Bullfighting, flamenco and feria in Seville

The Feria de Abril lights
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Seville was our first stop in Spain, and we arrived in the middle of Feria de Abril, a big annual fair involving daily bullfights, flamenco dancing and other festivities. We didn´t know that this was happening so it was lucky for us!

On our first afternoon in the city, we went for a wander around and ended up booking tickets for a bullfight and a flamenco show later on in our stay. We noticed lots of women dressed in traditional outfits, with colourful dresses and flowers in their hair... no doubt part of the Feria celebrations. That night, we decided to go and see one of the Feria festivities. I'm not sure what it's official name is, but basically some pretty lights go on at midnight over the river and everyone goes to watch it. There were thousands and thousands of people there and the lights were definitely spectacular.

There are so many historical buildings to see here

Richard at the Plaza de Espana
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On our second day in Seville, we decided to go on another hop on/off bus sightseeing tour. We have done this in every city so far! Some of our favourite sights were the Plaza de Espana and the Maria Luisa Park which featured very pretty gardens. We also visited Seville´s Cathedral, one of the biggest Gothic cathedrals in the world. It supposedly contains Christopher Columbus´s tomb, as well as a bell tower called Giralda - we climbed all 34 stories to the top of this! We spent about 2 hours here as there was so much to see.

The Cathedral in Seville
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That night, we went to see the bullfighting at the Plaza de Toros, the largest and oldest bullfighting ring in the world. This was definitely an experience but one I will not be attending again! I don´t know much about bullfighting and didn´t realise that the bulls would be killed. 6 bulls were brought out over 2 hours, and each was stabbed about 10 times before finally being killed by the matador. One matador almost got gored by a bull and was very lucky not to be killed. He lay on the ground for a while, but managed to get up, stagger around, and eventually finish the fight. I found it all too cruel, but I guess it was interesting to see.

The bullfighting ring
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On our third and final day in Seville, we went to the Real Alcazar, a royal palace dating from the 700s where the royal family still stay when they are in Seville. It was amazing, with both Muslim and Christian style architecture. There are so many historical buildings to see in Seville. Next, we decided to visit Cordoba, another historical World Heritage listed city about 2 hours away from Seville. We didn´t have much time here as we had to get back to Seville for our flamenco show, but got to see the Cathedral which was very impressive with hundreds of arches inside.

The Alcazar palace
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The flamenco show in Seville on our last night was a lot of fun. There was a singer, guitar player and flamenco dancer, and they were all very passionate in what they do. I think flamenco originated in Seville so it was good to see it here!