Oh, how it would suck to be Hernando Columbus

Our day started bright and early on this fine Monday morning. The birds chirping, the sun rising gently and breaking into our window….

Ok, not really, but it sounds nice right? We actually slept until 12:30, and we probably could have slept longer, except Allison woke up and realized it was that late and roused us out of bed. Suppose this is how the conversation went:

Allison: Chris!

Me: What? (grumpily)

Allison: We have to get up!

Me: Why? (Also grumpily)

Eric: ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

I don’t remember it this, way, but that is ok. The first thing that Eric said is that we probably missed the bike tours. This is probably true, and I know that I for one am very happy about that fact. I know that bike tours are great and all, but really Spanish cities are not built for them and so it is hard to really appreciate the tour when you are worrying about staying with the guide and not getting hit or run over by cars. It probably would have been fun, but I don’t really think we missed anything.

Anyway, as we are getting ready, we discuss what we are going to do, and I mention that we have to do laundry soonish. So we decide that we should do laundry today, since our plans for tomorrow involve doing something relatively early in the morning. So we look up Laundromats in the guide and find a good one, that is 6 euros a load, and it includes folding, so that was a great price. The problem was that they took a siesta from 2-5 and at this point it was already about 1:15 so we quickly loaded up our gear, waited for Eric to finish in el bano and then bolted. I ended up getting directions from Eric who by this time knew the map better than me, although, I still think I know the general area better, mainly because I remember small landmarks, like fat food restaurants. (OT: Allison is really amused/confused/mocks me whenever I point out a fast food restaurant, however, so far it has helped me a few times know where we are, so I don’t think it is that silly. I suppose I could just keep it to myself, however, that would be less fun)

Ok, so anyway, I bolted ahead and got there at like 1:50, and I talk to the lady a little bit and each load, is actually a small little bucket, so I am worried that we won’t be able to fit everything in 3 loads. The lady then tells me to put whites in one bucket and to separate the laundry. So I start doing that. Then Eric and Allison show up and Allison starts just moving the clothes around… I am not sure exactly why, but she does. So we get things put in 3 buckets. Then the lady comes back and moves things around again. Lol… anyway, we got it worked out, and they allowed us to use three buckets, even though they were a little overflowing. She then told us that we should come back at 8 and they would be ready.

So we head out, ready to do adventuring… well, maybe we would eat first. Since it was time for Menu del Dia. As we are looking for a restaurant, Eric regales us with the tale of him walking by a board game store and how exciting that was. He hasn’t seen a game store in all of Spain and so it was very exciting to actually see one.

So we found some restaurants and we walked through them and we got hawked at by several people, but we just walked by and stayed strong, so we are certainly learning. Eventually we found a place that sounded good and Allison liked the Menu del Dia well enough. (Have I explained Menu Del Dia? It is great. Basically, you get two dishes and then a dessert and a drink. Pretty great concept, which I think I already covered).

Menu del Dia! Worked great! Much easier than Tapas.

So after our meal we head out towards the cathedral to check it out. We find the entrance and notice that students are 6 euros cheaper. Then there is some fine print that says that the students must be 25 or younger. This seems ridiculous! We are still students! Do they think we are free loaders because we are older than 25! HMPF! We try anyway, but the lady looks at Allison’s ID and we are busted. Luckily, they allow pictures, so that is good. We head in, and I must say the cathedral is really impressive. It is sort of like the one in Toledo, same floorplan, only much much bigger. So we walk around. Supposedly Christopher Columbus’ tomb is here, so I am excited to see that.

This cathedral would cost 6 Euros cheaper if I was 2 years younger!

I read the map wrong and think that this plate in the floor is Christopher Columbus. I think it is a shame that he has such a puny little memorial thing…. This is not his tomb. It is his brother’s!!! Hernando Columbus. Lol… what a name, also, if I was him there is no way that I would want to be buried in the same church as him…. Even in death he could not escape the shadow of his great brother (although according to Eric he was not great, so that is debatable).

We walk around, go out into the Courtyard, which has a whole bunch of orange trees and then we head for the Bell tower.

Eric in the courtyard:

I am really excited since we are actually able to go all the way to the top. I wanted to do that in Toledo, since they had the Fat Lady Bell, but that was closed. Anyway, the bell tower was great, it was a slanted walkway, wide enough for a horse to ride up it all the way to the top.

The beginning of the long walk:

We get to the top and you can basically see all of Sevilla. There are a lot of little rooftop pools and people lounging about. It is a pretty cool view. We take some pictures and then head back down to explore the rest of the cathedral.

A few of the many Bells:

Eric and Allison at the top of the bell tower:

A view from the top:

The rest of the cathedral…. Well that is not true, there were some cool things. For example, Columbus’ tomb, it was pretty awesome. Even Eric admitted that if he could have a tomb like it he would be buried in a church. It was very impressive. I don’t quite know the symbolism behind everything, but he is being carried by 4 kings. The one in the back had a crown of bats, so I dub him the Bat King.

