Sevilla

We're staying in Sevilla in a beautiful little hotel in the old Jewish quarters. All indication of the Jews were erased from this ghetto just like the Jews were eraticated (either exiled or killed) during the horrors of the Spanish Inquisition. It is a maze of very narrow alleyways where no cars can drive. The reason it has such narrow alleys is that the Jews were confined to a specific, very small space and couldn't build up more than a story or two. So they had to make use of all space as much as possible. Below is the small plaza just outside the door of our hotel.

We saw the Sevilla Cathedral and the Alcazar (pronounced Al-CATH-ar) which is the palace. The Alcazar was impressive in its utilization of both Moorish (Muslim) architecture and Christian/western architecture; this style is called "mudejar". The palace was built by Muslim craftsmen and builders, but built for a Catholic king, Peter. The palace and the gardens were beautiful, but I was completely smitten by the underground pool that they built on the grounds -- a welcome relief on a hot day like today. This idea was genius, especially in a hot climate with no air conditioning.

a door with the beautiful tile that is everywhere in the city, as well as everywhere in the Alcazar

Can't you almost feel the coolness of this subterranean pool?

Arches and entry into one section of the palace

Finally, the specialty of all of Spain is jamon (ha-MONE/ham.) Each area has its own way of making it. On the street you can buy it in little white paper cones for a snack, which I tried several times, of course.

And now for a shot of Doug outside the castle, keeping the sun from beating down on his pate.