Marbella, Sevilla, Málaga, y Madrid

In Spain, the dead are more alive than the dead of any other country in the world.  (Federico García Lorca — born 5 June 1898; executed by the Nationalists during the Spanish Civil War on 19 August 1936)

I don’t know whether García Lorca’s dictum is true or not — I’ve been in other places (Egypt, for example, and Israel and Greece and Iran and Italy) where the past is very much alive — but there’s certainly a lot of history here in Spain.

We spent yesterday in Seville or Sevilla, concentrating mainly on the city’s cathedral, which is the third largest church in the world and the largest Gothic cathedral.  (For that matter, it’s the largest cathedral in the world, period.)  It was built on the site of the one-time grand mosque of Sevilla, and its famous campanile (known as La Giralda) incorporates a substantial portion of that mosque’s former minaret.

Perhaps the most interesting single spot in the cathedral is the tomb of Christopher Columbus, a rather influential historical personage.  The sculpture atop it shows his coffin being borne by four kings of Spain.

We also spent considerable time in the Reales Alcázares de Sevilla, the “Alcázar of Seville” — the term alcázar stems from the Arabic word al-qaşr, meaning “palace” — which dates back to the Moorish Almohades in the late twelfth century but which continued to be added onto in the Mudéjar style after the Christian Reconquista.

Before driving back to Marbella, we topped the day off with — of all things — dinner in a Mexican restaurant.  It was a taste of home.  I’ve been craving Mexican food since arriving here.  Irrational I know, but there you have it.

Today, though, my onsite immersion in Andalasian/Islamic history and architecture is over.

We caught the train from Málaga to Madrid.  It was exceptionally smooth, even when reaching speeds around 180 miles per hour.  The landscape that we traversed reminded me, as the Andalasian coast itself had, of my native southern California.

Tonight, we strolled past the royal palace and through some of its gardens, visited a large sculpture honoring Don Quixote and Sancho Panza, walked by the Opera House, and had dinner in a tapas bar near the Plaza de Oriente.

Posted from Madrid, Spain