Seville

We stayed in amongst the narrow laneways of Barrio de Santa Cruz for 2 nights and really got the feel of the place. We could walk to the Catedral and Alcazar Palace. The Islamic influence in the architecture is strong here and very appealing. As usual the Islamic rulers were usurped by the Spanish Catholic monarchy in the late 1400s but the moorish influence has not been totally obliterated and disregarded. The palace was very beautiful with intricate plaster work and Islamic archways everywhere, exquisite ceilings and fountain filled courtyards. It contains a room where Vespucci and Magellan organised their expeditions ...The catedral is massive and ponderous...the 3 largest in the world....and of course very Catholic.

We managed the next day to get a local bus very cheaply to visit Italica just outside Seville...it was the site of the first Roman settlement in Spain and the birthplace of both Emporers Hadrian and Trajan...so we have come full circle with Hadrian (he now seems like an old friend). It was VERY impressive...many mosaic floors and a beautiful Roman road, enormous bathhouse and one of the biggest Roman ampitheatres ever built. So in the arvo I went to the Museo de Arqueologico in Seville which had room upon room of Roman finds (not the piddly little stuff you get on Time Team either).....
We did manage to have a really good meal last night in an Italian place...naturally it was not Spanish!
The weather here is a lot more manageable ...about 32 degress so the siesta has been abandoned.

Glad to hear things have settled down at home and that the Greens will have some say in policy