My day at the ultra-impressive Real Alcazar

The sun peeks out from the palm tree it was painting in a slowly swaying silhouette, and with it peaks a striking green parakeet, before it flutters off to another palm with its screeching friends. I’d made it to Seville, and all thoughts on whether or not I’d ever see the sun again were immediately disposed of. Actually, they’re saved for when I’m back home and need something to complain about¹; Always recycle kids. 

Seville is often called Europe’s hottest city, and though I may have found the summer heat a step too far, (even for a guy who claims “Heatstroke!? Heatstroke is my middle name!” (or two, or three, maybe ten steps too far)), now, in the often frigid month of November, the city’s seemingly never ending sunshine and warm weather made for a welcome break from the doom and gloom that was hovering over my London based head for the past month. 

I’d arrived late the night before, and had already had a chance to explore a small part of the city on foot, but after being rudely awakened at 8 am by the cathedral bells (a lot more on that later), I figured starting my day on five hours sleep would be a great way to celebrate my first time in Spain, since it gave me a golden opportunity to actually take a… Siestaaaa. 

I was walking through the Tres Fuentes Garden, on my way to get myself a coffee and breakfast before my midday ticket to the world renowned Real Alcazar de Sevilla. Just a few minutes after spotting the parrots, I was eating my bagel with smashed avocado and sipping a piping hot black coffee while watching some songbirds feast on a middle aged American’s banana cake as he was inside the cafe choosing a dessert. Always guard your food, people.

When I had finished my breakfast, I still had a couple hours until noon, which is when I’d booked my Alcazar tickets for, so I set off to find myself a charger, as I’d forgotten my universal adaptor at home and as you might already know, it’s quite hard to take pictures or to communicate on hostel chats when your phone’s as dead as Julius Caesar (he’s quite dead I assure you). Annoyingly, though I love exploring a city without a phone to help me out; it made finding an electrical store incredibly frustrating. Especially when I thought I’d finally found one only to find that it wasn’t opening until midday. God can give a man hope, and just as easily snatch it away ay?

Long story short, by the time I managed to find a charger, I only managed to juice my phone up to 20% before I had to make my way to the Alcazar, which was not ideal. 

Now we’ve reached what you’re here for; The highlight of Seville; the Alcazar. 

Having originally been built in early 900s, then rebuilt by the Alhomads in the 12th century, later spruced up by King Pedro of Castille in the 14th century, and being constantly added to and improved ever since, the Alcazar as it is today is a scintillating symphony of all types of Spanish and Iberian architecture over the past millennia that simply has to be seen to believed! From the moment I stepped into the Patio de la Monteria (the courtyard in front of the main palace), one word screamed to me; Grand. This place was very grand. 

The mosaics covering the ground were intricate and marvellous, and the mosaics on the palace facade put even those to shame. The palaces’ vibrant blue, green, and golden colours glinted in the sunlight, showing off the intricate detail put into every little piece of expertly chiselled stone. Entering the palace only meant a rise in the level of beauty around me. The corridors between the larger chambers had ceilings with perfectly symmetrical, ocean blue, flowery-like designs that really caught the eye. In fact they caught enough eyes to create a small traffic jam of photo hungry visitors.

In the palace, there are two highlights which, even with as beautiful as everything else is, really steal the spotlight; The Salon de Embajadores [Ambassadors Hall], and the Patio de la Doncellas [Patio of the Maidens].

The Ambassadors Hall was the lavish and elegant throne room of Al-Mu’tamid. Actually, I should replace the “was” with “is”! The throne room is still a jaw dropper! The archways of the hall are decked out in wondrous designs of royal blue and a kingly golden brown. You can only imagine how it would have felt to come in to meet the king in the 12th century; Everywhere you look, the throne room is a scene of perfection, every tiny flowery stone carved perfectly to the millimetre, in a rich, golden paint. One would have been simply starstruck!

It’s the Patio of the Maidens though that truly steals the show. Though not as intricate and grand at first glance, the perfect simplicity of the Seville blue sky lending its colour to the iconic Mudejar architecture (a gorgeous mix of Christian architectures (especially Gothic) and Islamic design) makes for one the most recognisable locations in all of Spain. I would have gladly spent an hour or two just setting up the perfect photo, but well, my phone was on its deathbed, so I took off to the gardens to try and capture some photo perfect palms.

Before booking my trip to Seville, the one place I’d been told I absolutely had to go was the Alcazar’s gardens, so you can imagine that I was over the moon to find out that as much as they’d been constantly hyped up for me, they still managed to blow me away! 

The gardens are vast! There were countless orange orchards, fountains, and duck filled pools, and within minutes my incessant photo taking had taken my phone over the brink… but not before I had made my way to the Baths of Lady María de Padilla! I absolutely had to get some snaps here because the baths were used to film a scene in one of my all time favourite shows, Game of Thrones! (The books are still better lol)

Yes! If you haven’t noticed from the pictures above, the Alcazar was used as the primary filming location for many of the scenes in the Old Palace of Sunspear, which is the palace of House Martell of Dorne. By the way, can we all agree that the show made a massive mistake in ignoring the entire Dorne plot line? I mean, where on earth is Arianne?! Justice for the Lord of the Sunspear!! Okay I’m done nerding out now. 

Around that point, my phone finally gave up on me, leaving me with no way to capture any photos of anything I had missed but also, a lack of pressure. When you go somewhere like the Alcazar it’s only natural to want to capture the splendid beauty of everything you see, but in it’s own way, knowing that everything I saw from here on would be captured in one place only, and that was my brain, was a relaxing thought. 

Oh, and there’s always google.

Over the next hour or so I explored the gardens some more, getting utterly lost in the hedge maze (el Laberinto), which turned out to be purely ornamental and didn’t even have a centre I’d been supposed to find. 

I then took in the garden views from above by walking along the garden walls, before heading to the upper floors of the main palace where I found one of my favourite rooms in the entire Alcazar. It was a hall decorated with massive canvases showcasing the Spanish conquest of Tunis, and though I’m not usually that interested in paintings of war, one of the canvases was a massive map of Mediterranean Europe in the 14th century, and as I was now without my phones audio guide, I challenged myself for a solid fifteen minutes in finding each modern day city that was already present on the map. This might sound quite boring to you, and it would to me as well, but that map was drawn in a completely different style to anything I’d ever seen, and brilliantly illustrated at that. I really wish I had a picture to prove to you guys I haven’t aged thirty years overnight!

Enjoying my rambling? Subscribe to get notified every time I release another dragged out diary entry.

This gallery was my last proper stop in the Alcazar, though I did return to some of my favourite halls and courtyards before leaving. As I exited the palace, I realised right away; I’d made a massive mistake. One that I’ve often implored upon other travellers, and now I’d gone and done it myself in the grandest of styles; Never, NEVER, do the best thing first.

Luckily for me, as it turns out, it’s not only Seville’s weather that is warm, it’s also the charm, the tapas, and of course, the wonderful people. So don’t worry guys, my trip only got better from here!

(Though I still have to say; Don’t visit the Alcazar on your first day!!)

(Hey that rhymed!)

(“Oh G-D, here he goes again on another one another one of his goofy tangents” ~ You, most probably)

Until next time, Adios Amigos!!     ; )

1. I’m back now and… SOMEONE GET ME OUUUUUT OF HERE!!! ↩︎