day 23: So much touring..

SATURDAY- Our day of tours.

We woke up pretty early on Saturday, snagged ham and cheese sandwiches next to our hotel, and headed to the cathedral to do our first tour. Rob's really into history and I haven't toured the cathedral yet so I was excited. The line was super long but TOTALLY worth it. This cathedral is the 3rd largest church in the world. It took many years and a few collapses to completely build it. The inside has the longest nave of any cathedral in Spain and the central nave rises to a height of 42 meters. Many elements from the old mosque that was in its place are still on display or in use in the cathedral. The original minaret was converted into the Giralda bell tower.

These are a few pictures of where the line began/entered into the cathedral.

Once inside we bought our tickets and a magazine tour guide. The first section was a small museum of artifacts and paintings.

Next we ventured into the main room of the cathedral. Off to the left and right there were several smaller chapels. There are roughly 80 chapels. Here are some chapel pictures:

Love this view. It shows the ceiling detail, how large those columns are and how long the church is itself.

ginormous column.

Also there were SOOO many super pretty stained glass windows. With the lighting in the cathedral and my phone camera it was hard to focus and get them to show well. 

Here is a picture of the organ in the center of the cathedral. 

More chapel pictures..

This is the silver altar: 

This is the ceiling in the center of the cathedral.

These pictures show where the choir sits and the organ on both sides above their seats.

This is the high altar:

This is the burial of Christopher Columbus. I was confused because in the Dominican Republic when I went to the "Faro al Colon" he is said to have parts of him been buried there. Online, after my tour of this cathedral, I read that the body in Sevilla has been DNA tested and, compared to Columbus and some of his family members, it's said to match. The one in the DR is said to have not been tested.

They had a mirror in front of the burial of Columbus that showed the ceiling a bit more in detail.

The mirror showed the organ too when you looked from the side.

Next we ventured off the main cathedral area and into more smaller chapels and rooms. I had no idea the cathedral had over 80 smaller chapels. So many places to walk through and see. Each with so much history to offer. 

one of the holy water fountains

next, this is the entry to the oval-shaped room.

 This is one of the first oval shaped rooms built here in the area.

Next up was the treasure room. So much gold and silver. So much.

This is the ceiling in the treasure room

another holy water bowl. they are all over the cathedral.

Two more chapel rooms that we saw on the way to the outdoor patio, the patio of oranges "Patio de los Naranjos".

The patio, covered in Orange Trees.

a fountain in the patio

Next we got to climb the giralda tower and view the city from the top. It was 35 ramps and 17 steps. It was a long climb. At least on the way up there were places to stop and take pictures out the windows. Every few ramps there also were artifacts on display in the middle of the tower.

one of the many un-fun ramps.

each ramp had a number. sadly this was only number 13.

I LOVE this view with the cathedral's patio in it. And the beautiful sky.

AND YAY!! we made it to the top!

While we were up there Rob showed me how to take a panorama on our phone and I finally got to use it! These are two views of the city from the tower. 

The bells even rang while we were up there :D

It was such a good experience and I'm happy we were able to get into the cathedral to tour!! Next we stopped at a little cafe to get a quick bite before we went to the Alcazar.

the view down the street at our cafe. I love enjoying lunch outside.

After we finished the Alcazar (I didn't take pictures because I'd already been there) we stopped at Cien Montaditos (meaning 100 sandwiches) to enjoy some cheap drinks and tapas. We mainly just wanted the cheap drinks since we were gonna meet up with friends later for dinner. 

yay for 1.5 euro beers/tintos

you write your order down, turn it in to the cashier, pay for it and they call you out the window when it's ready.

After we sat and bullshitted for a bit Kristen and Olivia met up with us on San Fernando. We walked around for a bit and then stopped for some dinner.

Since we ran around most of the day we were a bit worn out. Rob and I headed back to the hotel after dinner and stayed there the rest of the night. We tried to see if anyone was doing much that evening but my net turned up a bit empty. It seems I was having issues with some of the kids in the group and all the messages I sent them on Facebook were going to their other inbox? That and I didn't have the "GroupMe" app everyone was using to communicate. Who knows... All in all- a very busy Saturday!