WeGoWest.com

Seville, Spain (part two)

The Cathedral of Seville is the largest Gothic Church and the third largest Church in the world with priceless artwork and South American gold pieces of metal work. The inside of the building has high arches and domes (42 meters) that are awe-inspiring and the outside is a tour de force of Gothic architectural mastery. Inside of the 80 chapels (small sub rooms for worship) are different idols of a saint for people to pray to. These idols are the focal point for all worship in the religion. After being in Africa, Asia and South America….I think Spanish Catholicism is the most idol centric religion we have ever seen. One night, a multi-hundred person procession carried a giant idol of Mary, on the backs of dozens of well dressed Spaniards, to a distant convention center so that Mary could preside over the Sainting (?) of a famous nun from Seville.

Also in the Cathedral of Seville is the remains of Christopher Columbus in a venerated position. He helped Spain become what it was. All the gold, silver and riches of the Americans, came straight to Seville…then out to the rest of Spain. Funny how in school I never hear about his diligent efforts and success in killing off entire islands of indigenous people. There are few truly genocidal individuals in history, but he ranks as one of the most admired. Not that I can judge him by my values/time period…but there is a reason that Central Americans still think of him as a evil person.

We slowly walked up the massive bell tower, around and around til we could see the entire city. It is a converted minaret from when the Moors ruled the area.

If the Church is a religious focal point for the city, the Bull Fighting Ring is it’s entertainment center. You can see it in the distance of the photo below. We stayed clear of this important cultural activity and location for more reasons that we could count. Our sightseeing was cut short by a ringing in our ears…ringing of giant bells above our head. Time to get something to eat

Following a group of local college students, we find a sandwich shop with 100 different sandwiches. They cost 1-2 Euros each, are almost undecipherable and come with a large mug of “Cervesa Clara”. The “Claraita”, as the locals call it, is half local light beer and half lemon soda water. Wow, it was delicious, I can’t believe that this is the first I have heard of this!

One of our final “must visit” locations is the Alcázar. A ancient castle/fortification/royal residence that has history reaching back to 1180. The current King and Queen of Spain call this their home. Mixing Moorish and Christian styles with generations of designs it stretches for acres. In one of the rooms is where in 1492 Christopher Columbus presented his crazy plan to sail to India via a western route, to Queen Isabella. No photos could ever capture this pinnacle of design, but here is a weak attempt.

On Saturday, we joined the local English congregation and offered bible studies to those in the local area. Our focus was on the English speaking African street vendors. We would ask if they had time to visit about a particular point in the Bible. Almost all gladly accepted and we would visit with them and share a few points from the Bible. Simon, a local Brother has many Bible studies and does a great job of showing how Bible council can help the immediate and practical issues that his student is having. It was great fun and it was only the afternoon heat that drove us back to our apartment in the late afternoon.

Seville has been great to us, sharing its beauty, food and friends with us. Having said that, there is ugly here too; from the “African Brothel” down the street, the chronic smoking (even with little children in their arms) and rampant alcoholism.

The part that sticks out the most to me is the streets at night. The Spanish culture doesn’t even think about dinner til 9-10PM, after which they walk and enjoy the city. We must have walked miles around the city, getting lost, finding our way only to take a turn so that we could get lost again. We hope to visit Seville again someday….if for nothing else to visit our new friends and to get me another mug of Lemon Beer!