Marrakech Express

Just woke up … on a train to Marrakech. It’s about 8:30 am or so,
and the country side is streaming by. It’s surprisingly green … I
thought it would be dessert, but it’s fields. We’ve seen a couple of
shepherd with their flocks and some horse-drawn carts going down the
road, as well as tons of cars and modern (well, maybe 60’s modern)
looking buildings.

Well, I think I’m behind by a couple of days in updating what we’ve
been doing … Today, I think, is Wednesday. On Sunday
afternoon we arrived in Sevilla (or Seville, it’s the same, but I keep
switching for some reason.) Anyway, Seville is unbelievably colorful.
Our hotel hotel — called Las Casas de la Juderia (“the Houses of the
Jews”), had 3-4 courtyards and a balcony from our room that was
probably 500 sq. feet. And beautiful. And overlooking a church that was
600 years old… that had flowers growing out of the roof. Insane.
Anyway, everything was walking distance, and we walked to the cathedral
for Sunday mass.

I didn’t realize it until later, but the place where we sat for the
(somewhat boring) service is not open to the world. There were the
crypts of Beatrix and King Alphonso the (third? fifth) … I don’t
remember. But more impressively, there was an astoundingly complex,
handcrafted of solid-silver, enormous coffin-thing behind the Priest.
We later found out that it was the final resting place of Ferdinand III
…. the King who reconquered Spain from the Muslims, and is widely
considered one of the most important figures in Spanish history. So we
got to see a bit of history that no one else gets to see, which was fun
…. as well as have some good spiritual time.

Later we went home for a nap, then dinner in our local square. I
absolutely loved the night life there … not partying or clubs, but
people sitting out, eating, talking, walking the streets. There were
always tons of people out, even at 1 am. Great stuff…

Monday we got up a little late, ran some errands (internet, shipping
stuff home, etc), then jumped on the AVE (stands for Alto Velocidad …
High Velocity) train. Supposedly the train goes 300 km/h — or 180 mph
— but I think we only got up to about 140 mph or so. It never feels
like it, it’s just smooth, comfortable, and 45 minutes to Cordoba,
which normally takes 3 hours by bus.