Sevilla, Spain

Sevilla was another one of those cities that it took us two times to get to. I had booked the trip for Austin as a Christmas present for March, but we ended up getting COVID a few days before we were supposed to leave. We rescheduled for September so we finally just got to go!

Day 1

The only direct flight to Seville was at 6:40 in the morning, so we stayed in the Yotel in Schiphol airport the night before. This was expensive but amazing, as it is already through security so we slept until 5, checked out of the hotel about 5:30 and were still at our gate with plenty of time to go get coffee and breakfast. We only had to make a quick stop back through passport control.

Once we arrived we headed to our hotel. It was too early to check in but they let us drop our luggage. We changed into clothes for the hot weather and went in search of breakfast.

Jester

We ended up at Jester where we had bagel sandwiches and coffee. It was super cute with lots of people sitting outside. It was a great start to the day. I was very hungry and forgot to take a photo here.

Alcázar of Seville

After this we had tickets to the Alcázar. This is a huge royal palace with a lot of history, as it has elements from times of Muslim and Christian rulers and combines several different styles. It was absolutely BEAUTIFUL. We had a great time wandering around and taking photos. There are a huge amount of absolutely stunning gardens surrounding it as well. It was getting pretty hot by this time but there were plenty of trees for shade in most of it. I would very highly recommend visiting.

After our very warm exploration of the Alcázar we were able to check into our hotel. It was pretty hot and we were tired so we decided this was the perfect time for a siesta.

Pura Vida Terraza

We had a reservation at Pura Vida Terraza which is also a swimming bar. We didn’t do any swimming but just wanted to see the view from the rooftop. There was a €30 deposit to book but that went towards drinks. You could not get any food though since the kitchen didn’t open until 8:30 PM, which is quite common in Spain. It was a lovely view of the Cathedral from it though and tasty sangria.

La Brunilda Tapas

Finally at 8:30 it was dinner time. Most restaurants that aren’t tourist traps (more on this later) don’t open for dinner until 8:30 PM. We noticed everyone else with an 8:30 reservation was also speaking English, as we were all impatient to eat by then :)

Everything we ate here was absolutely phenomenal. We first ordered a bunch of things and the waitress told us she thought that would be plenty. We still wanted to try one more thing though so we ended up adding it later, after we were sure we’d be able to finish it.

Patatas Bravas

Some kind of amazing cheese with avocado and sweet chili sauce

Cod croquettes

Amazing pulled pork taco with very cute tiny clothespin

Duck confit

Day 2

Devour food tour

On Saturday morning we had a food tour. It was great and we learned all kinds of new dishes and facts about Seville.

First we headed into a market for coffee, and then learned about jamón iberico. We saw how they cut it and talked about the different levels of quality. It was very delicious!

Then we headed to Bar El Comercio for churros. This is the oldest bar in Seville! I failed at taking a photo of the churros, but they were different than the ones you get in Mexico - they were fluffier and had no cinnamon sugar on them.

Next we had tinto de verano - summer wine, aka red wine with soda - and pringa, a very tasty sandwich.

Fried dogfish

Pork cheeks & spinach

Pastries

Seville Cathedral

We had to rush to our tour time for the Seville Cathedral. It was super beautiful and we enjoyed walking around it.

After our daily siesta, it was time to find dinner. We were going to a soccer game in the evening at 9 so we needed to eat dinner before 8:30. We found a place that was open at 6:30 and made a reservation there for dinner. Unfortunately we quickly realized it was a tourist trap and it was TERRIBLE. It was barely edible.

After our barely edible food, we ended up at Taco Bell because it was open :)

Finally we headed to our soccer game. We got tickets from Austin’s company and had a great time watching Sevilla vs Barcelona.

Day 3

FILO Colón

For breakfast I went looking for a place where I could have pan con tomaté (tomato toast) and found Filo Colón. It was super busy so we got takeout and ate nearby. This breakfast also came with orange juice and a delicious oat milk latte.

Plaza de España

Plaza de España is a beautiful park with gorgeous architecture and paintings. There’s also a fountain and a mural for all the major cities. We went probably too late in the morning so it was already pretty hot but it was gorgeous.

Setas de Sevilla

This is a really cool sculpture/building/experience thing above a market. From below you can admire the structure of the building as it looks pretty cool (I believe it is supposed to look like big mushrooms). While they were building/remodeling this they found Roman ruins, so when you go downstairs you can pay €2 each to walk a little museum of them. Honestly even if you aren’t that interested in the ruins, the €2 was worth it for some air conditioning and a clean bathroom (but the ruins were pretty cool, would recommend checking them out!)

You can also pay to walk on the walkway through the “mushrooms” and admire the view. They have a day time and a night time version of this. We did it during the day but night seems like it would also be really cool. You get a great view of the cathedral from here.

Bodeguita Romero

After our morning sight seeing we were hungry for some lunch and found this little spot for tapas. It was pretty busy but we put our names down for a table and ended up waiting maybe 20 minutes. While we waited we noticed nearly everyone eating there spoke Spanish which seemed like a great sign. We ordered a bunch of things and all of it was amazing. We had salmorejeca which is a cold soup made of tomatoes, bread and olive oil, Spanish tortilla (this is more like an omelette filled with potatoes, not at all the same as Mexican tortillas), pringa (a delicious sandwich), some kind of steak and beef cheeks. We devoured every bit of it.

La Casa del Flamenco

After a little siesta, we went to check out a flamenco show. It was about an hour long and featured flamenco dances from several regions. This was cool to get a taste of the local culture! The photo quality is here because its a screenshot of a video I took (this was only allowed at the very end, otherwise photos & videos were not allowed - this was nice because it meant nobody’s phone was in the way during the performance!)

La Bartola

After dinner we went in search of more tapas and ended up at La Bartola. This ended up being a fun spot because they had some vegetarian/vegan tapas and at this point I felt I was desperately in need of some vegetables. I had more tinto de verano of course and we ate a bunch of yummy things. We had some croquettes, some kind of zucchini pouches stuffed with veggies, more steak, more beef cheeks, a Thai inspired veggie rice and some lamb with couscous. Much of the (traditional) food in Seville seemed very meat heavy so this would be a great option for someone who is vegetarian but wants to eat tapas!

I think Seville was one of the most architecutrally beautiful cities we’ve ever been to, and the food was absolutely phenomenal. It is definitely a city I would love to return to.