Cadiz / Seville

Today, we docked in Cadiz, Spain. Our plan was to take a train to Seville, which is 2 hours away, to see that city. I had looked at the train schedules and knew that there was an 8:50 and 9:55 departure to Seville.

We were supposed to dock at 8:30, which would make for a tight, but makeable walk to the train station.

Well, there was fog this morning in Cadiz and we didn't dock till around 9:30. Very frustrating. They did at least make our departure later so we can aty longer in seville.

So, once we could get off the ship, we went to the train station. After getting turned around, with help from locals and my spanish classes, we found the station. We got there and bought our tickets, but the ticket agent said that the next train was at 11:05. We went out to the tracks and the 9:55 was still sitting there so we just hopped on and rode to Seville.

The train was really hot-no air or windows or anything! We did see a lot of scenery on the countryside. Apparently, cotton is a big crop because they were harvesting as we were going by.

In Seville, we visited the cathedral, which is the third largest in Europe. It was truly stunning. Even though they were doing some renovation for the anniversary of Christopher Columbus' death, it was very beautiful.

The pipe organ was huge-over 6700 pipes. The main altar had over 1500 carvings and was covered in gold leaf. Christopher Columbus' remains are (purportedly) housed there-that was neat to see.

They also had a treasury that has relics and other artifacts.

One of the coolest things in the treasury was a crown. It had over 10000 precious stones and it has (again, purportedly) the worlds largest pearl. I don't know if it was the biggest, but it was HUGE!

The largest pearl is the body of the angel in the middle front.

The cathedral also had a bell tower that was 330 feet tall. We walked up the tower for some incredible views. It was really cool (even with all of the walking).

After that, we visited the Alcazar, which was the palace of the kings. It was formerly a Moorish palace. It was very ornate (at least the original Moorish-influenced portion). It also had a huge series of gardens. They seemed to go on forever. I can't imagine the staff it takes to maintain the gardens.

After that, we were out of time and had to grab a taxi. Well, that was a bit of a challenge because they are doing a tremendous amount of construction in Seville and most of the roads surrounding the Cathedral and Alcazar are closed or severly restricted. We walked around for a bit and couldn't find any so we headed back to the square and found one. We made it to the train station with 20 minutes to spare and got on the train. This one was much cooler and was on time!

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