Spain Trip: Part 1

Oh hey, remember how I went to Spain right after Thanksgiving?  It honestly feels like a distant memory as so much has happened since I got back!  And I am leaving again today (le sigh) for a quick work trip. This will be my last trip of 2017, so I am just going to power through it!  And luckily it's a short one!

But before my memory of the trip to Spain become a bit more hazy, I wanted to tell you all about my trip to Spain.  It was a wonderful getaway and oh so inexpensive.  Southern Spain is an economically depressed area so things are pretty cheap there. Despite the fact that it's a poorer area of the country, we felt totally and completely safe.  To give you an idea of how cheap it is, one night we went out for some drink before dinner. In Granada, they serve tapas with each beverage. We each had 2 glasses of wine, and each glass came with a small tapa.  Our bill was 10 euro for 4 glasses of wine and 4 small tapa plates!  And they don't tip there either so that was the total cost.  It's crazy!  I am sure that the quality of wine was lower than what I would have ordered back here since it was so cheap, but it tasted good enough to me - especially given the price!

Anyways, I will let my photos (mostly) do the talking!

All packed up and ready to go! I loved the Osprey travel pack that I bought for this trip. It's carry on size but is quite roomy.  It's the perfect bag for a trip like this where we stayed in multiple places and used planes, trains and buses to get around.

We arrived in Madrid on Saturday morning and were awfully groggy as neither of us slept much on the plane.  We took a mid-day train to Seville so had to keep ourselves alert until we got on the train, which was a challenge.  We both napped on the train ride, which was around 4 hours I believe and felt much better when we arrived in Seville!

Seville was so beautiful and charming.  Phil and several of my friends studied abroad here.  Phil gave us some suggestions of the highlights to see, which was helpful.

View of the Cathedral from our airbnb balcony. This is the largest gothic church in the world!

There were several pretty parks in Seville, including this one which was close to the Real Alcazar, which is a royal palace.

The park had a tribute to Christopher Columbus. He's a big deal as he set off from a port in Seville to "discover the new world"

One of the biggest attractions and our favorite site in Seville was the Real Alcazar. It was built by the Moorish Muslim kings, so it features Arabic architectures. It is beautiful inside as there is so much intricate tile work.

But our favorite part was the gardens!  We lucked out and visited the Real Alcazar on a day when it did not rain. 

It was so stunning and I loved seeing palm trees, which is something I wasn't expecting to encounter in this region of southern Spain.

While tile work featured prominently in the Real Alcazar, we also spotted a lot of tile work throughout the city, such as this tile work. It's hard to tell from this picture, but it's the Virgin Mary.

Another area of Seville that we loved was the Plaza de Espana.  Apparently one of the Star Wars movies was filmed here. I wouldn't know since I've never seen any of the movies!

Proof that Amber and I were actually on this trip.  This is our only photo together as we mostly took photos of the sights!

Remember how I said Christopher Columbus is a big deal in Seville?  Well, allegedly some of his remains are in the city of Seville.  Inside the Cathedral, they had this statue in honor of him.

I've got more to share about the other 2 cities we visited (Ronda and Granada) but that will have to wait until the next post!

Have you been to Spain?