What's Up, Espanha?

Seville is about 2 hours from me (plus 1 hour time zone change), so I got up and out the door at 5:30 this morning to drive East.  Finally, after seeing the Espanha signs on the road, I was going to follow the road to Spain.  I was glad to be the 3rd person in line at the Alzacar at 9:30 and I could have spent all day there.  As it was, 3 hours later, I realized I had to move on.  What an interesting look at Moorish architecture and the Christian use of the motifs for construction long after the Moors were sent packing.

The tiles were both in intricate patterns in tribute to Moorish design and hand painted in a Spanish, storytelling way.  I loved finding women on the tiles, although why this one sees a reflection of a man in her mirror, I can only wonder (there were others who saw women in their mirrors and still others with swords!)

 I could have spent all day indoors and then spent another day in the spectacular gardens.  It was hard to stop although this peacock who joined me while I had a lemonade and sandwich seemed to think I needed to move along.

When I exited the Alcazar, the crowds had come to Seville.  Long lines for tickets and long lines for entry.  The courtyard where I stood hours before with a few other people was now pretty full with groups of people.  It was definitely time to get a move on.

I did walk through the Cathedral, which is the 4th largest cathedral in the world, but after seeing small exquisite cathedrals I thought a quick walk through the cavernous space was fine.  And I did make it to the Plaza Republica, which was beautiful but packed with horse carriage tours, bikers, scooters, people walking etc and I was glad to take a few photos and then head to the small Trina neighborhood where I'd parked the car in a garage.  If anything, the narrow streets in Trina only condensed the crowd there, so I was ready to leave!

Border crossing was accomplished at 120 km /hour, no stopping either way.  And I made it back to my beach cafe, site of yesterday's morning coffee, to have a margarita and rest my aching feet.

If you want to watch Rabbit of Seville, here's a link to a clip from it:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P6Sro9rMofg

I didn't find a full version, but there are many other clips that'll come up once you watch this!