Diving into Spanish culture, history and passion
- Charlotte Martin
- Mar 24
- 10 min read
We woke up on Saturday to the sounds of peacocks and very chirpy birds outside our window from the Real Alcázar gardens, which are just behind our apartment. We were going to visit the Real Alcázar Palace at 12:30 that day, but had the whole morning to relax and find a breakfast spot. We started walking through a garden area adjacent to the Real Alcázar, separated by a stone wall. The walk was filled with different flower smells, chirping birds and a quiet peacefulness…it’s no wonder Clementine fell asleep on this walk!
We caught a glimpse of the chirpy birds from earlier that morning - they were lime green and looked like parrots! Apparently they are an invasive species from South America, but they do add to the charm of the city gardens.
We come across a large monument of a lion holding a globe, on top of two columns with iron ships. This is Monument to Christopher Columbus. Sevilla has a lot of Columbus monuments/artifacts because he made Spain, specifically Sevilla, a very rich nation by discovering America. Sevilla was the beating heart of Spain’s age of exploration - Columbus departed for America at a nearby port and returned to Sevilla to report to the Catholic monarchs who sponsored him (Ferdinand & Isabella). For over a century, Sevilla held a royal monopoly on all trade with the Americas 😳 Spain’s deep-rooted connection to America is just fascinating, and something I feel like we tend to forget.
We grabbed a table outside at a nearby café and noticed people were eating churros. We thought of churros as dessert so decided not to order them for breakfast, but promised Silas we would find them later on in the day. We all ordered cafe con leche and I finally got to order a tortilla de patata - basically a potato and egg quiche-like dish. I remember eating them all the time when I studied here! And it did not disappoint. Clementine woke up and we walked over to a playground across the street for Silas to burn off his croissant energy.
At the playground, we heard a dad talk to his son in English, in an American accent. His wife walks over and I started chatting with them. They have a 6th grader and a 5 year old, and had been in Europe since March 6th…a very similar trip to ours! They decided to travel Europe while their house got repaired from a busted pipe. If they had to stay in an AirBNB, might as well be in Europe, right? Silas played with their son for a long time before it was time to head to the Real Alcázar.
We knew the Real Alcázar gardens were right behind us but had no idea how to get into the main Palace! After a few google searches, we realized we needed to go to the opposite side of this massive complex to get in. Luckily, it did have lines specific to our entry time (unlike the cathedral), and soon we were in. The first stop was to change Clementine though, and of course, there is no baby changing station in this palace. I propped her up on a big open windowsill in the ladies restroom and changed her there. Not the first time or the last time she was changed in a unique spot 😂
The Real Alcázar, which was insanely busy on Saturday afternoon, was still a pretty incredible place. It was built originally as a Moorish palace nearly a thousand years ago, and walking through it you can definitely tell- the horseshoe arches, the geometric tilework, the fountains in shaded courtyards all speak to Islamic roots.
When the Christian king took over in the 14th century, instead of tearing it down for traditional Christian design and architecture, he loved it so much that he kept building in exactly the same style, importing Muslim craftsmen to do the work.
The gardens are a world unto themselves — we saw so many peacocks lounging in the grass or strutting between the hedges and ducks waddling from fountain to fountain. We got to see a peacock with all its feathers out - and of course we also heard their weird baby-mixed-with-cat cries…exactly what woke us up that morning 😂
Another fun fact is that the scene from the Water Gardens of Dorne in Game of Thrones was filmed here. Bren and I have to snap a photo there of course!
And it’s still a working royal palace today - which means that the same rooms where Isabella and Ferdinand received Columbus after his return from the Americas are very much alive and in use by the royal family any time they are in Sevilla.
