16 February 2018
Friday 9 February
Last Friday, 19 third year boys set off to sunny Seville, for the first time ever. We were greeted with our delicious pre-chosen meals from the menu in El Rincón de Murillo, before taking a short walk to our own apartment to have a relaxing night’s sleep.
Saturday 10 February
On Saturday, we woke up to the city of Seville and headed to the hotel to enjoy an all-you-can-eat buffet style breakfast. We then collected our packed lunches and set off towards the Reales Alcázares, the beautiful gardens that held breathtaking beauty and had previously been host to the cast of Game of Thrones, as well as being one of the residences of the Spanish royal family. After this, we left for the Catedral de Sevilla, just over the road, which holds the title of the largest Gothic cathedral, and the third largest religious building in the whole world. Following this, we entered the iconic La Giralda, which is the second largest building in the city and dominates the skyline at 103 meters tall. We then grabbed lunch at the Plaza del Triunfo, and carried on to the Iglesia del Salvador, an iconic Baroque church built between 1674 and 1712. After this, we were allowed some free time to go shopping in El Corte Inglés, where we spent some money on souvenirs (and some sweets!). We got back to the hotel, showered and left for another delicious meal at a nearby restaurant.
Sunday 11 February
We had an early start, had breakfast, grabbed our lunch and headed off for another busy day. We began by taking a short bus journey to Las Ruinas de Itálica, a Roman settlement which was inhabited from 218 BC to 409 AD and was the birthplace of the famous Roman emperor Hadrian. We had another bus journey back to the Museo de Bellas Artes, where we had a short half an hour guided tour. We then hurried to La Casa de Ciencias, the science museum of Seville, and enjoyed many interactive activities inside. To round off the day we visited the Plaza de España, which is situated in the Parque de Maria Luisa, one of the centre pieces for Spanish culture. We were constantly surrounded by ancient architecture and towers as well as 18000 orange trees, and the day was made by the fantastic Seville weather!
Monday 12 February
On Monday, we had a cracking leisurely start to the day with our succulent breakfast and then we went to El Palacio de las Dueñas which is home to the Alba family, one of the most important aristocratic families in Spain. After that, we visited Sevilla’s newest attraction, the Metrosol Parasol, which opened in 2011 causing complaints from locals. The Sevillians call it las setas (the mushrooms) due to its shape; it gives you a stunning view of the city from the top. After lunch, we walked to the Plaza de toros, Sevilla’s bullfight ring, where we had a fascinating tour, and we learned about the toreo, a practice that has been lately causing political upset in Spain. The last sight we saw on Monday was La torre del oro (golden tower), the tower was one of 166 in a wall protecting the docks of Sevilla during the Moorish era and the exploration of the Americas. After returning to the hotel, packing and eating dinner, we went on a lovely stroll round Sevilla with an Old Abingdonian called Johnny (Juan).
Tuesday 13 February
A small group of us began the day by finishing our stroll around Sevilla, we arrived back at the hotel at 00:30 to get a 7 hour sleep (a real Spanish experience!). After getting out of bed for the final time and finishing our packing, we met, outside the rooms ready for our breakfast buffet to prepare ourselves for the last adventures to come. It began with a delightful tour around the historic sights of Sevilla that we had previously visited in our sightseeing. After the tour had finished we embarked on a lovely walk to Estadio Ramon Sanchez Pizjuan, the home ground of Sevilla’s football team, however it was being refurbished so we were only able to go into the shop. After we had had our last lunch of the trip we knew the time was dawning when we had to say our final goodbyes to Sevilla. However we didn’t let that ruin our final Spanish shopping experience. After we finished we had a short bus journey back to the hotel, where we collected our luggage and said gracias to the very kind staff. The bus collected us at 5.30 to take us to the airport, where we had our final meal and boarded the British Airways plane back to England.
Overall it was a cracking experience in which we had a corker of a time seeing delightful sights and eating lovely food.
Written by: Joseph Betts, Jack Lambert, Jacob Drew, Finn Wilson & Joshua Massey-Thompson
