La Catedral

I went with a group from the school to see the cathedral today. It was absolutely beautiful. We unfortunately only had a little over an hour there because it closes early. So it was a rushed trip, but a good one. There is a guy, Juan Mal that organizes most (if not all) of the cutural-social things for us. He is a great guy with lots of info, and he doesn´t really know much english so it it requires me to practice my spanish. Some points of interest (based on what I understood from Juan Mal, so there may be some accuracy lost in the translation): This cathedral is the 3rd biggest cathedral in the world. It was built over maybe about 3 decades by different groups, so there are different types of architecture and styles. The cathedral had many different functions, as a relgious center and poltical center of Spain. Christopher Columbus is burried here, though several places claimed to have the grave of Columbus. National Geographic tested the bones of all of the claimed graves, and declared the grave in the Sevilla Cathedral the real one. Score one for Sevilla!
There is a group of protestors that are staying in the cathedral. I need to look up more information because I don´t really understand the situation, but they are a group of miners that are on a hunger strike against the Spanish government and are supported by the cathedral. So part of the cathedral is blocked off as a residence for the miner, with cots and bedding. That was also very interesting to see, how the church is involved in the politics here.