Before we know it, it’s naptime again. We all walk back to the apartment and the kids go down for a nap. When they wake up, it’s time to get ready to go to mass in English at the cathedral. We wanted to leave earlier than we did…but sometimes it’s hard getting out of the house with everything you need for two kids for a few hours! We finally get to the cathedral and they let us in a side door roped off to a small chapel near the tomb of Columbus. It was a tiny chapel and PACKED. My parents went in and found seats with Silas as Brennan and I were trying to make a bottle for screaming Clementine - her cries echoing throughout the entire cathedral 😂 when we finally got the bottle made we realized we forgot the parts to the bottle that helps with air bubbles and she refused to eat it. We tried to feed her but it wasn’t going well, and there were no more seats remaining in the small chapel. We decided to walk back to the apartment to fix her bottles because we needed at least one more to cover us through dinner. We grabbed the bottle parts and walked back toward the cathedral. I didn’t think the mass would last a full hour as there was no choir, so we found a restaurant nearby where my parents could meet us after.
I ordered some papas brava (potatoes with a red sauce and aioli) and olives for the table as Brennan raised an eyebrow at me - he doesn’t like olives. I told him they were different in Spain and that he needed to try them. Let’s just say the olives changed his life 😂 he was blown away by how savory and meaty they were, and they weren’t stuffed or seasoned with anything! I remember this taste from 15 years ago and it took me a few years in America to find olives that had that same taste. The ones I found weren’t the traditional Spanish Manzanilla olives, but they were anchovy-stuffed olives! The Goya brand sells them at any grocery store in South Florida, though I have yet to find them in Texas. The anchovies apparently give the same (yet artificial) umami flavor that Spanish manzanilla olives have naturally from their slow brining process. Even Clementine loved the olives! She kept going back for more.
My parents and Silas met us there and Silas ate a lot of grilled chicken…at least he finally ate something besides chicken nuggets for dinner! When my parents got their glasses of wine, Silas insisted on smelling the wine and giving his assessment of what he smelled. He told them he smelled berries and I think he’s got a pretty good sniffer 😂
We walked back to the apartment for bedtime and the city was definitely picking up for Saturday night. We snapped a photo of Clementine in her clementine dress under the clementine tree ☺️
We had churros on the brain since breakfast but could not find any stands or vendors anywhere near our apartment! We told Silas we would find them tomorrow and made that our mission. After we put Clementine to bed, it was another family movie night. We watched about half of Encanto before it was time to go to bed, but I promised Silas we would watch the rest of the movie the next day.
When we woke up on Sunday, we really didn’t have any plans until our flamenco show later that night. We decided we would cross the river and (finally) get churros, check out the Triana market and grab lunch. As everyone was getting ready, mom and I hit up Starbucks. I HAD to get the Starbucks Sevilla coffee mug. Unfortunately, as I was waiting for my pistachio cold brew, I dropped it and shattered it in the store! I apologized profusely and helped clean it up but the workers just kept saying “no pasa nada” (no worries) and gave me another mug! I said I would pay for it but they wouldn’t have it. Everyone is truly so kind here.
Mom and I then took Clementine for a walk along the river, past the Torre de Oro - a 13th century 12-sided defensive watchtower. One of the theories as to why it is named the Tower of Gold suggests that is where the Spaniards stored gold and treasures (stolen) from the Americas during their colonial period.
The guys finally met us and we walked across the bridge to the Triana neighborhood. We found the churros spot and apparently everyone else in Triana had the same idea! We were determined to get churros so a line wasn’t going to deter us. It was finally our turn and we ordered churros and chocolate (the chocolate is similar to hot chocolate but a much thicker consistency) - and no one was disappointed!
We walked toward the market and quickly realized this was THE place to be on a Sunday morning - every single cafe was either packed or no longer serving food. So we walked BACK across the bridge to find a restaurant still serving food and had to go towards the cathedral to the more touristy area. I snapped a photo of the city’s motto on this building (it’s all over the city but I thought this was cool). It means “the city has not abandoned me”, and it has a whole new meaning to me now that I’ve retuned to visit after 15 years.
We laughed that we ended up on the exact same side street we had dinner the night before, but at least we tried a new restaurant! Clementine had her first taste of burrata at this restaurant and she liked it!
After lunch, it was time for…you guessed it…Clementine’s daily nap! Everyone actually ended up taking a nap except me and Silas. We finished Encanto together on the couch. I let him skip the nap so that he would go to bed earlier since we had a sitter coming to watch the kids while we went to a flamenco show. When everyone woke up, we walked back to the plaza/playground we had found the first day. The playground was PACKED with kids and families. Silas and Clementine both had fun playing on the equipment before we sat down at a tapas bar for some light bites.
