Seville
UNESCO World Heritage Site (Cathedral, Alcazar And Archive Of The Indies, Inscribed 1987), Capital Of Andalusia And For Two Centuries The Monopoly Port For Trade With The Americas · Seville, Andalusia
The city that Spain exports as an image of itself: orange trees, tiled courtyards, flamenco and heat. It earned that by being the port that monopolised trade with the Americas for two centuries, which paid for the cathedral, the Alcazar and an old town still among the largest in Europe. What survives is a dense, low, whitewashed maze north and east of the river, best understood by getting lost in Santa Cruz and the quieter Alfalfa and Macarena beyond it. The two great monuments sit almost side by side and could fill a day between them, but the city outside them is the reason to stay: courtyards glimpsed through iron gates, bars that have not changed the tiling in a century, and a river with Triana on the far bank. It is also the hottest major city in Europe, which governs everything. Do the monuments early, disappear through the afternoon, and come back out at nine when the whole place does.
Plaza del Triunfo, Seville, Andalusia, 41004, Spain
NO OPENING TIME HERE WAS CHECKED, and the city itself has none: the old town is public and always open. What has hours are the monuments, and both the Cathedral and the Real Alcazar run TIMED ENTRY that should be booked ahead. The city's real schedule is cultural rather than posted: shops and many bars close through the afternoon, lunch runs from two, dinner rarely starts before nine thirty, and in summer the streets are empty between two and six. Semana Santa and the April Feria close streets entirely.