Saturday, April 25 - La Catedral

La Catedral (The Cathedral) is a must see on all Sevillan tourist sites.  I'd chosen this weekend to go since it's Feria and most people are at the fairgrounds (or recovering from the night before) and therefore the weekend lines would be shorter.

We chose to take the bus down to the cathedral to get there quicker and to save the kids legs.  Here we are at the bus stop waiting for our bus.  On a side note, the kids and I finally bought a bus pass on Thursday.  We bought it at a tabacco shop.  The public transit is called Tussam, so the kids now say that rather than RTD.  With the bus pass, fares are half or less of paying regular price.  And, it's nice to not have to carry small change.

We got off by the bull fighting ring and admired this statue of a bull fighter.  Devon and Scott were ready to pose for a picture.

Rosa jumped in.

Around the corner from the main entrance to the cathedral, we were able to enter a smaller chapel.

We waited in line for about half an hour.  The kids were great during that time.   Here's part of the line snaking around at the entryway.  This statue is a replica of the weathervane that sits atop the tower.  It's called La Giralda.  

La Catedral is the 3rd largest church in the world and largest Gothic cathedral.  

We didn't know most of what we were looking at in the cathedral (Judy B. - I needed you), but we were still awed by the carvings, architecture, art work, grandeur, etc.

This painting by Christopher Columbus' tomb is huge!

This is Christopher Columbus' tomb.  Apparently there's a tomb in South America that also claims to have Christopher Columbus' remains.  Perhaps part of his skeleton is here and part in South America?

Some of the floors (and Scott's sneakers).

This room and the domed ceiling in it took our breath away.  We kow that the pictures can't do it justice.

I took this picture while looking at a slanted mirror.  It's there to show off the magnificent ceiling by the main chapel area.

Here's a picture of Devon hanging out on our walk up the tower.  The tower is reachable via ramp.  The ramp is from way back when for the bell ringers to climb to it on horseback.  There are 34 turns to the ramps.  It's quite the climb.

The views from the top are stunning.

Here's a picture of some of the bridges in the background.

The red building on the far left is the tallest building in Sevilla.  It's still being constructed.  Up until this building, the cathedral's tower was the tallest building.

Notice the cloudy skies.  While we were in the cathedral it rained.  We missed it all.  It didn't rain the rest of the day.

Here's the bell tower.

We had the chance to hear the bells ringing while up there.  It was LOUD!

Here we are in the orange grove within the cathedral.

A view looking up at the bell tower.  It's quite the climb.

Afterwards, we brought the kids to a sneaky plaza, Plaza Santa Marta (thinking of you Marta).  It's just next to the Cathedral and the tourist area, but usually people don't venture into it because they don't know it exists.  It's a little oasis.  The kids loved being let in on this secret. 

 We headed over to Plaza Nueva and caught a trolley.  The kids loved it.  We took it over to the Univerity of Sevilla area and had lunch.

Afterwards we walked home.  On the way, we saw all of these ladies (and one guy) ready for Feria.  

We walked via Plaza Alfalfa (the butterfly playground) where the kids played for a little bit.

At home we chilled out for a bit, skyped with my parents and Chloe, I made a bunch of blog posts, and then we headed over to Alameda de Hercules (per the kids' request) for dinner.  We ate at the same restaurant (Restaurante Arte y Sabor) we'd eaten at our 2nd or 3rd night in Sevilla.  That time I hadn't really enjoyed it.  That was probably jet lag.  This time we all loved it.  The kids had 4 servings of chicken fingers.  We all shared pig cheeks as an appetizer.  It's completely gross to think about, but it's a Sevillan specialty and it tastes like pot roast.  Scott had pork skewer that was phenemonal.  And I ate an amazing salad with spinach, nuts, cheese, avocado, tomato, and a honey dressing.  Brigid - I kept on thinking about you as "seriously" went through my head.  Seriously, the salad was amazing.  Who dreams up these creations?

We walked home and crashed.