Heading east, we moved from Portugal back into the Andalusian section of Spain, arriving in Seville late afternoon. With limited free time before a scheduled dinner, we visited El Corte Ingles department store across the street from our hotel. These are unique stores to our American experience: think large, fancy, multi-floor Dillards with a Barnes & Noble and a Sprouts in the basement. With the help of several clerks’ broken English, Kevin’s very broken Spanish, and the Microsoft Translator App, we were able to locate everything we were looking for in the grocery section.
Friday morning we did a quick driving tour of Seville, stopping at the Spanish Pavilion built for the Iberian-American Exposition in the 1920s, and for longer at the large, elaborate Cathedral of Seville. Both were impressive structures, and then we had time for wandering the neighborhoods, grabbing a baguette con jamon y queso at a sidewalk café.
After lunch, we journeyed to Córdoba to visit the largest Catholic cathedral, built into the remains of a Moorish Mosque. Spain was largely governed by the Moors until the Re-conquest of the fifteenth century when the Christians re-claimed the territory, little by little. But, rather than destroying the mosques, the Christians often built their cathedrals onto the existing structures. The earliest parts of the structure date from the seventh century. Our local guide, Maria, provided excellent information, and then lead us on a fun walking tour of old-town Córdoba.