This is a terrible time of year to have a birthday. Autumn somehow turns into a damp, cloudy, precursor of winter pretty much overnight, and then the hour changes, prompting a dreadful urge to hibernate. The SAD lightbox finds its way off the shelf, and the urge to flee anywhere with sun is overwhelming.

It’s been a weird year for weather. A trip in September to Montenegro was wet and miserable (contrary to 20 years of weather reports), and Valencia was hit with a year of rain in 8 hours. So our enthusiasm for our much anticipated trip to Seville for a birthday weekend was, well, dampened…

We stayed in the charming Hotel Casa de Colon, which is centrally located. As the flight got in reasonably late, we took a taxi which was organised via the hotel. At 39 Euros is was more than getting a cab from the airport, and more than getting the airport bus, but convenient. Well, it should have been, but the area around the Cathedral (which is 2 minutes from the hotel) had been closed off, and so we had to walk half a mile to the hotel, which is about the same distance as if we had got the bus!

We stayed for 4 nights, so 3 whole days. And what we know now is that, from a tourist’s point of view, Seville is a 2 day town… More below.

On the first evening, we went to the “Vino y Tapas” branch of La Azotea, which is located near the main square. This had come highly recommended, but I have to say it was passable, rather than excellent, and the “Sangria” was unbearably sweet. However, it was what we needed after a long flight, as it was quick, and pretty cheap.

Day 1

Even in November, you need to book the main tourist site, which is the Real Alcazar. Make sure you only use the official link for tickets, as there are a lot of fake sites out there https://www.alcazarsevilla.org/en/. We also booked the Royal Apartments (Cuarto Real Alto).

It is a palace with a lot to see. Your ticket is timed, and allows you to turn up 60 minutes early. If you arrive earlier, you will be shuffled into a different queue until the bells of the Cathedral chime! For the Royal Apartments, you go to the far right of the main courtyard, and go up some stairs. Be there 10-15 minutes beforehand, and be prepared to put all cameras, phones etc into a locker (which needs a Euro coin to operate).

The palace is an amazing blend of influences, reflecting a strong Moorish influence. And there are beautiful tiles everywhere, which is a major feature of all buildings in Seville.

Don’t miss the Gothic Palace, and take a walk around the gardens. There is even an English Garden, which as the weather was a little dreary on the first day, was right up our street.

If there is one thing you can guarantee in Seville, it is that plentiful and good value food can be found at every turn. We had lunch at Casa Roman (https://www.casaromansevilla.com/) which was packed to the rafters with locals. We were very lucky to get a table, but very pleased that we did.

The next big attraction in Seville is the cathedral, but that felt like a step too far for the first day, so we wandered up to the “Setas” (https://setasdesevilla.com/en/), which literally means “Mushrooms”. Originally designed to be called the “Metropol Parasol”, it emerged that the architect had already trademarked the name, and intended to charge for its use, so the informal name stuck. It is an enormous wooden canopy, and underneath there is a food market. You can go up the canopy and view the city, but we decided instead to sit on the corner and have a pleasant coffee in the “Cafe Square”.

We (well, Mrs Cannings) had done a lot of research on restaurants before we left home, and as my birthday had fallen on the previous Tuesday, we were looking for a “big night out”, and so plumped for De La O across the bridge in Triana. It turns out that this part of Triana is very poorly lit in the wintertime, and honestly, we felt a little worried about following the directions along the riverside to the restaurant. More in my review here.

Day 2

The Cathedral is both beautiful, and very popular. To avoid queuing, and to avoid having to get a timed ticket in advance, go to the Collegiate Church of San Salvador, where you can buy a combo ticket which includes the Cathedral. Make sure you go down in the crypt, where there is a fascinating exhibition about the history of the church (formerly a mosque), and also of the restoration of the church, which was undertaken as a matter of some urgency after a large piece of masonry detached itself and came crashing to the floor.

It is a beautiful church, and much, much quieter than the Cathedral.

So, armed with a combo ticket, you are entitled to jump the queue into the Cathedral, but which queue?!

Little is explained, and nothing signposted. The most obvious queue (which is also the pre-bought internet ticket queue) is not the one. No, instead look for the absolutely enormous queue round the corner going towards the Puerta del Principe (https://g.co/kgs/717EL2n). March assuredly to the front and show your ticket to the security guard on the left-hand side.

