After a great start to our trip in Madrid, we packed up our bags to head to our next stop down in the south of Spain, Sevilla, also known as Seville. I forgot to mention this in my last entry, but Andrew’s Spanish has been *extremely* helpful to us. Most of the locals consider him fluent in Spanish and he continues to carry on full conversations in Spanish. My 4 years of high school Spanish is getting me by…I’m trying at least, with the occasional pronunciation assist from Andrew.
Here’s a pic right outside our Airbnb in Madrid, all backpacked-up & ready to go to Sevilla!
For the first time in Madrid, we took the Metro to the train station. Everything else was within walking distance throughout our stay, so we didn’t have to take any public transportation. We arrived with plenty of time before our train left, which helped ease Andrew’s mind, but only annoyed me, thinking I could have slept in another hour longer. Nonetheless, we boarded the RENFE train and had a smooth 2.5 hour ride to Sevilla. The trains are similar to the Amtrak trains in the US, however, they do give you assigned seats.
Upon arriving in Sevilla, we hopped on the local bus to head to our first hostel of the trip. As a reminder to those that don’t know, this is my first hostel experience. Andrew had stayed in a number of them on his Europe trip after college, but it was a first for me, so I wasn’t quite sure what to expect. When we checked in, we were greeted by this sweet, local girl who told us about growing up in Sevilla and her love for the city. After hearing a quick introduction to the city map and telling us about the nightly “group events” they offer, we checked into our 6-bed dormitory style room.
After making our beds and putting our stuff away in the lockers, we went out to grab a drink and some tapas. We quickly learned that it’s not the best idea to go to one of the tapas restaurants that’s right near all of the main tourist attractions. Let’s just say it was a waste of 30 euros that was spent on so-so tapas, all while listening to a Britney Spears song playing on the loud speakers.
One of the “group events” the hostel was offering that night was a “free dinner”, which was mushroom jambalaya. Andrew and I took part in the free dinner, which was good, but then ended up going out for some local tapas since we were still hungry. We headed to an area in Sevilla known as Alameda de Hercules, which is one of their local bar scenes. It was very lively and there was a lot going on for a Monday night. We saw a lot of locals in this area and noticed some kids playing soccer in the main plaza area.
Tortilla Espanola and Baked Cheese tapas:
The next morning we set out to check out the main attractions in Sevilla, the Alcazar (royal palace in Sevilla) and La Catedral de Sevilla (largest Gothic cathedral in the world, 3rd largest church in the world). Both sites are visible from the main street (Constitution Avenue), which was a short walk from our hostel.
We arrived at the Alcazar about 30 minutes before it opened, which made Andrew happy once again to arrive somewhere early. It ended up being a good thing, as the line quickly grew as we got closer to the time of its opening. Like the Prado Museum, we ended up getting the Audio Guides and used them as our own personal tour guides around the palace. It was pretty incredible to see the architectural influence from the reigns of all the different royal families, as well as the beautiful gardens that existed behind the palace. Check out some pictures we took below from our own personal tour of the Alcazar.
Panoramic shot of the beautiful gardens:
After leaving the Alcazar, we stopped by the hostel to grab our raincoats since the forecast showed a thunderstorm coming in. It was a good thing we did, because it started POURING on our way to lunch.
We headed over to get some lunch at this local restaurant called Bodeguita Romero. We sat outside under an umbrella, since it was still warm out, but ended up having to move inside as the wind started to blow the rain on us as we ate…Overall though, a very delicious tapas lunch at one of their smaller, local restaurants.
Tortillitas de Camarones:
Wild Asparagus with Fried Egg (Forgot the Spanish translation…):
Andrew enjoying his montadito (small Spanish sandwich):
After finishing lunch we headed over to La Catedral de Sevilla. We had seen a pretty long line earlier in the day, and we hadn’t pre-booked tickets, so we figured the rain might have scared some people away. We were right and lucked out with only having to wait about 15 minutes to get in! We spent about an hour checking out the beauty of this cathedral – it was pretty spectacular. One of the most interesting things about this cathedral is that it houses Christopher Columbus’ tomb.
Baby Jesus (Or Nino Jesus as they refer to it in La Catedral):
Checking out Christopher Columbus’ tomb:
One of the cathedral doorways:
While at the cathedral, we also checked out the Giralda Bell Tower, which is the famous bell tower in Sevilla. The bell tower goes 35 flights up, so this ended up being our workout for the day. You could see the entire city of Sevilla from the top of the bell tower, so we were able to capture some great pictures.
View from a few of the windows as we walked up the Giralda
Floor 29…Almost there!
We made it!
View of Sevilla from the Bell Tower (including a great shot of the Alcazar):
View of the Bell Tower from outside the cathedral:
After checking out the cathedral, we went back to the hostel to get ready for our Flamenco show that night. Since Sevilla is known as the birth place for Flamenco, we wanted to try and find a show that was fairly traditional, as opposed to the more “touristy options”. Per Rick Steve’s recommendation (travel book author for those unaware), we ended up checking out a show at La Casa del Flamenco, which was a GREAT choice. We were taken into this small room with not more than 50 or so people, and were able to witness a 1 hour, 4 person, traditional flamenco show. We were only allowed to take pictures during the last 5 minutes, but it is a show we highly recommend if you ever find yourself in Sevilla.
I started to feel a bit under the weather so we grabbed a quick dinner after the Flamenco show in the popular Santa Cruz district before heading back to the hostel for the night.
I mentioned Andrew’s Spanish has been helping us immensely, however, he has had just a few hiccups…Like below, where he ordered himself a pitcher of beer, instead of the glass he thought he was asking for. Needless to say, he didn’t mind…
One of the other events the hostel offered was access to “free city tours”, with Feel the City Tours. The 3 hour walking tours are given by a local tour guide and all they ask is that at the end of the tour, you tip what you feel is “appropriate”. Andrew and I thought this would be a good way to check out some of the other sites in the city the next morning, but since it was free, we didn’t expect much.
Surprisingly, this was a WONDERFUL tour. Our tour guide Lola was born and raised in Sevilla, and had actually studied History at the local university. She gave a thorough explanation on all of the sites we walked by and it was very informative. Some of the info we appreciated was that Dorne/Westeros, one of the seven kingdoms in Game of Thrones, was filmed at the Alcazar.
Carlos Canal (Carlos Street)
Bridge to Triana, where Flamenco originally started:
Local Bull Fighting Stadium:
Plaza Espana – Incredible. Our guide mentioned that a Star Wars scene was filmed here:
On our last night in Sevilla our hostel was offering a cooking class for only 4 euros, so we decided to take advantage of this. We learned how to make sangria and yummy paella. It also gave us a chance to chat with some other people from the hostel and hear about their travels. After chatting with a few people, we were able to get some great recommendations for a few of our future travel locations.
Sevilla has been a beautiful city with an immense amount of culture. We’ve enjoyed getting lost within all of the side streets outside of the main plazas and learning more about the history of the city. Now we’re off to Granada – our next stop in Spain!
Andrew + Allison Around the World 