A Day Trip to Seville - Royal Alcázar & Plaza de España

On the second day in Madrid, we head to Segovia, a historic city on the northwest of Madrid.

As for the third day, we proceed to Seville, the capital of southern Spain's Andalusia region. 

Because the train ride from Madrid to Seville takes almost 3 hours even with the high-speed AVE train, we need to get up and leave our place in the early morning. Not even got the opportunity to witness the sunrise in Madrid itself.

FROM MADRID TO SEVILLE 

Just like what I shared on my previous post, there are two different two stations in Madrid - Chamartin and Atocha. The first one served those trains mostly from northbound whereas the latter served trains from southern Spain. Therefore in order to get to Seville, we need to depart from Atocha. Luckily is just less than 10 minutes walk from where we stayed without the need to take any metros. For our round-trip high-speed AVE train tickets between Madrid and Seville, we purchased in advance from Renfe website. 

#1: Madrid-Atocha Station - Try to arrive 15 minutes earlier before the departure time 

In Seville, there are also two train stations; Santa Justa Train Station and San Bernado Train Station. Sevilla Santa Justa Train Station mainly serves the Spanish high-speed AVE train service. So this is the station we're need to get off from when arrive in Seville. Sevilla Santa Justa Train Station is situated to the north-east of the city centre and from here, you can take metro, tram or even bus to get around Seville.

#2: Sevilla Santa Justa Train Station - the third busiest station in Spain

WHERE WE WENT IN SEVILLE

Right outside of Sevilla Santa Justa Train Station, you can hop on to any of their public transportation such as metro, trams and buses. However, this is the part where I have to be honest with you - I arrived Seville with absolutely unprepared. That's so not me! I don't have any clues of where we should head to, how to navigate around and etc. I was literally clueless and with the heavy downpour when we arrived Seville, I was indeed a bit frustrated. In order to calm myself, we had a break first at McDonald's outlet which we stumbled upon outside of the train station before continue our journey around Seville. 

After having a cup of piping hot coffee, finally I made up my mind to visit Royal Alcazar of Seville first. In order to get there, we took metro. 

Royal Alcazar of Seville

Oh boy! The compound is significantly huge and we eventually got lost just by searching for the main entrance to Royal Alcazar. By the time we found the entrance, we're shocked to see an extremely long queue to purchase the entrance ticket. At that point of time, we're dilemma whether should we join in the queue and visit other attractions. But after did research from Google, this seems to be the major attraction of Seville. Hence, we decided just to join the queue and wait for our turn. After waited for roughly 1 hour and 30 minutes, finally our turn. Lesson learnt here - always to buy ticket in advance. You can buy the tickets from here.

#3: Royal Alcazar - must visit when in Seville

Royal Alcazar is the royal palace of Seville. It's absolutely the main highlight here and not to be missed by any visitors. Luckily I insisted to wait instead of leaving, or else I will be regret for my whole life cause this place is exceptionally stunning and mesmerizing. It's totally different from what I've seen for the past two weeks in Europe. With its myriad rooms, extravagant architecture, lavish gardens with many courtyards, ponds and secrets waiting to be discovered, it is a fascinating place to visit. I was amazed by the beauty and intricate details of each room.  

#4: Rain rain go away. Come again another day.


#5: The courtyard of the maidens - Somehow reminds me of Morocco


#6: Look at all these colourful tiles


#7: One of the access gates


#8: The Hall of Ambassadors' ceiling - I can watch this all day

Nearest Metro Station: Puerta Jerez
Opening Hours: Opens daily from 9.30am to 5pm (From October to March)
                                                        9.30am to 7pm (From April to September)
                             Closed on 1st and 6th January, Good Friday and Christmas.

Coffee Break & Souvenir Shopping

Once we done with our visit to Royal Alcazar, it's time to fill up the hungry tummy. There are countless of restaurants and cafes not far away from the royal palace but majority of them seem to be fully occupied. We then simply walked in to a restaurant where it's selling mouthwatering cakes and pastries and we tried out luck to get a table. After waited for almost 10 minutes, we got our seats.

#9: A cup of coffee a day is a must to keep me awake

#10: Souvenirs shopping. The challenge here? To look for the best one out from all these eye-catching choices. It's hard you know cause feels like wanna getting all. 

#11: Seville's buildings are marvelous and stunning

We have like 10 hours to wander and marvel around Seville before leaving back to Madrid. 10 hours might seems long but in the blink of an eye, actually we left not much time. Without wasting any longer, we head to our final stop - Plaza de Espana by taking tram. Finally I managed to figure out how to take a ride on the tram.    

Plaza de Espana

The overwhelming Plaza de Espana is the most popular public square in Seville. It's really hard not to miss out this place as it has been featured in most books, magazines, brochures when comes to promoting Seville in terms of travel. 

#12: Plaza de Espana - public square in Seville

The shape of Plaza de Espana is a semi circle, surrounded by a row of buildings with abundance of pavilions. Other features of the square are the large water fountain in the center and the round canal where visitors can hire boats to gently row over under the cute bridges. Though this place seems be crowded by the time we're there, but still we found it's very peaceful and relaxed strolling around the square. I can see that both of my mom and cousin really enjoyed themselves here and we almost refuse to leave this spectacular place. 

#13: Visitors can hire boats to gently row over under the cute bridges


#14: What a relaxed and peaceful environment

It's the time to bid goodbye to Seville. From Plaza de Espana, we took Uber back to Sevilla Santa Justa Train Station and from there, we took AVE high-speed train to Madrid. Since our train depart around 7.45pm and the journey takes almost 3 hours ride, immediately we grab our dinner at the train station and eat inside the train.

My verdict on Seville? I personally think that a day trip to there from Madrid is not highly recommend cause it is quite rush since a single ride with the high-speed train takes almost 3 hours. As in result, it takes 6 hours to go and back and you might miss out few top tourist attractions there. If I were given a chance to go back Spain, I would choose to stay longer in Seville - a least overnight for two nights. 

HOW MUCH I SPENT IN SEVILLE

PARTICULARS	AMOUNT
	€	RM
Transportation Renfe Madrid – Seville Train Return Seville Metro – 1 way Seville Tram – 1 way Uber to Seville Santa Justa Train Station Admission Fee Royal Alcazar of Seville Food and drinks Breakfast - McD Lunch Dinner Others Magnets Postcards Stamps	35.25 1.90 1.40 1.97 11.50 1.83 10.00 4.20 6.20 1.25 4.20	169 9 7 10 60 9 49 20 30 6 20
TOTAL (RM)		389

Exchange Rate €1 = RM4.86 as at October 2018

Previous Posts on My UK & Europe Trip - October 2018

• Autumn in UK & Europe (Sneak Peek)
• A Repeat Trip To London With Oman Air
• 2 Days in Porto, Portugal
• Keep Safe & Stay Vigilant When Visiting Lisbon, Portugal
• Pena Palace of Sintra, Portugal
• Adeus Porto and Hola Barcelona!
• Park Guell - Gaudi's Iconic Park in Barcelona
• La Sagrada Familia - Gaudi's Unfinished Masterpiece
• Barcelona's Other Top Attractions
• Farewell Barcelona! And Our First Day In Madrid
• A Day Trip to Segovia From Madrid