Eric and the Tomb of Christopher Colombus

There were also some relics, which Eric informed us is actually parts of that person. I never knew this and that was pretty cool. There was the first oval room ever built in this part of Europe and lots of general giant gold religious things.

Really old body parts contained in here: (Maybe just fingernail clippings or hair)

Eric and I looking at the treasure room. Cool stuff... not pirate treasure room cool, but still cool.

There was also the first water fountain we have seen in the entire country of Spain!!!! That was cool, and the water was cold and good, so that was very exciting.

FIRST (Only?) WATER FOUNTAIN IN SPAIN!!!!!!

We were not really sure what we were going to do next, we had considered just sort of walking around in this garden that Eric was really excited about. It was really more of a park, but we walked around the cathedral instead and we went to this little courtyard that we thought was the alcazar. According to Rick Steves the Alcazar was closed on Monday, but then why were people coming out? That made no sense. So we went ahead and walked in the exit.

They immediately caught us and told us to go out and go to the entrance. But it seemed like they were open. We had been talking about going to the Alcazar, and since it was open until 7 we decided we would just go now. The Alcazar was amazing. It was the palace or the Arabs, I think? And was designed to be confusing to walk through so that each time you walked through it would be new and exciting. It was very cool. There is no way that I could ever describe it, so I will just include some pictures and explain them a little.

Me in the corner of this huge room. The ceiling was just a huge big gold dome.

Eric getting his picture taken in a courtyard

Eric and I exploring:

More exploring. we are a little lost by now, but everything is still really cool!

Allison chilling at the end of a long pool inside the palace. Would be great if the water was clean.

After the main palace we went out into the gardens which was even cooler. There were several different styles, such as Roman, English, and … something else. We spent a good hour exploring the garden and even were able to stay until after 7 PM. There was no way that they were going to be able to come kick us out since the place was huge and they would have to have like 100 people to walk through it.

We saw another cat, and this time it was actually friendly. Not nearly as nice as Sprinkles, who I miss, since the cats here and not nearly as active or friendly to me, but still nice, it even let Eric (and us) pet it. Then it rambled off. The place is filled with birds, so I would not be surprised if it was not very hungry.

Again, words won’t really suffice, so I will just explain the pictures.

Eric in front of a part of the garden:


A mother peacock and her... babies!

Aww... do we have to go? The garden is so big and sitting in the shade is so nice!

Allison in the garden:

Eric and Allison in the garden:

The first ever grotto. (Mom, Please stop reading for approximately 1 paragraph, and if you do read, I swear I only know this because of the articles.) This place really reminds me of the playboy mansion, the little cave underneath that people can swim into. (Now only ducks) A sort of secretive making out spot. Probably, the playboy mansion gets a little more action. ( In case Eric or Allison's parents are reading, neither of them knew what I was talking, so you can rest easy)

A cool gate that I made the walkies pose by: There were so many gates in this garden that I can't imagine what they were all used for... I guess maybe they were like "oh, it is monday, I haven't walked through the red gate in a few days, I feel like I will try that one. Cherrio old chap!" I don't know why, but I made them british....

There were lots of these little irrigation channels that ran down the pathways from fountain to fountain. Eric and I wanted to map them all. But we didn't have nearly enough time.

Hmm... which way do we go? There is so much to see

There was even a little castle at the far end of the garden! We couldn't go up into it, but it was pretty cool.
We found these spikey little fruits, it reminded me of the horned melon that Katie had tried a while back.
Allison with a fountain. Later on this fountain became a popular stop for the ducks in the gardens.

We found a way to go upstairs and so we were able to explore a little bit and get a better view of the gardens. It was pretty cool. It made the gardens look entirely different. When we found this it was like... 7:01, so we were worried they were going to kick us out, so we did this upstairs wall thing and a maze, since we figured that they would be the least easy to find us in.

There was a maze... not incredible fun, but always good for pictures:

Allison in the Maze:

Eric and I enjoyed it a bit more....

It's 7:30 Allison, we really have to go. (She really liked it)

After we slowly rambled out of the garden it was just about time to go get the laundry. After walking around the store for a little, we headed to the Laundromat. We got our clothes, all folded and packed away and still warm. It was great. The place was soooooooooo hot though, I can’t imagine working there. But we got our clothes so that was cool.

YAY! Clean Clothes!

On our way back to the hotel we stayed at the game store (Big surprise) and Eric walked around and looked at games. I am sure that he didn’t really understand the Spanish, but he was probably just getting his fix in.

Eric staring his addiction in the face and managing to not buy a game.

We headed back and stopped at the little store again and got some food. We then had our boxed Sangria, which was actually really really good, and we called it a night.