… finally! My trip here took about 12 hours longer than it was supposed to, but more on that in just a minute.
First, here’s what I missed out on at work on Tuesday:
Jill and several volunteers spent hours and hours on Tues. moving thousands of back issues of The Carriage Journal from a rented storage space to new donated storage space
... while I, on the other hand, spent hours and hours gazing at this (the ceiling at the beautiful Terminal 4 at Madrid's airport)
I was scheduled to fly from Cincinnati on Tuesday afternoon, with a layover (not terribly long but sufficient) in Chicago, from there to Madrid and then to Seville, to arrive around 9-ish on Wednesday morning. Instead, the flight out of Cincinnati was delayed, then delayed again. Then they said we would do a “quick turnaround” when our plane arrived. So we boarded … and then we waited and waited and waited some more. By the time we reached Chicago, I had about five minutes to run through the airport (with my backpack o’electronics on my back) for the Madrid flight. When I made it to the gate, I was informed that the flight was closed (although, of course, the plane was still sitting there) and that they had already re-routed me. That entailed waiting several hours, flying to Frankfurt, then flying to Madrid, and then waiting five MORE hours for the flight to Seville. By the time I arrived, it was raining here and 9 o’clock at night instead of 9 o’clock in the morning. Oh well. At least I made it here at all and wasn’t trying to fly in today … I understand that the huge cloud of volcanic ash has massively disrupted air travel all over Europe.
Today, here in Seville, is gorgeous. I’m staying in the very old Barrio de Santa Cruz (a neighborhood near the cathedral) and spent most of the day exploring its ancient streets and alleyways.
one of the peaceful plazas (surrounded by orange trees) in the Santa Cruz neighborhood
I also toured the inside of the cathedral, with the specific intent of climbing up the famous Giralda tower.
the famous tower on Seville's cathedral; the ramps take one up to the level with the bells
The pathway up the tower is a series of ramps. A travel show on TV that I watched said this was for the purpose of taking donkeys and supplies up to the top. For the first part of the trip up, they’re numbered but then the walkway gets darker and more narrow near the top, so I lost count. The views from the top are quite spectacular, and it’s also quite windy up there.
I took a series of photos (below) from three different levels on the way up:
the view from ramp 6
the view from ramp 12
and the view from ramp 18
Once at the top, there’s pretty much a (windy!) panoramic view of the entire city. You can look out from all four sides. And my tall husband will be glad to hear that, although you can’t tell from this photo, there’s a solid stone railing and then heavy heavy iron bars covering the entire opening so no one can fall through.
the view (in one direction) from near the top of the Giralda; the bullring (location of the carriage exhibition on Sunday) is near the upper right corner
And, finally a view of one of the quiet little plazas that’s off the main tourist path …
my guidebook says that these three crosses are set on Roman columns
The Slower Road 