We stayed three days in Sevilla where I took part in a workshop about regional issues
related to the transition to an "information society". I was invited to participate by
Carlos Roman, on the left in the picture below, whom I met in the late 1970s at
Stanford and now a professor of Economics in Sevilla. The guy in the middle is
Juantxo Larrañeta, who was at Stanford with Carlos and I and is now a professor
of Engineering in Sevilla.

I did not take many pictures because I spent most of the time in the meetings. Still,
Sevilla is quite a place. It is the fourth largest Spanish city but it is hard to tell that
you are in a big city if you stay around the old town. The old town is a maze of
narrowstreets covering perhaps one square mile.  Bars and restaurants everywhere,
people on the streets at all hours...

This is a strange (for Spain) sign exhorting people to be kind to birds. The common
attitude on this matter when I was growing up was the saying "ave que vuela a la
cazuela" (bird that flies to the cooking pot).

 
And here is Mechtild with yet another interior patio.

Unlike Madrid, for example, Sevilla was an important place since the days of moslem rule and
it continued to be important as the main entry port of the commerce with the Americas. It is
not a sea port but it is on the Guadalquivir river and boats could travel all the way to it. These
four pictures show el Palacio de Los Alcazares (the residence of the moslem rulers) and the
cathedral which today sit cheek by jowl.

These next few pictures show the two most notorious landmarks of the city: the Torre del Oro
and the Giralda. La Torre del Oro was where gold coming from America was supposed to be
stored. La Giralda is the tower attached to the cathedral. The pictures were taken from Triana,
the suburb on the other side of the Guadalquivir river from Sevilla.

A sign announcing the old Jewish quarter.

Two plants that caught my eye in El Parque de Maria Luisa: a brugmansia (more commonly
called "datura" in Spain) in flower in very early January, and a huge ficus tree.

These pictures were taken in La Plaza de España, built for a world expo in the 1920s.

More ficus of uncommon size.

La Giralda with Barbara and Mechtild in front of it.

And mechtild and Barbara sitting outdoors in a tapas bar called "La Giralda".

Note that the street trees near the bar are orange trees. This is the case in a
great many strees in the old part of Sevilla. This time of the year they were
full of fruit but I was told that when they are in bloom the entire old town
smells very nicely. I was also told that for a long time a british company had
the concession to havest the oranges, too bitter to eat, and used them to make
marmalade, but that a combination of pollution and the economics of
harvesting in a city make this unworkable today.

After our time in Sevilla we drove back to Madrid to end our holiday.