UK to UK: The Barber of Seville...

...was never found. We could not find a barber shop in town. Oh well! We went to Seville, Spain at the beginning of Holy Week (Semana Santa). There were lots of parades around town, extra visitors, and special sweets only made during this week. We had a great time exploring the city and seeing the sights.

Caitlyn running around the courtyard of the Alcazar de Sevilla.

One of the many arches around the Alcazar (still a royal palace).

Tile work around the Alcazar.

At the pond at the Alcazar.

Since our last trip to Spain in April, 2013, we knew that Caitlyn would LOVE to see a flamenco performance again. She was super excited to be sitting in the front row listening to the guitar and watching the dancer move all around the stage. Casa de la Guitarra was a small venue and the performance lasted about an hour. Somehow, Caitlyn was able to fall asleep during the end of the performance and was out. If you have seen a flamenco performance, you would realize that falling asleep during a performance should be hard to do since it is so loud. Not for Caitlyn. We were then able to walk back to the hotel, get her changed, and into bed without waking up! She was pretty tired. :)

Street performers

Churros con chocolate!

View of Seville from the top of the Giralda Tower at the Cathedral.

It was quite windy up there, but Caitlyn loved seeing everything.

View of Giralda Bell Tower and Cathedral at night.

Semana Santa, Holy Week, means that every church in the area marches from their church to the cathedral, and then back. Most parades last about 10-12 hours in total. Across the street from our hotel was a church that had their parade on our last night in Seville. We arrived back at our hotel around midnight after a long day (more in another post about that) and were greeted on the street with lots of crowds and difficulty in returning to the hotel. However, once we made it back in, we realized that our balcony provided a perfect spot to watch everything.

The end of the parade for the church across the street from our hotel. Everyone is dressed in the attire seen above (each church has a different color). Everyone has a robe and a pointed hat. You aren't supposed to know who is under each robe.

Two floats come through the parade - one with the Virgin Mary and one with Jesus. There are lots of people under the float carrying it and having to move in perfect timing to walk on their knees in order to return the float to the church.

On our last morning in Seville, Caitlyn was super excited to go on a horse and carriage ride. She had been watching the horses all weekend and loved hearing the clip-clop of their hooves going through the city.