Sevilla, Spain - 24 November

I had signed up for one last S@S tour for Spain that began today. The trip is to Sevilla, Cordoba, and Grenada. We met in the Union this morning at 7:30 and we only had 28 people on the trip and the majority of them were faculty and staff. Woohooo!!! I felt sorry for the few students on the trip who were going to be surrounded by us for the next three days though.

We got off the boat and gathered in the parking lot only to find that our bus wasn’t there. Hmmmm. Houston, we have a problem. 15 minutes later, it finally arrived and I scurried to the back of the bus where all the cool kids hang out on the trips. I hadn’t had the opportunity to ride back there on any of the trips and I was determined to snag one of the seats. I scored a couple of seats for myself and had a few of the students as neighbors but was otherwise was left with plenty of space. Life is good. What was even better was no tour guide to be on the bus with us. Apparently, we will pick up tour guides in each city but not have one riding with us between each location. No inane chatter! Whatever will I do? Enjoy it!!!!!

The trip to Sevilla took two hours and when we arrived in town we picked up guide #1 Sergio. Sergio was a hottie but wasn’t much of a tour guide. He talked very softly and didn’t particularly care if people could keep up with him. We started our tour at the Universal Exhibition Sevilla built in 1992. It was a beautiful building but the tile work was the highlight of the structure. As we were walking around we heard music playing. It sounded suspiciously like Zamphir playing the pan flute. We went across the bridge and were met with the sight of two men dressed like Native American Indians playing pan flutes. Oh! My! God! I’m in an alternate universe…and not a good one either.

After gaping at the two men for a couple of minutes, I focused my attention back on the architecture of the building and struggled to hear what Sergio was saying. We ambled around for about 15 minutes and then got back onto the bus to go to Alcazar. It was originally built as a fort in 913 but is more of a palace now. It was a beautiful palace with detailed carvings on the wall. It also had gorgeous tiles that would make a great quilt pattern so I took lots of pictures (hint, hint, Mum).

Once we were done touring Alcazar we walked across the town square to the Cathedral of Seville. The construction was begun in 1402 and was finished in the 16^th century.It is the largest of all Roman Catholic cathedrals (because St. Peter’s basilica is not a cathedral for those of you wanting to challenge me on that fact) and also the largest Medieval Gothic religious building. It also houses the remains of Christopher Columbus. The picture shows a box being held by the statues of four men which has Chris’ bones in it. Cool! The rest of the church was beautiful too.

Once we were done in the church, we walked down some narrow streets towards the old Jewish area and admired the shops and homes. It was a charming area. We arrived at our restaurant and were fed tapas and wine until we were totally bloated. The food was excellent and everyone was very happy with life after we were finished. After lunch, we were given 10 minutes to do some poking around in the nearby stores before Sergio pulled the plug on our shopping and herded us down more narrow alleys to the main boulevard. Soon, our bus pulled up and Sergio waved goodbye to us….two hours ahead of schedule. The schmuck left out parts of our tour of Sevilla and deprived us of time exploring the city. Sergio may have been cute but he was an abysmal failure as a tour guide. By the time we figured out that we had been bamboozled, we were already on our way to Cordoba.

Our drive to Cordoba took around 2 ½ hours or so. I spent the majority of that taking a nap so I missed all of the scenery along the way. We arrived in the city and soon settled into our hotel. I was invited to explore the city with Mike and Suzanne before dinner and we spent several hours walking the parks and streets. It was a pretty city once you got past the main thoroughfares and into the small alleys and shops. We eventually made our way back to the hotel for an icky dinner that was made palatable by the wine on the table. One of the highlights of dinner was competing with a group of Spanish women who were staying in the hotel too. They were cut throat in the buffet line! They pushed and shoved in front of us and were incredibly rude. Dinner was a bit of a contact sport tonight and several of us are bearing scars from it. The remainder of the evening was uneventful and I went to bed early despite my power nap on the bus ride.