Sicily, Malta and then Seville? Why you jetsetter!
Well, what can I say hey? Travelling around during the summer holidays is definitely how I want to live life. Of course, now that I did go on 2 holidays the chance of me zooming off elsewhere in the near future is quite slim. Shame my parents aren’t computer savvy, otherwise I’m hoping they read this and let their daughter ‘expand her knowledge of the outside world.’
Sicily had excellent food, but at certain places your awareness was much higher because you know, Sicily…mafia. Not that they would hurt a tourist like me. I mean all they could get out of me would probably be “take everything but the camera!” but they would have nothing to take from me anyway. Malta was excellent for relaxation, you felt safe even walking around at 1am in the morning but it lacked the foodie part for me. Seville, ah Seville, has made it onto my favourite list because it has all the elements I love for a holiday; food, weather, safe, night time roaming and lots to do. I finished Malta in two days but I haven’t finished Seville in 4 days.
Seville was great, awesome and any adjective that vaguely translates as excellent. Only 2 hours away from London and we landed in a country full of sunshine, romance, food and music. We watched flamenco at the casa de la memoria after a local tip off but do be aware that you need to book the tickets beforehand! Do not, as we did, just turn up expecting tickets because we just got lucky as two people decided to pull out at the last minute! BOOK BEFOREHAND. It was a brilliant show where the lady danced with passion and the man danced with fire, as cheesy as it sounds, it did make my spin tingle.
Unfortunately we didn’t get to watch bullfighting as we had just missed a previous week session and they were not yet in bull season. It’s a shame really because I can imagine how extravagant the whole scenario would be and how amazing it would be to sit there as an audience. Just imagine sitting in one of Spain’s finest bull rings…..imagine. But we did walk round to many other sites such as the Arabian-like, romantic royal palace Alcazar, the magnificent Giralda (Catedral tower), marvelous park and finding our way through the labyrinth roads.
We wandered from day to night with a short afternoon siesta break in between, sitting at cool tapas bars, eating desserts or simply dining outside with water mist constantly sprinkling on you. There were places we would specifically go to but there were many places that we would wander into amidst our walks which we very occasionally got lost on. Seville is small, but for us it was still a challenge to read the map!
We had seafood paella, kindly booked for us by our receptionist, which had to be pre-booked as they needed to allocate an hour to cook this dish apparently. They probably had a bad day because everything else about the restaurant was good but the paella was far too salty we nearly dehydrated during our meal. Thankfully the paella wasn’t too expensive. I don’t know why I didn’t inquire about the price when the receptionist was booking it for us, I obviously though I had masses of cash to spend.
An excellent place to escape from the sun and heat, whilst devouring desserts was at Horno De San Buenaventura, this is where C ordered a coffee and I went and ordered two cakes, two chocolate cakes to be exact. Robles Laredo on the other hand didn’t really do it for me, there was an attempt to do all this fancy dancy desserts that just didn’t have the wow factor. Plus it was quite expensive. Even though I say it is rubbish, we couldn’t help ourselves and went back there to do alfresco drinking whilst people watching.
Other places that I liked were Bar Europa, El Rinconcillo and this other restaurant who had a super friendly awesome Sevillian waiter. He gave us a fan each and taught us some Spanish! Levies café is brilliant as well especially after flamenco watching as the café is nearby, it opens till late and is always buzzing with customer. Even if you don’t want to eat, just go for the atmosphere at night time. Similarly with Estrella, go for the atmosphere and chill at night time when the heat has cooled down, order a jug of sangria and just drink and chat.
Seville is a brilliant place and I’ve planned to go there again sometime in the near future as I haven’t explored all parts of the small but romantic city. Paris is so over-rated with romance, head out further and go to Seville. Sun, food, sightseeing and friendly people what more could you ask for?
p.s if you are going to bring a credit card, know the pin for it otherwise it’s pretty much useless right?
Some restaurant details that I remember:
Las Piletas
Marques de Paradas 28.
Breakfast, lunch and dinner daily
Bar Las Teresas
Sanat Teresa 2
El Rinconcillo
Gerona 40
Estrella
Estrella 3
Europa
Siete Revueltas 35
Robles Laredo
Sierpes 90
Horno De San Buenaventura
Carlos Canal 28 and also at Avenida da la Constitucion 16
And look at Seville Tapas for up to date restaurants!
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Tags: seville, summer holidays
Glad you visit Seville and like it. For me outside the hot season is always a good time to go.Sorry about the Paella, but I thing, first today you really know where to go for have a Paella and more in Seville where really paella is more a tourist thing than traditional. Like you I really like the old fashion El Rinconcito and the new Europa with the new sevillian style food
We went in September, so it was cooler then but still quite hot, can imagine during the peak summer months it may be a bit unbearable! Though we were in Sicily for the peak time and some days we just couldn’t do anything outside because of the heat!
Apart from the paella, which I now know is more of a tourist thing, food in Seville on a whole was good. We didn’t have anything disastrous!
Thanks for reading
Thanks very much for the mention! Glad you found my Sevilla Tapas blog useful.
No worries! It was very useful, particularly for up-to-date information about restaurants, thank you for sharing it with us infact!