Most history dates back to 6,000 BC. Several empires controlled the areas over the centuries until the Christians took over. History in a nutshell. 😃
We started out by driving up to a lookout. Views of different parts of the city.
Next, we stopped at a popular beach. It's Sunday, and the weather is beautiful. It was also some type of local celebration, so busy, busy, busy!!
The tour advertised seeing pink flamingos. We drove past a nature preserve, and only saw them zipping by out the window. I managed to get a fuzzy picture.
Our next stop was the former Royal Armory. It's now a history museum. Here's where things went downhill.
The audio units we were given to hear our guide worked very poorly. Combined with trying to understand someone with an accent and poor equipment, it was very difficult to understand anything.
The museum covers the period from 6,000 BC to Medieval times. Lots of old stuff!
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| Amazing jewelry from thousands of years ago |
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| Incredible skills |
As we left the museum, people started dropping out. Our poor guide was trying to be nice while collecting their audio devices. This wasted a bunch of time for the rest of us, and it happened at a couple of our stops. By the end more than half had left.
Next, we went to the main plaza in the old city. The Royal Palace, Archbishop's Palace and the Cathedral were all located here. Construction of these buildings was from the 13th century with renovations in the 16th and 17th centuries.
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| Royal Palace |
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| Royal Palace on the right back with Archbishop's Palace in front of it |
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| Cathedral |
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| Beautiful painting on ceiling of Cathedral. Mass was being held, so we were only allowed a quick walk along the back wall. |
Lots of old towers and walls from fortresses throughout. It's quite amazing how newer buildings are right next to ancient ruins.
On the far left side above, you can see part of a tower. This was originally a tower of the old wall, and was incorporated into the new construction.
We sure don't have all these old ruins and churches in the USA. So much history in Europe.
Whenever you sign up for a tour, its a crap shoot as to what type of guide you get. We've had one really good one yesterday, one who was okay, and one we had great trouble understanding. Our guide today was really trying. It wasn't his fault his company provided inferior equipment. It wasn't a great tour, but I felt sorry for him.