The Holidays in Spain: A Two-Week Adventure (Part 1, Seville)

As I get this blog up and running, I'm posting summaries of our past trips, starting in 2011. This is the first post about our trip to Spain, December 2012 - January 2013.

It's been over a year and a half since our last major trip. We spent two weeks in Spain over the holidays, so we could maximize our available vacation time. We also split the years of 2012 and 2013 for the same reason. Before we overview this trip, I'd like to express my sincere appreciation for all the people who work in the travel industry. We flew to Spain from Milwaukee on Christmas Day, and returned on Three Kings Day (a major Spanish holiday). Everyone was gracious, and I hope they had a chance to spend some part of the holiday (or an alternate holiday) with their families.

Flight

We flew Delta airlines from Milwaukee to Madrid, with a 4-hour layover in JFK. It must not have been too bad, because I don't remember the layover at all. The international flight, however, was another story. We had the pair of seats on the left side of the plane, and an older couple was behind us. I settled in to try to sleep through the flight, and every hour or so they would grab our seat so they could get up and walk around the plane. They also left the light on the entire flight and talked most of the night. Needless to say, I found it a bit hard to sleep. We're hoping to avoid this on our next international flight by getting an exit row seat (for the extra lag room up front), and we're crossing our fingers that we don't have the same type of neighbors behind us.

Seville

Day 1 - December 26, 2012

We landed in Madrid and took a 5€ bus to the train station, where we hopped a high-speed train to Seville. Two and a half hours later, we were in Seville. We walked approximately a mile with all of our luggage to our hotel in the Santa Cruz neighborhood. I was very glad we splurged on an international data plan for essentials, so we could navigate. If I had to do this again, I'd suck it up and get a cab. We were tired, and the streets of Santa Cruz are a bit challenging to navigate.

Our tour guide in Santa Cruz. See how skinny the streets are?

We got to our hotel, the El Rey Moro, around 3:30 p.m. After unpacking, we found a local bar to have our first taste of jamon and enjoy a cocktail. Then we had some tapas, and were in bed before most Spaniards sat down to dinner.

Day 2 - December 27, 2012

We started our first full day in Seville with breakfast (jamon, tomato, and cafe con leche, of course).

Then we met up for a walking tour with Concepción from Sevilla Walking Tours. We had booked with her after reading wonderful reviews on Trip Advisor. We took the City Walk, which was about two hours and gave us an excellent overview of the city. I'd highly recommend using Sevilla Walking Tours if you want to get a close-up view of the city.

Because we were visiting during the holiday season, there were signs outside a lot of buildings that said "Belen," and children were walking around with balloons. Concepción explained that the children were visiting nativity scenes, and there was one she thought we might like to see. It was free, and located within a bank—just something the bank does for community involvement.

The nativity scene was incredibly intricate, and was the size of a large museum display. It included moving water, and the lighting cycled from day to night.

Then, we rounded a corner and saw another nativity scene ... made completely out of chocolate and other candies. It included a caramel water fall, nut-paved roads, cinnamon stick roofs, and a chocolate water wheel.

After the walking tour, we stopped for lunch and then set off to see the bull fighting ring.

During warner times of year, there is a bull fight here every Sunday. We just took a tour through the arena and the adjacent museum. We learned a lot about the tradition of bull fighting, and I'm glad we didn't have to choose whether or not to see an actual bull fight (animal cruelty, and all). After a long day of touring we took a siesta, and headed out for dinner and a drink. Again, the holiday season gave us a special treat. The main street in Seville was beautifully decorated, and as we walked along we saw a bunch of street performers dressed up as goats. They made the strangest noise!

We rounded the corner to city hall, and saw a holiday light show. It was projected onto the building, and depicted the history of Seville. It was complete with fake snow at the end. Here's a picture of the back of city hall during the day, and at night during the show.

After the holiday celebration, we found an amazing import bar that just happened to be selling six-packs of one of the world's best beers. We picked one of those up to bring back to our friends in the states.

