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Seville – Granada – Ronda
Day -1 Seville
Seville is the capital of Andalusia region. There are 17 autonomous communities in Spain, Andalusia is the most populous and 2nd largest by area. I missed my original flight to Barcelona so I had to knock off Barcelona and Madrid from my original itinerary and instead arrived Seville two days latter. First thing I noticed are orange trees, they are an integral part of the landscape. If you make the mistake (like I did ) of biting one of the oranges you will understand why these are not meant to be eaten.
Latter in the afternoon I visited Seville Cathedral. It is the largest Gothic cathedral and the third-largest church in the world. The cathedral is also the burial site of Christopher Columbus. Seville Cathedral has fifteen doors on its four facades and has 80 chapels.
Later in the evening I roamed around, had a big burger at burger kings and went for a goodnight’s sleep.
Day -2 Seville to Granada
I woke up at usual time. City was still waking up, in spite of being a large city people still live slow life. Today my first stop was Alcázar , a royal palace originally developed by Moorish Muslim kings. This is one of the most beautiful palace in Spain and still used by the royal family.
In the 11th century Seville’s prosperous Muslim taifa (small kingdom) rulers developed the original fort by building a palace called Al-Muwarak (the Blessed) in what’s now the western part of the Alcázar. The 12th-century Almohad rulers added another palace east of this, around what’s now the Patio del Crucero. Christian Fernando III moved into the Alcázar when he captured Seville in 1248, and several later Christian monarchs used it as their main residence. Fernando’s son Alfonso X replaced much of the Almohad palace with a Gothic one. Between 1364 and 1366 Pedro I created the Alcázar’s crown jewel, the sumptuous Mudéjar Palacio de Don Pedro.
It took almost 4 hours to complete sightseeing Alcazar . From there I walked to Plaza de España, this is a huge half circular structure with buildings continually running around the edge accessible over the moat by numerous bridges representing the four ancient kingdoms of Spain. In the centre is the Vicente Traver fountain. By the walls of the Plaza are many tiled alcoves, each representing a different province of Spain.
By the time I finished Plaza de Espana , it was already lunch time, I came back to my hotel to grab my backpack. It was time to catch the train to Granada which was my next stop. On my way to station I took some pictures of Metrpol Parasol. This is considered the largest wooden structure in the world. It has 6 parasols in the form of giant mushrooms.
Next: Granada
