Andalucia Day

Yesterday we finally went to see the touristy part of town, which is only about 7 or 8 blocks away. We keep coming upon unexpected treasures. It has been great to be able to explore at our own pace and not try to cram everything in at once. We saw the outside of La Giralda and the cathedral and the Alcazar. We were absolute tourists and took a walking tour straight from the Rick Steve's Travel Guide. It was beautiful and we probably wouldn't have seen lots of the areas without it, since everything is so tucked away. We walked around the Jewish quarter, later renamed the very Christian Santa Cruz after they banished the poor Jews from their homes. I have found that I am also one of those annoying American tourists who likes to stand there and read my kids the info from the Rick Steve's book about each site we visit. They could care less, but I do it anyway...hopefully some of the info will stick. One of the neatest things we saw was totally unexpected. As we walked through one of the plazas we saw a big tent (like for a wedding or something) and there was a fence around it with some privacy screening. People were peering through holes, so we went and looked too. They were excavating an old Roman sight about 10 feet below the surface. It was neat to be surrounded by all these old buildings and then to see some really old ruins below them. The following pictures are random snpshots of the Giralda, the cathedral, and the Alcazar, mostly taken by Cassy. We didn't get too many pictures on Barrio Santa Cruz....I must have been too busy following my map.

The Roman Ruins



It was Andalucia Day so a lot of the stores were closed, but there were lots of people on the streets. I noticed that there were lots of children out today. I wonder if they had been out of town for the holiday because up until today, we haven't seen many kids at all. That would be great if we could meet some friends to play with!