles before finally coming to the statue. It was probably the least impressive statue ever. It had no inscription, no plaque, and you couldn't even walk up to it without walking across no-crosswalk parts of the street. All the same, it was neat to come across such a thing. As a bonus, on the way to the statue I came across a "Hindu restaurant", which apparently means Indian Restaurant. My wife and I ate there and it was really good, far better than the crap we had back in Madrid.

PS: There are three Starbucks on the same road all within 1km of the main cathedral. Don't let Lewis Black into the city.

Sevilla Tower