I’ve gotta say, I don’t think there is anyone Clementine admires more in this world than her brother! She is always watching him and smiling at him.
We got back to the apartment in time to give both kids baths and put Clementine down before the sitter even arrived. When she arrived, she DID speak English though she was a native Sevillano. She was super sweet, gave us a few restaurant recommendations and talked about how she’s watched many babies before. We definitely felt totally fine leaving the kids with her and really thought Clementine would wake up and need a bottle, but both kids yet again slept the entire time for the sitter.
We left the apartment around 8:15 for our 8:45 show, and it was about a 15 minute walk to the theater. The weather was perfect - upper 60s. The insanely clean and picturesque streets were filled with people just starting their nights. Almost all shops were open and we also noticed the city setting up bleachers and blockading areas for the upcoming Semana Santa festivities. I could write an entire post just on Semana Santa (Holy Week leading up to Easter), but I’ll just redirect you to the blog I wrote 15 years ago in case you’re interested! I apologize in advance for the cringe writing, I’ll probably think this blog is also cringey 15 years from now 😂
We scanned our tickets at the theater and they directed us to a table where we had tapas before the show. Just a simple plate of jamón Iberico, local cheese and tortilla de patata. The waiter took our drink order - 2 cervezas, vino tinto (red wine) and vino blanco (white wine) - we kept things simple. Then it was time to go into the actual theater. It was a traditional theater with stadium seating, though it was very small. We were on the 3rd or 4th row, very close to the stage. The show began with 3 men sitting in chairs on the stage - the guitar player, flanked by 2 singers. The guitar player started strumming in the traditional Spanish style - no pick. A singer then began to sing as the second singer would occasionally chime in. By “chime in”, I mean he would speak words like “olé”, “eso es” (that’s it), “vamos” (let’s go), “guapa” (beautiful), “Hassa” (great). This guy did this the entire show. In addition to him also being an incredible singer with his own parts, he was basically the hype man for the performers. His official role is the “Jaleo” and it’s exactly that…the hype man!
Soon the dancers came on stage with their percussive footwork called zapateado, where their feet basically become instruments in the performance. The singers were also tapping their feet and clapping rhythmically throughout the show.
There were maybe 6-8 different short performance segments. They included a mix of different performers: singing/guitar only, the trio dancing together, a duo dancing together, a single older woman dancing and a single man dancing. I was truly entranced the entire show - the synchronized footwork, immense musical talent and just pure, raw passion that radiated from each performer to every person in the audience. The final performance was so intense, the performer spun around and you could literally see the sweat fling from his body. I mean, if that’s not the definition of a passionate performance, I don’t know what is.
After the show, we walked through a couple buzzing plazas until we landed at Plaza de Salvador. I absolutely remember this plaza from 15 years ago - it has a beautiful pink church at the center of the plaza. We have the sitter until 11, so might as well act like Sevillanos and stay out a little later! It’s about 10pm at this point and we quickly notice almost every table at every restaurant is taken with people eating and/or drinking, and socializing. Again, I’m strangely comforted by this sight - like Florence, I’m realizing there are many pockets of the world where late night socializing is not only alive and well post-Covid, but it’s the cultural norm. We finally find an open table and recap the show and our trip so far. As we walk back to the apartment, we snap some nighttime photos of the cathedral…hauntingly quiet after the bustle of the evening crowd had died down.
The last two days have been a deep dive into the local Sevilla culture and unmistakable passion - from the intensity of flamenco to the simple perfection of churros, Spanish olives, and papas bravas we shared along the fragrant orange blossom-lined streets. Back to Sevilla being the perfect place to end our month-long Europe trip, I love that this city doesn’t ask us to rush - instead, it pulls us into its rhythm, somewhere between the echo of heels on a flamenco stage and the quiet glow of the cathedral at night, just as the city begins to stir with anticipation for the festivities of Semana Santa.
🇪🇸❤️
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