This morning we were up at 7:00a (1:00a back home) for a bagged breakfast in the hotel lobby, followed by hopping on our tour bus for a short 5-minute ride over to the Madrid train station.

We boarded our train and made our way south for a two and a half hour ride down to Sevilla. The majority of us slept as we cruised along the spanish countryside.

As we arrived in Seville, we left our luggage in the hotel storage room and had about two hours to burn up before our bus tour. So a small group of us head into town to see the Metropol Parasol. Metropol Parasol is a wooden structure located at La Encarnación square, in the old quarter of Seville. It was an incredible sight as we walked up and enjoyed exploring below it under its’s cool cover. After snapping a couple of photos, we go across the street for a quick lunch of wine and tapas at Los Alcazares Cafe. Afterwards, we scurry back to our Tryp Hotel Macarena to meet up for our tour.

As a group, we hopped back on the tour bus and enjoyed a city tour by our tour guide Marta. She was darling as she narrated the city as we drove through and then we hopped off and used a whisper device as we walked over to our first stop – El Catedral de Sevilla.

The Cathedral of Saint Mary of the See, better known as Seville Cathedral, is a Roman Catholic cathedral in Seville. After its completion in the early 16th century, Seville Cathedral supplanted Hagia Sophia as the largest cathedral in the world, a title the Byzantine church had held for nearly a thousand years. The total area occupied by the building is 23,500 square meters. The Gothic section alone has a length of 126 meters, a width of 83 meters and its maximum height in the center of the transept is 37 meters. We were all in complete awe as we walked in, with one of the most enormous and elaborate altars I’ve ever seen. Another cool thing about this cathedral is that it is where Christopher Columbus’s remains are. Outside the Cathedral, we got to peek inside a building next door where we got to see the location of where GOT kept the dragons through a window at the “Atarazanas Reales” or Royal Shipyards.

After the Cathedral we walked across the street to El Alcazar de Sevilla. This was phenomenal. A beautiful palace with moorish design. This was where they filmed Game of Thrones, Season 4/5- the city of Dorne. Each room was adorned with mosaics and carvings of both Christian and Moorish influence. Beyond beautiful building; I could have spent hours here.

We had the opportunity to either take the tour bus back to the hotel or explore on our own until dinner so 8 of us decided to stay and walk to the other side of the Cathedral and enjoy some drinks in the shade at La Tradicional restaurant.

After drinks, half of our 8 went back to the hotel and the rest of us walked up the street a few blocks to La Plaza de España.The Plaza de España is a plaza in the Parque de María Luisa, in Seville,  built in 1928 for the Ibero-American Exposition of 1929. THIS. WAS. AMAZING!!!! Beautiful fountains and ceramic tiles color the outside and inside walls. Bonus: Star Wars was shot here. We then take a quick taxi cab ride back to the hotel just in time to meet the group for dinner.

 

We walk a few blocks back into the city to La Corona restaurant. It was another darling, modern restaurant that was ready to serve us with appetizers, a spanish omelette, pork and flan for dessert. We even enjoyed some bloody mary shot before we left.

Half of the group went back to the hotel while the other half went out to enjoy a night in Seville. Tomorrow, we’ll be up early for our first GOT excursion to Osuna.