The Cathedral is too busy, and we were not there on a busy day. However, if you can find the queue for the belltower, it is worth standing in it, and shuffling up the 34 stories to get to the top. It is surprisingly easy on the knees, as rather than steps, it is all ramped, until the last 20 feet or so. The view is great, but the bells are loud!

There are a few gems in the Cathedral. It is an awe-inspiring structure, but look out for Christopher Columbus’ tomb (Cristóbal Colón in Spanish), and also the Vision of St Anthony, mainly to see if you can see the joins in the canvas. St Anthony was cut out of the painting in the late 19th Century by thieves, but returned soon after by an astute New York art dealer.

The less said about lunch the better. We had not planned anywhere to go, and started to wander away from the crowds towards the Plaza De España, which was the afternoon’s activity. Thirst, hunger and a desire to sit outside drove us into La Placita de San Bernardo (https://g.co/kgs/AzQUNk1). We started off by being given the wrong menu, which made ordering rather hard, and then not all of the food turned up. Which actually did us a favour, as the fresh food was pretty awful, and frozen, fried food was not much better. At least they had beer…

The Plaza De España, when approached from the rear, is underwhelming. A long expanse of brick offices with air conditioners hanging out. However, turn round into the square, and prepare to be amazed. It is a magnificent crescent shaped plaza bounded by an amazing building which looks like someone tried to recreate London’s National History Museum in Disneyland. It was built for the Ibero-American Exposition of 1929, and has been restored to its former glory in recent years. It is used as government and consular offices.

That evening, we went to Palo Cortao (https://www.palo-cortao.com/) for dinner, which looks singularly unprepossessing from the outside, but which yielded the very best meal of the holiday. See my review here.

Day 3

We should have got a train to somewhere else on Day 3, maybe Cordoba or Cadiz: Spanish railways put the UK to absolute shame in terms of speed and price. But instead, we put on our walking shoes to look for some hidden gems.

Can’t say we found many. We started at the Alameda de Hercules, which sounded like a lot of fun from the guidebooks (we very much had Camden Market vibes in our heads, especially as it was Sunday). This is a former swamp, which was drained and turned into a public square. Honestly, it didn’t seem to be much of an improvement (some nice statues though…)

From there we wandered up towards the Parliament building, and stopped off to look at the old city walls, and had a peek into the Basílica de la Macarena, which was rammed with worshipers. The area was buzzy, and we stopped for a coffee in a local bar. The service was not overly friendly (I think we were getting in the way of serving the locals), but 3 Euros for 2 amazing coffees is a bargain, and worth the effort.

We then cut back across to the river, which runs through the heart of the city. Across the way is the remains of the 1992 exhibition (part of which is now an amusement park). It is a straight and easy walk back down towards the bullring.

To our right was Triana, the ceramics centre. Today, however, we had thought a bit more wisely about lunch, and so had scoped a couple of places out, settling on La Brunilda (http://www.labrunildatapas.com/) a very tucked away, but somewhat excellent tapas bar. My review is here.

Refreshed, we headed across the river to Triana, which has a lovely riverside, although the main street is somewhat busy, and a little underwhelming. However, it was lucky we had come along this way, as we found an excellent cocktail bar for our pre-dinner drink that night, on the city side of the Triana Bridge, called Mercado del Barranco http://mercadodelbarranco.com/

After a fairly unsuccessful hunt for an ice cream (we only ever saw decent ice cream shops when we weren’t looking for them), we headed back to the hotel.

That evening, after the cocktail, we decided to go to one of Seville’s foodie institutions, El Rinconillo (https://www.elrinconcillo.es/en/home/) which has been serving since 1670! There was a reasonable sized queue, but well worth the wait, if only for the atmosphere. We stood at the bar, and had some well priced and extremely tasty tapas, which with drinks came to 31 euros, and was enough for a hearty meal

Summary

We loved Seville. The weather was excellent for most of the time we were there, and it is an easy city to walk. Food and drink is plentiful and cheap, as well as being very tasty. You can get a good glass of wine for between 3 and 4 Euros.

Will we be going back? Probably not. We think we managed to do everything there was to do, and a little bit more. We could have stayed for another 2 months trying restaurants, but the sightseeing was over by the end of our second day pretty much