Day 4 half day in Seville and travel to Palma del Rio

We had our lovely breakfast at the hotel (the U.S. has a LOT to learn from the Europeans about hotel breakfasts).

We found our way to the cathedral and we were early. It doesn't open till 10:45.

 

So we thought we'd hunt down some apples for lunch and we found a little fruit store that was very nicely stocked. We bought a couple of lovely red apples to eat later and meandered back to the cathedral. We got to bypass the line because we already had tickets. It was pretty fantastic.

They had lots of paintings and an altar decorated in silver and others decorated a gold. We climbed the 34 story bell tower to look at the views of the city. In reality, each rise here was only about 4 feet, so it really wasn't a full 34 floors.

In olden times, the monk rode a donkey up this ramped structure to ring the bells. Using ramps instead of steps made it easier for both donkey and rider.

The last story is reached by stairs. Lovely view of the city. We came back down and finished looking at the cathedral, then went to buy Mary a metal thing from the gift shop. Then we relaxed in the plaza and ate our apples and people watched. Very tasty.

 

Meandering back to the hotel, we stopped at the cafe across the street for a beer and a sangria; guess who got which.

We hauled our luggage about a quarter mile to the pick-up loation. We had to wait quite a while, and someone left their passport in their hotel safe, and it was an act of Congress to get the safe open after they checked out. We finally loaded on the bus for the hour trip to Palma del Rio. Tonight we have a walking tour and a dinner for 30 Euros each.

Our hotel is a converted monastary. It's lovely. It is from the 1500's, and Christopher Columbus is documented as having stayed here.