Seville

Mini-moon – November 2019
PHOTO GALLERY

DAY 1 – (Friday 1st Nov 2019)
Up early and super excited as I was about to embark on our Sevillian mini-moon…with my HUSBAND! (still waiting for the novelty of me calling him that to wear off).

We landed in Seville at around 1:10pm and instantly were relieved to see that the sun was out. I was a little nervous booking this trip, partly as I did it in secret as a post-wedding surprise for Lee, but also because we were now in November and I wasn’t confident it would be the warm-get-away I was hoping for (and thirdly because we were flying out the day after BREXIT was supposed to happen…again).

Remembering that England were playing in the Rugby World Cup the following day, we decided our best bet to find somewhere to watch it would be to Google an Irish bar. Despite not being huge Rugby fans, we both wanted to watch the final against South Africa so we found The Merchant Irish Bar and decided to head over to suss it out. After another refreshing beverage we then walked to what felt like the main “high street / shopping” area, had a browse and then grabbed a gorgeous ice cream, made in front of us, from Holy Roll.

We eventually headed back to our apartment, super tired and with achy feet. We thought we’d take a little timeout before heading back out to find a nice restaurant for dinner but instead we opted to get a takeaway from The Great Burger as it was only a 5 min walk away. Not very Spanish of us but it was great (we think it might have been their take on a Shake Shack).  [Steps walked: 13,273]

DAY 2 – (Saturday 2nd Nov 2019)
Expecting to get up earlier than we actually did we eventually walked to The Merchant Irish Bar to watch the rugby. To no surprise it was absolutely rammed, however we managed to find a decent spot and parked ourselves there for the next grueling 80 minutes. Well actually that’s a lie, we ended up leaving early when we realised there was no chance of a come-back. From there we walked to the beautiful Catherdral de Sevilla to soak up some sights and having not yet eaten, we grabbed a quick sandwich at a cafe called Hense, which was HORRENDOUS, don’t ever go there!

After walking around with no purpose other than to absorb Seville’s beauty, Lee suggested heading back to our apartment to make use of our roof-top pool (that we were only allowed to use until 3pm). To be honest it was a lovely idea but very optimistic. Despite the water being very cold and the sun opting to go in at this particular time, I had a little dunk, kind of to prove a point I think…but to who, I’m not sure!

After our short-lived roof-top time we headed back out for another stroll. As our first lunch was so bad we ended up having a second mini-lunch at Bar Tino (tapas) and from there ended up in a lovely little cocktail bar called Premier Sherry & Cocktail Bar. Two or three cocktails later we headed back to our apartment via the shops (where Lee bought me a lovely new dress) to get ready for our evening.

Wearing my new dress, we headed again to Alameda de Hércules for a pre-dinner drink, which come the evening has such a lovely atmosphere. We then had a gorgeous dinner at No-lugar, the art company which I’d highly recommend. Slightly quirky, the food, service and atmosphere was brilliant. Reserving a table is highly recommended; we didn’t, but we were very lucky to be offered a seat at the bar, I think because they’d only just opened, despite it being 9pm! [Steps walked: 13,096]

DAY 3 – (Sunday 3rd Nov 2019)
After we’d gotten over the disappointed of realizing that none of the shops were open today (we’d noticed how much cheaper Zara was and wanted to take advantage), we slowly headed to Plaza de Espana. Such a beautiful building that I’d visited before in 2017, it was one of the few places that was on my Lee-must-see list.

Annoyingly it was slightly spoilt by the fact that the MTV European Awards had taken it over this weekend. Instead of the large open space where the fountain usually was, it was full of staging from where Green Day had played the night before. It was still worth a visit though.

Unsure of what to do next, we ended up taking a slow stroll along Canal de Alfonso XIII. As we got to the Monumento a la Tolerancia we decided to head back up to the main street where we were met with a huge gathering of original Fiat 500’s. Quite a sight.

A little parched, we ended up in the nearest bar which happened to be another Irish pub, what are the chances. Despite this, we still very much felt like we were in Seville as we sat outside in the bright sunshine. Too nice to move, we ended up having quite a few drinks and shared a gorgeous plate of nachos.

We eventually headed back to our apartment for a little siesta before heading back out for the evening. We ended up back in the square (Alameda de Hércules), had an aperol spritz and then had a gorgeous meal at al Aljibe, sat out on the terrace. Again, forgetting how late people seem to eat at night over here, I nearly dragged Lee away from this restaurant as it was empty, to me a sign that it’s probably not very good. How wrong was I?! I’d highly recommend this restaurant and would go back to it again another time, probably the best meal of the trip. [Steps walked: 13,122]

DAY 4 – (Monday 4th Nov 2019)
With our 9:40am flight back to Stansted it was a case of being up and out early and so we grabbed a nearby taxi (€22) and headed to the airport.

Expecting to land at Stansted at 11:35am I’m disappointed to say we were hit with severe delays due to a technical issue with our plane.

I can’t be bothered to bore you with the finer details, however I’ll highlight that we were flying with Ryanair, they were terrible at informing us what was going on, we were given misleading information and overall were delayed by 9 hours, eventually landing at Stansted airport at around 8pm (UK time).

“Compensation…?” I hear you cry….

YES! Through the amazing website Resolver (in association with MoneySavingExpert.com) I made a successful claim. We paid approx £125 for this one-way flight (Seville – Stansted) and were rewarded £689.20 in compensation (equivalent to €400 each). NB: we were successful as this was a 3hr + delay and covered by EU laws.

After this dreadful experience I’ve said I’ll never fly with Ryanair again…but hey, who knows. That compensation did ease the pain.

  • FLIGHT DETAILS
    London Gatwick – Seville / EasyJet = £105.98
    Seville – London Stansted / RyanAir = £122.91

  • ACCOMODATION
    Quiet Apartment with Pool in Downtown – Airbnb / 3 nights = £242.54
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