Seville Sojourn

Seville

Seville Cathedral

Another whirlwind day, the second half of “Edna’s Death March through southern Spain”. We woke up in Seville this morning, and promptly hustled over to the Seville Cathedral. 

First stop was climbing the bell tower. Instead of stairs, they had 35 ramps winding their way up the tower, with one final flight of stairs. Each landing is numbered so you know exactly how out of shape you are 😆

The choir and the giant music stand in the choir:

The high altar:

Altar de Plata

Organ

Nave

Ralph for scale

Christopher Columbus’ tomb

Granada In 7 Hours (and Cordoba In Less Than 1)

Barcelona 

Today was what we have been referring to as “Edna’s Death March.” When we first started planning this trip, Ralph wanted to keep the itinerary manageable, so we only planned to visit Barcelona and Madrid. After delving into the guide book, I realized I really wanted to see the Alhambra, which is how we found ourselves meeting our Uber driver at the “Big Fun Museum” at 5:00 am. 

Granada

We caught a 7:00 am flight to Granada, dropped off our luggage at a storage place, and headed downtown. 

The Alcaiceria marketplace we did *not* visit. 

The Royal Chapel that we *did* visit, but weren’t allowed to photograph inside

Gaudi, Gaudi, Gaudi

Barcelona 

Today we went up to the Eixample neighborhood and saw a lot of Gaudi

La Pedrera

We started the day with a “sunrise” tour of La Pedrera (thankfully a bit later than actual sunrise!)

The roof was the best part! 

We also toured the attic, 4th-floor apartment, and some courtyards on the main level:

Attic 

 Building model in the attic

Garage door (cars drove through the internal courtyard to get to the garage. 

Sagrada Familia

Gaudi #2 was the Sagrada Familia, whose towers are finally finished. 

Sunday Sardana, Museums, & Food Tour #1

Barcelona

Sardana

First stop today was the Sunday morning traditional sardana dance in front of the cathedral. The dancers are accompanied by a cobla, a traditional Catalan ensemble with Catalan shawms and other instructions. (Wikipedia article on the cobla)

Cobla de Cambra de Catalunya

Palace of Catalan Music

Barcelona

Palace of Catalan Musix

We visited the Palace of Catalan Music the same day as the Picasso Museum (see previous post), but I took so many photos that it gets its own post.

A very interesting history: the hall was built in 1908 as the home of the Orfeó Català, an amateur chorus founded in 1891. **Built for an amateur chorus** — as someone deeply involved with amateur (i.e., unpaid) community choruses in the US, with their shoestring budgets, this amazed me almost as much as the building itself.

And now, since it’s past my bedtime, here is a photo dump of this incredible building: