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The same weekend that I traveled to Granada, my friend Ana and I took a day trip to Sevilla on that Saturday. Sevilla is a city located in Andaluc�a, like Granada.

We arrived in the late morning, and immediately decided to go on a hop on/hop off tour of the city. These tours take a double-decker bus that has an open top, and bring you on a tour through the streets of the city past all of the major attractions. There are stations along the route that allow you to “hop off” of the bus and explore the attractions around that stop, then you can go back to the stop whenever you want to continue the tour and “hop on” the next bus that comes by.

 

I had done one of these tours before (around Barcelona) and I think that they are a great way to see a city, especially if you are only there for a short period of time. Since we were only going to be in Sevilla for a couple of hours, this was perfect for us.

 

We were able to see all of the points that we wanted to see, including Plaza de Espa�a and Plaza de Toros.

One of the most interesting spots that we stopped at was Monasterio de la Cartuja, a monastery from the 14^th century for Carthusian monks. We didn’t know what it was when we first walked up to it, so we decided to explore. First, we walked through a small room, which we thought was an area for religious services, then we walked out into a beautiful garden. In the building behind the garden, there was a multitude of different things. There were exhibits of contemporary art, rooms of sculptures and tombs, and various patios. The building was a bit confusing to us, because we did not know what it actually was, but it was interesting to explore.

My favorite stop on the tour was the Catedral de Sevilla, also known as Catedral de Santa Mar�a de la Sede. It looked beautiful from the outside, but I was speechless when I saw the inside. It was, without a doubt, the most beautiful cathedral that I have ever seen in my life. It was enormous, with various extremely intricately designed rooms for services.

I really have to say that I don’t think I have ever seen anything so magnificent in my life. Rooms that were off of the main area housed old relics, such as religious treasures (lots of gold) and beautiful paintings. Christopher Columbus’ tomb is also located inside of this cathedral. The cathedral is so incredible that I really do not think that the pictures that I have of it do it justice.

This cathedral also has a bell tower attached to it called the Giralda, which visitors are welcome to climb to the top of in order to get a great view of the city. Ana and I decided to do this, and aftera greuling climb up quite a few levels, we made it to the top. Just as we were told, the view of the city was beautiful, and you were really able to see everything such as the Plaza de Torros and beyond.

After the cathedral visit, we got lunch and then returned to Granada. Earlier in the morning, I had been skeptical about going for this day trip. However, just as I am happy that I decided to travel to Granada at the last minute, I am also very happy that we went to Sevilla. Although it is a small city and we were able to see everything that was important, it was beautiful, and I hope to return some day for an extended visit.

Location: Sevilla, Spain