One of the highlights of our walking tour was certainly the old Royal Palace, built in the 14th century in the typical Andalusian style of its day…a combination of European Renaissance and Moorish architecture. The accompanying photograph shows one of the outer walls of the palace with a reflecting pool and a magnificent blooming jacaranda tree in the background. Inside one of the rooms, it was eerie standing in the very spot where King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella received Christopher Columbus and listened to his radical idea of sailing westward to the Orient.
A short while later, we visited the tomb of Columbus in the great Cathedral of Seville - the largest gothic church in the world. Our day was filled with the history of Spain's colonization of the New World. We learned that Seville grew rich by holding the monopoly on trade (and plunder) from the New World for nearly two centuries. Seville is located about 55 miles (89 km) upstream along the banks of the Guadalquivir River, which required a tricky bit of navigation before unloading. Unfortunately for Seville, the river eventually silted up and made things too difficult for ships to reach Seville, allowing Cadiz and other coastal towns to develop.
