May 19-Day 9 Seville

After breakfast, day 9 began with a guided walking tour of Sevilla. Due to the size and nature of the streets in the Spanish cities, buses are not allowed in the inner portions, so walking was our only way to go. Sevilla, which is larger than Granada, is a very quaint and pretty city as well. It sits on the bank of a river (I don't remember the name), but lacks the moutains of Granada. The highlight of the tour was a visit to the Alcazar (castle). As a language note, in Spanish when a word begins with "al" that signifies its Moorish or Arab roots (just think "alah"), where as if it starts with "el" then it originates from Spanish roots (after the Arabs left in 1492). That means that the Alcazar, began as a Arab building. As a point of honesty here, by the time we reached this point in the tour the vast majority of us were pretty tired of looking and taking pictures of castles and cathedrals. I do not mean this to be an insult to the buildings-they were all truly magnificent in their own way-but we were pretty tired in general at this point. So, my picturs of the Alcazar of Seville were mostly of the gardens, which were extensive (Dad you would have been in heaven). Pic 1 shows part of the gardens.

While I am talking about a walking tour, let me address transportation in Spain for a moment. The first choice in every city was by foot, second was bicycle, third was mass transit (bus, trolly, train, you name it) and finally cars. The cars were tolerated, and were all small (they had to be). A compact car (a toyota corrolla for example) was about as big as you would find, except maybe out in the country or on a highway between cities. We also saw very few (maybe 1 per day) American cars. Most of the cars were either German (lots of audis and VWs), French (Puegot) or Italian (Fiat-now owns Chrysler). Europe has a very interesting bike rental system that, as a cyclist, I found fascinating. As you can see from pic 2 it is also very popular. This is an example of a bike station (all available bikes are gone). Residences purchase a card (monthly rates apply) for the system similar to a bus pass. One can then scan there card at the kiosk (tall tower on right of pic) and that would unlock a bike (stored on the shorter posts on left). Then you can ride the bike to where you are going and return it at any kiosk around town. There are rules about how long you can check out a bike and your card of course tracks the bike to you. It is a pretty ingenious system that can be find in many European cities. The funny thing is all the bikes are identical (yellow in Seville) so you can spot them everywhere.

After our siesta and some free time in the city to finish up our souvenier shopping we went to a group dinner and Flamenco show. The food was good (as we had come to expect), and the show was amazing. Pic 3 and 4 are some stills of the event. The skill, artistry, rhythm and color were awe inspiring. These team were professionals and they demonstrated that in every way. It is hard to capture a music and dance show with still photography, but I can tell you, that this was one of the top five highlights of the whole tour for me if not in the top three.