On July 13, 2023, we took a three-hour, high-speed train ride from Madrid to Seville. We’d never seen anything like Madrid’s new train station. There’s a huge tropical garden in its center!
Hotel Casa 1800
We chose to stay at Hotel Casa 1800 because of the location and reviews. It’s a charming, locally owned boutique hotel in the center of Seville’s old town, and you can only get there by driving through a maze of streets built for horses and buggies! We stayed in a beautiful suite that I wish we’d photographed! We found out later that Hotel Casa 1800 is one of the most sought-after hotels in Seville, and we were lucky to get a reservation.
Here’s a short video of Monica dancing outside of our hotel:
Seville Cathedral
Our hotel was next to the Seville Cathedral, the largest Gothic church in the world. Swipe through these photos of the cathedral and Monica praying at its fountain. See if you can spot Peter standing behind bars in front of its huge altar!
Real Maestranza Bullring
Seville is the home of Spanish bullfighting, and the 300+ year Real Maestranza Bullring is one of the city’s most emblematic buildings. The bullring appears in many of Ernest Hemingway’s books. Monica is a big Hemingway groupie, and she really wanted to see a live bullfight, but there were none going on. (Peter said she wouldn’t have liked all the blood and gore anyway.) Instead, we went on a tour of the bullring which ended up being a great decision! We had full access to the entire arena. It was fun sitting where kings and queens used to watch the show, and it was really cool walking around the actual bullring. Swipe through these pics of us in the ring! All we needed were capes and bulls, and we’d fit right in!
Wandering around Seville
We spent an entire day just wandering around the city and letting it surprise us. We learned about Seville’s history, and we saw world-famous buildings, universities, stores, hidden parks and unique restaurants around every corner. We even found a nice gorilla who wanted a photograph with us! Here are a few photos of things that caught our eyes.
The Food
There are plenty of restaurants in Seville, but we never found a favorite. As in Madrid, our favorite food (especially for Monica whose palate is much less sophisticated than Peter’s) was gazpacho soup and shrimp scampi in garlic and olive oil. Every restaurant served those items, and Monica ordered them everywhere we went. In Spain, those two items were better than any we’ve eaten before or since.
The Boat Cruise to the Dump
On our last day, we took a boat tour that sucked. We didn’t know where we were going, and the crew didn’t tell us. We should have paid attention to the bad reviews on TripAdvisor. The boat took us past dumps and construction sites, and they fed us disgusting ham and cheese, but here’s a cute picture of us on the boat (and another pic of the boat we wished we were on)!
Aside from the horrible boat tour, Seville ended up being our favorite Spanish city. It is a charming town, and the people are very friendly and welcoming.