day 11: alcázar

Monday we had class. (I know surprising right).

*selfie* in our elevator heading to school.

The super exciting part about Monday was our excursion. We went to the alcázar palace here in Seville. Originally this was a fort and today it is the oldest palace still in use in Europe. The upper levels are still used by the royal family as the official Seville residence. Although, many times when they come to town they stay instead in Seville's nicest 5 star hotel due to respect. They say that the alcázar is for the people of Seville only.

This was the entrance we went through.

Here is the map of it. Its huge. Each person or civilization
in power over the years added on to the building starting with Pedro I. The gardens were huge!

The was the first patio we entered into.
El Patio de León

Next we went to the first room off to the left. The Palacio de Yeso, with the living room of justice and the garden it opens to.

Fountain in the middle of the room. It drained to the adjoining
garden and pond.

The ceiling.

Benches were along all the walls.

A close up on some of the tile inlay in the floor.

This is the view from the fountain out toward the adjoining garden.

Said garden 

Detail work on the archway leading to the garden.

Artsy tile closeup.

Next we crossed the same patio to the room on the right. It is called the Casa de la Contratación.

This room lead to a fan exhibit. In Spanish they are called Abanicos.

This was made with ostrich feathers. 

This fan was made with pearls.

Off the fan exhibit but still in the Casa de la Contratación we walked through this room and to the Patio de la Montería.

These huge doors lead out to the Patio de la Montería

These are both views across the Patio de la Montería.

Next up was the Palacio del Rey Don Pedro and the Patio de las Doncellas. These pictures are the entrance to Pedro's palace.

Gotta love those ceilings. 

The tile work went up high enough to protect
 the walls from daily wear and tear 

A close up on the detail above the tile.

These pictures are of the maiden's courtyard (patio de las doncellas).

One of the ceilings in the maiden's courtyard.
The iron bars are braces they had to add over time for the walls.

These 3 photos make up one of the doorways off the courtyard,
I love all the detail.

More rooms in Pedro's Palace.

Nearly all the rooms had these
three vents which allowed better airflow in the palace. 

 Beautiful sun room.

These next pictures are from Pedro's Hall of Ambassadors. This is where he would greet people.

Ceiling.

Detail work on the walls.

These balconies were accessible for the king to look down
and see who was waiting for him.
There was one on each wall.

Next we moved on to our first outdoor garden.

Before moving on to the next part of the gardens we stopped in to see the Queen's bathhouse. The name is Baños de Maria Padilla.

Then- back outside!

So many hungry fishies! 

So much green space! 

Cyndi and I, she went on the
trip to the DR with me last summer.

They even had a maze in one of the gardens that we got to walk through.

After we finished the tour of the Alcázar we all walked together down the river to go rowing! I didn't get any pictures since I left my phone in my bag for this activity. I didn't want it to get wet.

MAN is rowing difficult. This was the first time I'd ever tried it. I was in a two person boat with another girl named Janeen. We didn't flip, which was a win in my book, but boy did we do a lot of circles! By the end of it I was SOAKED. Jansen, who sat up front, accidentally splashed me a few times (which nicely cooled me off at the time) but made walking home in drenched jeans a nightmare.

After we finished I walked home with Dorel, Ayanna and Olivia. Olivia, Ayanna and I stopped for dinner on the way home at a pizza place on Avenida de República Argentina. I had a super yummy carbonara pizza. Once we finished we all split up and headed home. I needed to shower and was very ready for bed!