Real Alcazar – Tips and tricks to make the most of your visit

Join me at Real Alcazar where I give you all the tips to avoid the queues, get access to the Royal Bedroom and absolutely no help whatsoever in avoiding getting lost in the Labyrinth Maze.

The aroma darted into my nostrils like a flame up a chimney. What was it? It was incredibly evocative, but I could neither place what it reminded me of nor where it was coming from. It was floral, that much I knew. Was it the perfume on the lady in front of me in the queue? Sniff Sniff. No, it’s not her. It must have been coming from the row of plants and bushes some 20 metres away but I wasn’t going to give up my place in the queue for Real Alcázar to find out. I’d already been waiting 40 minutes…

It was after lunch – I’d just destroyed a bocadillo de jamon y queso and washed it down with a cafe con leche from the cafe – when the smell hit me again. Via a brief distraction to photograph the peacocks, I followed my nose to a group of tiny white flowers. A deep breath in through my nose confirmed that these were the guilty party.

I studied the small white flowers carefully. I don’t recall ever seeing flowers like this before, so either the ones I remember (probably from somewhere deep in my childhood) were a different type that smelt the same, or I never looked at them back then. It was almost certainly the latter, I would have inevitably been too busy kicking a football about to be bothered to look at flowers.

I never did recall the memory that the small white flower was trying desperately to invoke. I guess whenever that smell comes back into my life it will now remind me of the magnificent Real Alcázar.

Here’s what The Ultimate Travelist said:

“Built over centuries of Islamic and Christian rule, the architecture of Seville’s Alcázar is close to perfection. See the Mudejar plasterwork and the artesonado (ceiling of interlaced beams with decorative insertions) in the Sala de Justica; the refined sensibilities of the Palacio de Don Pedro; or the elegance of the archways, decorated ceilings, vivid tile work and elaborate wood carvings that adorn this tapestry of interlocking palaces, patios and oasis-like gardens.”

Get your copy of Lonely Planet’s Ultimate Travelist here.