Last Friday was Lyle's birthday and to celebrate we spent the weekend in Sevilla and Rome. Flights out of Granada were expensive (mostly connecting flights in Madrid), so we decided to take the bus to Sevilla and fly out of there (did end up significantly cheaper). We took the 3am bus to Sevilla -- we went out the night before and just ended up sleeping on the bus -- and arrived at 7am giving us a few hours to explore the city before our 2pm flight to Rome.
We first visited the
Metropol Parasol, which I was intrigued about because I did not remember it
at all from my last visit. Then I discovered that it wasn't even built the last time I visited, and is a new structure having been completed in 2011. The
Metropol Parasol is a wooden structure located in
Plaza de la Encarnación and claims to be the biggest wooden structure in the world. There are five "parasols" in the shape of a mushroom (
setas in Spanish) giving the structure a nickname of
"Las Setas de Encarnación."
It's a plaza used for public events, with a museum on the ground floor and panoramic terraces above (in the mushroom tops).
We walked around the streets and passed
Casa de la Memoría where I saw a flamenco show three years ago.
And then we visited
Plaza de España (because how can you not). This gorgeous plaza which was built for the 1929 Ibero-American Expo (and is now currently used for government offices), is probably my favorite plaza in all of Spain.
It was actually raining almost the whole day and the skies were grey, but the plaza was still so beautiful.
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| My second time around, but still a breathtaking sight. |
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| My travel pose |
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| Me, Lyle and Julie |
We enjoyed strolling around the plaza and from there, took the bus to the airport and caught our flight to Rome. We spent Friday afternoon and the whole Saturday in Rome, and then flew back to Sevilla on Sunday morning (Julie flew back to Madrid). Lyle and I still had some time to spare before our afternoon bus so we again took the time to see more of Sevilla.
I dragged Lyle to admire
Hotel Alfonso XIII, an historic 5-star hotel.
We checked out the gorgeous interior (and also used the bathroom haha).
And just mainly lurked around for a bit admiring what we could.
We originally wanted to visit the
Alcázar but the line was too long, and we wouldn't have enough time before catching the bus.
The line for the
Cathedral was also quite long, so we just walked around taking pictures. It was such a beautiful day with blue
blue skies.
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| Cathedral doors |
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| Stalker pic of la Giralda (on the left) as taken from the gates |
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| Some kalesas and Sevilla's famous orange trees |
We had lunch at a nearby restaurant - some good
paella and
sangría which we wolfed down because we were so hungry, thus no picture. Then walked by the river to the bus station, just stopping every now and then to just take in Sevilla's beauty.
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| Plaza de Toros de la Real Maestranza - Spain's oldest bullring |
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| Torre de Oro from afar |
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| Fall colors |
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| Rio de Guadalquivir which divides Sevilla in two, and is also the second longest river in Spain |
Next up, the Rome post.
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