Andalusia Tour 4

Seville: we begin with the Royal Palace, the Alcazar, the Seville residence of the Spanish royals (speaking of gossip: the news has just leaked that Princess Letizia is pregnant), with its massive crenellated walls and towers. The facade hides, through halls and galleries decorated with azulejos, the great Patio de las Doncellas, an example of Arab-Andalusian art. In the gardens we spot a 20-metre bougainvillea and wonderful jacarandas, with flowers somewhere between blue and purple; a pity the sky is cloudy and now and then threatens rain. The Cathedral is majestic, in a sumptuous Gothic style; the enormous gilded altarpiece (the largest in the world) of the Capilla Mayor is simply astonishing. In the afternoon the sun comes out and the Plaza de España appears in all its splendour.

A complex of buildings arranged in a semicircle for the Ibero-American Exposition of 1929, with marble decorations and panels of azulejos (58, one for each Spanish province). In the evening the fountain lights up and everything around it has a charm that captivates.