We arrived in Seville Wednesday evening. We grabbed a cab at the airport and our driver informed us that he would try to get us as close to our hotel as possible but it would be difficult because the city was crazy. We thought our driver was just being difficult but when we got close to the city center, we quickly learned that he wasn't being difficult - the city was indeed crazy!
We arrived in the city at the start of one of the processionals for holy week or Semana Santa. Processionals occur throughout the city from Palm Sunday to Easter with the largest of the processionals beginning on Holy Thursday. The processionals are organized by religious brotherhoods. The members are dressed in robes with tall pointed hoods with eyeholes designed so that the members could repent anonymously. The focus of each processional is the paso(s) (float) that are either a scene from the sorrowful mysteries of the rosary or a weeping Mary.
After navigating through the crowds, and stopping to view some of the processional, we made our way to the hotel and dropped our bags. As we landed in the evening, our main focus was food. We decided to take a stroll along the river and popped in a restaurant on the river for a bite.
The next morning, we were up early to meet up for a walking tour of Seville. We spent two hours strolling through the streets of Seville. After the tour our guide invited us to join him for a drink and snack at one of his favorite spots that was conveniently located around the corner from our hotel. Our guide introduced us to summer wine (red wine mixed with lemonade) and helped us order what he claims to be the best tapas on the menu. It was great to have the guide show us a 'locals' spot - we definitely wouldn't of stopped in on our own.
After lunch, we headed to Maria Luisa Park. We rented a bicycle and toured around the park for about a hour before relaxing in the plaza and soaking up the sun.
On our way back to the hotel, we got to witness another processional. The processional on Thursday was significantly larger than the processional we witnessed the previous night - chairs and viewing platforms lined the processional route. As the processional runs directly through the center of the city, we had a hard time navigating to our hotel. At one point, we found ourselves right in the middle of the hood figures. We followed a couple in front of us who cut through the middle of the processional while it was stopped - we tried to do the same and the processional started moving! Luckily, we were only in the middle for a few seconds.
That evening we booked a flamenco show. We grabbed an early dinner (early for Spain) prior to the show. The meal was fantastic and had we not had the flamenco show booked, we would of stayed there trying different tapas all evening.
For the flamenco show, we had booked tickets without a meal. As such, we were sat in the back of the room but on a platform that ended up giving us a perfect view of the stage. The flamenco show lasted about two hours and include a mix of both male and female flamenco dancers.
After the show, we headed back to the hotel as we had a flight the next morning to Barcelona.
We loved Seville and thoroughly enjoyed getting to see a couple of the Semana Santa processions.
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