Depart for Seville and check into the gorgeous 5-star luxury Mercer Hotel Seville, booked entirely for our group. Enjoy a lecture and lunch at the hotel with Julian before embarking on a walking tour exploring Seville's rich history from the Age of Exploration to its charming present-day ambiance, featuring Mudéjar and Baroque architecture as well as vibrant streets lined with bitter orange trees. To cap of this spectacular day, stroll together to Seville’s modern landmark, Las Setas, for a spectacular light show and panoramic views of the city.
Breakfast
Enjoy a lazy morning at La Califa, taking in the serene atmosphere and beautiful surroundings.
Midmorning Travel to Seville (1h45m)
Midday Arrive in Seville, at the luxury Mercer Hotel
We have booked all 11 rooms in the stunning 5-star luxury Mercer hotel, making it essentially “ours” for 3 nights.
Arrival Reception
Enjoy a ‘Welcome to Sevilla’ reception in the privatized courtyard of the luxurious Mercer Hotel.
Lunch together & lecture by Julian
3:00 p.m. Check in to your room and rest
4:30 p.m. Meet in the lobby of your hotel for a walking tour
It’s rather wonderful to end your Spanish sojourn with Seville, because it puts into perspective the sheer power and wealth of Spain in the Age of Exploration, as gold began to pour in from the New World. Just one look at the massive Gothic Cathedral gives you the whole story.
The Seville of today may be far less powerful, but it’s an absolutely charming place, partly walled, skirted by the river, and filled with churches, music, bars, good coffee and great places to eat. Enjoy the Mudéjar (Christian/Moorish hybrid) architecture now familiar from earlier in your tour, interspersed with fabulously ornate, money-no-object Baroque. Seville’s bitter orange trees, prized by the English for marmalade, line the streets – there are around 30,000 trees in the city and although the harvest and blossoms have past, they are still a delight.
6:30 p.m. Private rooftop cocktail dinner
8:30 p.m. Walk to Las Setas
After dinner, amble along to Las Setas (a 10-minute walk), Europe’s largest timber structure. The name means ‘mushrooms’ – you’ll see why when you get there – and the German architect Jürgen Mayer designed it in 2011 to house a market, rooftop vistas and, below ground, a museum showing the Roman remains beneath the city. It’s a bizarre sight, like a gigantic, escaped waffle, and a radical intervention into Old Quarter’s Plaza La Encarnación. The views from the top are marvelous.
9:00 p.m. Tickets for Las Setas
10:00 p.m. Meet to walk back
We dare you to stop for churros on the way back to the hotel.
These long, star-shaped tubes of dough are flash fried, dusted in sugar, dipped in bitter chocolate and sold from street stalls. Yes, there are times in life when it’s essential to ingest 50 million calories in one go. This is one of them, we promise.
And then, oh, it is so time for bed.