Day 3 - December 28, 2012

After another breakfast (jamon on bread with tomato and a cafe con leche became our Seville staple), we walked to the Plaza Espana. Being early in the day in late December, it was almost empty. We looked at all of the tiles, and stopped in the military history museum.

After lunch we met up with Concepción to tour the cathedral. Once again, I'd highly recommend the services of the Sevilla Walking Tours. We could have purchased cathedral tickets on our own and stood in a long line, but with Concepción we skipped the line and had a guided tour that helped us appreciate the cathedral. The inside was absolutely gorgeous, and included this organ, which was made from 7,000 pipes. We got to hear a short concert, and what I remember most is that it was more like I felt it, rather than heard it. The sound is pervasive ... into your bones.

Some of the treasures that are kept in the cathedral are just spectacular. The angel at the front of this crown is carved from a single pearl.

This gets put on a float and paraded through the streets during a religious parade. It's made completely of silver.

Then, when the official tour was over, we climbed to the top of the Giralda. We had expansive views of the courtyard and the rest of the cathedral, as well as the entire city.

The architecture of the cathedral is breathtaking.

After our day of touring we took a siesta to fortify us for the evening. We were well-fed that night, choosing to eat what the English translation of the menu called "a special platter of meat."

It was absolutely delicious, and included chicken, pork, steak, bull's tail, rabbit, and sausage.

After dinner we went to a flamenco show, which was 100% in Spanish. Although we couldn't understand the lyrics, the emotion was clear, and both the singing and dancing was fantastic.

After the flamenco show, we went back to our hotel and climbed the stairs to the roof top porch. A beautiful view of the lit cathedral wished us goodnight.

Day 4 - December 29, 2012

We loved Seville, but today we took the opportunity to get out of town and see some Roman ruins. We took a local bus to Italica, where we were able to explore the remains of an entire Roman town, including the amphitheater. They were built in 50. Yes, year 0050.

Some of the ruins are just remnants of the foundations of buildings, while other still have intricate tile mosaics that have been preserved.

The amphitheater seats 25,000 people.

Overlooking the amphitheater from high ground

After we returned from the ruins, we found an English pub to eat lunch and watch Aaron's favorite soccer club, the Tottenham Hotspurs. From looking at this picture, it's hard to tell what country we were in.

After lunch we explored another side of Seville, where "the mushroom" is located. This is a very contemporary piece of architecture that allows for expansive views of the city. It was built in 2011, and according to our tour guide from earlier in the trip, was still very controversial with the locals when we were there.

After walking along the mushroom, we stopped to see the church of El Salvador. It was much smaller than the cathedral, but just as ornate.

This was our last night in Seville, and we were pretty tired. We had dinner at our hotel (which wasn't bad, actually), and went to bed early. 

Day 5 - December 30, 2012

Our last day in Seville still gave us plenty of time to see one final (major) site - the Alcazar. It was just a few steps from our hotel, and we'd walked by it multiple times per day. It was finally time to get inside. We'd seen the massive mid-day lines already, so we were sure to be there just before they opened. We purchased the audio guide so we could tour at our own pace.

The Alcazar is the royal palace of Seville. It's been so long since the tour, I have to rely on some of our Facebook photo captions (this is why I'll blog about our trips in real-time in the future!).

This was one of the ornate ceilings. The lion was the symbol of King Peter, and it appears all over the palace.

This hallway was full of enormous tapestries, like the one below that commemorates the discovery of the Americas.

Aaron in Jupiter's garden

The gardens were beautiful. And huge. We got lost.

This is where the current king and queen enter when they're in town ... and it's where the tourists exit. 

We had time for one last tapas lunch in Seville, and we got all the jamon and cheese we could possibly eat, along with a side of chickpeas and spinach, which had become one of our favorite dishes.

After lunch, we exited Seville by taking a cab to the train station, where we made our way to Granada.

Want to read more about this trip? Check out part 2, part 3, and part 4.

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