Sevilla (Seville), Spain. HDR

We are now at, what we think are going to be, our best digs of this trip.  It is an apartment on the top floor of an old building in the old city.

Our patio has a view of the Middle Eastern-looking house-tops and Sevilla’s cathedral tower called La Giralda.

The colors of Sevilla take up several patches in Spain’s quilt and the Moorish and Gothic styles converge in the city architecture.

Below us are sidewalk restaurants and shops.  People are milling in the streets and the shop owners are trying to entice them to buy their wares and eat their food.  We hear happy noises well into the night.

Next day, we are in Real Alcazar, one of the Spanish King’s residences. It is actually several palaces and a beautiful garden within the high fort-type walls built in a Mudéjar style. We are told that the current Spanish king does not like to visit Sevilla’s palace.  His loss.  It is fantastic!

La Giralda, which we see from our apartment patio, is the 12th century minaret, converted into a bell tower with a thirteen feet statue on top.  This bell tower is a part of a very large cathedral, which is Christopher Columbus’ final resting place.