Seville, Spain Day 2

Seville Day 2 - The Alcazar

Buenos días Sevilla!  We woke up around 9 am,I was planning to head to Real Alcazar when it opens at 9:30 to avoid the crowd but when I looked out the window, it was cloudy!! Oh noooo! We can't just wait and wasting our precious vacation time! So we did spend some time taking photos of the beautiful hotel staircase!

We walked out to have an early lunch at the cafe next to the Seville Cathedral, the waiter barely speak English.  We pointed him the menu and he managed to mixed up 2 out of 3 plates we ordered LOL! Food was okay, bill was 15 euros.

After lunch, the sky cleared up back to blue sky again wohooo!! Real Alcazar was just few steps away and there wasn't a long line by the time we got there. The courtyard of Real Alcazar with La Giralda on the background. When we first walked in, there were many doors LOL, we didn't know where to start!  We picked the door on the right and navigate there first.

We walked in and there were displays of beautiful fans, they must be priceless!  We have seen few fans without price tags in shops and we were curious and asked for price...one was over thousand of euros woah!!! Must be some famous painter painted the fan!

We walked from one "house" to another, from courtyard to courtyard!

Each is unique and we had a fun time photographing.

The orange color made it felt like Seville Spanish architecture!

We walked upstairs and inside are some porcelain tile displays. The view from up here was great can see both the Alcazar and  La Giralda.

We came back down, the wall is decorated with beautiful porcelain tiles and a taste of Muslim architecture.

Another courtyard:

Another one:

Then, we walked inside a room, it is the Hall of Ambassadors (as I have seen in my online photos)!! The hall was magnificent with the sparkling gold ceiling and detailed tiles. I felt like I was looking through a kaleidoscope!

Walked through the hall is the Courtyard of the Maidens, the architecture is just incredible! Even the arcs are filled with detailed! Words can't describe how details it is and photo can barely captures its true beauty.  You have to go there see it yourself!

 We can't get enough photos of the Courtyard of the Maidens! Then we walked through buildings, we have no clue where we were at this point!

We walked out and ended up in another courtyard. I like the orange building with green plants and a very blue sky with some clouds!

This hallway is very bright colored, the bright orange and yellow made it one of its kind! Doesn't it match my dress as well? hehe!

I have seen photos of those "cups" before and I found them haha!  They were located right in front of the entrance to the Alcázar Gardens! You can't miss them before you exit the Alcazar :)

Alcázar Gardens:

The garden is very rich with plants!!

I don't think we have walked half of the garden but we were hungry by then lol.  On the way out, I noticed this tree on the wall, very bright green colored so I have to have hubby take a photo of me and the tree :)

Hubby liked the pattern of the rocks on the path and the light it reflected:

After we exited the Alcazar, I planned to walk to La Cava del Europa for lunch.  It was located in the Santa Cruz are so it was a good walk through this local neighborhood. There are many souvenir stores here and prices are cheaper than around the Cathedral area. The twisted little roads around this area made it difficult for me to find my way lol and I saw this tile map!

The walk was 20 minutes or so since we stopped by souvenir shops (it really should take less than 10 minutes from the Alcazar)! We arrived at La Cava del Europa, it was a small but new looking cafe with tables outside.  We preferred to sit inside for air conditioner haha!  They do have English menu!  We ordered tapas to try out different dishes!  We ordered a cold almond "soup"....it was freshly made but we didn't like the fact that they added something to it that made it salty.

The crispy shrimp, it was rolled in a thin sheet of skin and deep fried:

Sardine fish I think it is:

Tuna maki, similar to sushi:

Steak with bell pepper:

Another fish plate:

The bill came to be 27.8 euros with two sodas.  Not bad and the food was good!

After a full lunch, we walked back to the hotel to take a rest.  Hotel exterior:

The courtyard of the hotel where the restaurant is located, it was empty when we got back around 3 pm so perfect timing for photos!

View of the courtyard restaurant from the 2nd floor:

Beautiful hotel!!!

The one thing that I had a hard time with Spain is all the restaurants are close during 5-8 pm.  I get used to eating dinner at 6 pm at home so I starved a lot before the 8 pm dinner lol! 8 pm is still 5 hours away and to fill our time, we took our tripod and went over to Plaza de Espana again for photos of us two!! By now, the weather is not at its best, it was cloudy, I was hoping for blue sky with clouds!!!  So then, we just need to focus taking shots that's lower ground and not to include much sky!

Here's one shot we like with the roses along its riverbank:

On the stairs of a bridge with a little bit of blue sky:

The colors didn't come out as we hoped for when it's blue sky so we left and went back to the hotel.  We can easily burn time by going through our photos and select the ones we like!  Plus searching for where to eat for dinner!  I searched the list of restaurants on Trip Advisor and found this one: El Pimenton, it is rated #4 in Seville and reasonable price range so there's where we went for dinner!

El Pimenton is very easy to get to, right near the Cathedral.  It has a special menu, 3 tapas for less than 9 euros, where can you beat that???

Here are some of their tapas menu but in Spanish:

Don't worry, they do have an English menu and their waiters speak very good English!  The 8.95 for 3 tapas, not all the tapas in the menu are included in the deal. But even without the deal, the tapas are around 3-4 euros each! Here was our meal:

1. Shrimp with potato salad, very good!

2. Spanish omelete (they were very good) 3. Fried shrimp and 4. Fish fillet with potatoes and a spicy sauce

5. Chicken stew I think, the sauce was yummy!

6. Fried fish with an egg, those were crispy and tasty, it was a big plate too!

7. Mini hamburger and 8. Another fish fillet

9. don't remember what is this but it's good!

Total bill for the 9 dishes meal with two sodas came to be 32.7 euros!!! El Pimenton totally deserved its 4th place ranking for the best value for food!  Out of all the cities we visited in Spain, Seville has the best food in terms of quality and price!  A couple who sat next to us looked shocked on the amount of food we ordered LOL!  They also found this restaurant through Trip Advisor.  We highly recommended El Pimenton!!

                                                                                                                       Continue to my Seville Day 3