In a few days we managed to stay in Seville to see the Cathedral and Alcazar, in Cordoba to see the Mezquita, and another magnificent white village called Atequera. And a meal or three. It was a great few days with such beautiful buildings and scenery - and as always a few surprises from history to jolt perceptions.

The Cathedral of Seville (see Saville photos) is a huge gothic structure - 5 huge halls wide - with ceilings reaching for the heavens. And alll around the sides were the traditional chapels - but even these were large and opulent. The choir space left me breathless - dark wood sculptured seats and gold gleaming all around. The crypt was also a size beyond belief with many chapels there - as well as one to St Victoria, another whose body has not decomposed and she restes there.

Of course the thing was built on top of a mosque - but only the ablution area was kept in the form of an organge grove - so beautiful - at the side of the cathedral.

The Alcazar at Seville was another wondrous thing - completely Moorish inorigin and architecture and wall finishes - and so beautiful. Photos do not do it justice

Of course there was the food wine and the barrios of the old town and the ancient Jewish quarter making this a very interesting city to visit. We learnt the history of the Jews of Seville from a very passionate young woman, a member of the fewer that 100 Jews left in Seville who personned the museum there. There is nothing for either catholic or muslim to be proud about there.

Cordoba was also a beautiful city - see Cordoba photos - and the major elements to a very interesting visit were there also - the Moorish influence - the Catholic reclamation, and the Jewish quarter and story. Again Catholics were there first in the Christian era to build a cathedral, and after they were driven out, the Moors knocked down the original cathedral and built a mosque over the top of it - but not just any mosque - one over a 100 mtrs square with arched roofs support by columns and arches and various light and air cirulating systems - with a lovely ablution area to the side with a large orange grove. Once the catholics had reclaimed the space they just built a cathedral right in the middle of the mosque and left the spaces all around the major gothic hall with high ceilings restng on the usual towers of classical columns. In the main hall was the alter and choir areas as well as the congregational area. The chapels were then simply arranged around all sides of the square mosque. And the orange grove to the side remained - so beautiful.

The photos show a section the floor of the original cathedral on the site cleaned out by archeologists - then the simply stunning columns of the mosque - the the caghedral "planted" right in the middle. The result is beautiful, captivating, engaging. Again the jewish quarter (or what's left) is just down the side street having been pushed i to a ghetto at some point etc etc.

Another little oddity in the side streets was a museum to the Spanish Inquisition - that dragged on for some 300 years - and the instruments and methods of torture can hardly be believed.

One would think that God would shed tears here at this place - muslims, catholics, jews, enfotrced belief, segregation, fear of death or torture ... .. and one wonders how much progress has been made - in Oz anyway. Spaniards seem much more relaxed about religion these days - about many things. GTwo wrld wars an da civil war would do that. Democracy is relatively recent (late 20th century) and, in taxi chatter, treasured. (Theyalso believe the economy is going to recover there, but they are over taxed)

On the last day of our stay in Andelusia we went to the village of Antequera, another of the white villages of the region. What a find - with a proud example of the bullring still in use - and well as a fine museum. But it was teh 30 plus churches that attracted us - whay so many below the casgtle wall? Why so many Orders of nuns and monks - who all built a church. The processions on feast days adn easter must have been amazing as each church has chapels that simply get wheeled out for the procession on these special wooden structures. There was a theme here - as could also be seen in the other villages and so some exent in both cathedrals (though they included much else being much bigger) - Jesus is the sufferring Jesus with an abused body, bruised and batterred - Our Lady of Sorrows, tears on her cheek as she looks out, then Mary crowned Queen. These three images were in every church. Could it be a Spanish flavour?

We are officially sick of the weather - it has rained every day since we left Portugal - so we are truncating our time south and going directly to Madrid.