Wednesday, 5/8. Tour of the cathedral and Palace (Alcazar). Meh. Impressive churches are getting repetitive. It was insanely crowded and our group was not good companions. Wore hats, used selfie sticks, asked inane questions. Most impressive thing about the cathedral is that it has at least some of the bones of Christopher Columbus. Other bones may be in the Dominican Republic. The Tower is impressive as a repurposed Muslim minaret.

Alcazar is similarly a repurposed Muslim palace. Even the parts reputedly built after Christian occupancy has extensive Arabic writings on its walls. Seems very strange. The rooms are bare and the guide struggled to impress. Showed us photos from her smartphone, which I thought was lame. Obama toured the palace just a few weeks ago.

Toured the barrio. Strangely quiet. Everyone seemed off somehow.

Seville is having their BIG PARTY this week, so I’m not sure the city is showing us its best face. We’d seen that a large fair had been set up while driving in, but didn’t understand the significance. We walked over to the area. It is huge. My photos are a dim representation. See this site. Words and photos cannot represent its size. Over a thousand different entities rent tents for their private parties. (Security is heavy to ensure they remain private, though all the tents are all open on one side.) Horses with perfectly dressed riders simply sit in front of their tents. Incredibly fancy carriages ride up and down the avenues. Makes the Rose Parade look like a pauper’s drunken stumble. In the evening the horses go away, they clean up the mess, and dance until 5 AM. It was jammed while we visited and more were arriving. As many as a million people a day, mostly dressed up. Any and every decorous event in the USA dims in comparison.

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