Spain and Portugal Day 8 - Real Alcázar

So on our last day in Seville, we hit up the Real Alcázar, which is a super fancy royal palace built for the Christian king Peter of Castile. The place is unreal, with its intricate tile work and beautiful architectural details. Some of the floors are even still used by the royal family! We were lucky enough to score tickets for the earliest entry time of 9:30am, which meant we could beat the crowds a little bit.

We spent the morning just wandering around the palace, taking in all the different rooms and areas. There were a few signs in English explaining what we were looking at, but mostly we just enjoyed getting lost and discovering all the nooks and crannies. The gardens are what really blew us away, though. There are something like 15 acres of perfectly manicured greenery to explore, and we made sure to see it all. We even got lost in the labyrinth garden for a little while!

Alison reading about the history of the Real Alcázar 

After we finished up at the Real Alcázar, we were pretty hungry so we went to grab one last lunch in Spain. The food here has been amazing, so we wanted to make the most of it. Then we headed over to the Catedral de Sevilla, which is the largest Gothic cathedral in the world. The tower, called the Giralda, used to be a minaret for a mosque that was destroyed when the Christians conquered Seville. The tower survived, though, and now it's a bell tower with incredible views from the top.

The rest of the cathedral is pretty insane, with tons of gold that was mostly taken from South America. We felt kind of weird about it, to be honest. But the cathedral is also the final resting place of Christopher Columbus, which is definitely a controversial historical landmark. After we finished up at the cathedral, we had to make one last stop at Helados Reyes for some gelato. We've been having ice cream for dinner every night, and we're going to miss that tradition!

To wrap up our time in Seville, we took a scenic route back to our hotel along the river. We ended up at the Plaza de Espana, which is a really cool square, and then walked through the Maria Luisa park. It was a great way to say goodbye to Spain, even though we were sad to leave.