So, I (Claire) have just got back from four amazing days in Seville; the city that has knocked Barcelona off the top spot as my favourite European city. It is, without a doubt, one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever been and I dare you to go and not fall in love.

For one, it’s filled with the most amazing buildings, like the well known Seville Cathedral and Real Alcazar, which are completely heavenly. It also offers the most delicious tapas for great prices; you can easily stuff yourself for 10-15 euros. In fact, it’s actually one of the few European city breaks where we haven’t had to eat bread and butter for the month after…

The city is lined with cobbled streets, leading to beautiful flower filled squares of restaurants and quirky shops. Flamenco is also a staple in the city, with venues offering daily flamenco shows. This is another must, but avoid the dinner and show -the food isn’t the best.

Aside from the more obvious tourist spots, which are still beautiful and worth a visit, there were three spots that topped my list:

1) Banas Arabes: These baths are set within a Moroccan riad-style building and are pure heaven. Lit only by candles, the baths consist of four different areas that offer: hot, warm and cold baths, a steam room and huge jacuzzi with sun lounger style seats you can lay back in to enjoy the bubbles! The baths  are a perfect spot to come for a soak and relax. There’s also an option of a massage if you fancy it!

2) Metropol Parasol: This ‘flying waffle’ is the largest wooden building in the world and sits over one of the traditional shopping squares in Seville. You can pay a few euros to stroll along the panoramic walkway that give you amazing views of the city. It was almost like a giant waffle playground in the sky and a lot of fun!

3) Parque Maria Luisa: My favourite place, however, was Parque Maria Luisa. This is the city’s main park and a place (I imagine) heaven would kind of look like. The park is full of fountains, duck ponds, mosaic tiles, exotic birds, horse and carriages, lakes and picture perfect buildings. We spent a good two hours there exploring the little paths that almost always led to another beautiful sculpture/design of some sort and I can confidently say it was the best way I’ve spent an afternoon in a long time.There was something, however, that happened in the park that may make me a little bias towards this lovely place…

Towards the end of our visit to the park, I noticed my boyfriend’s palm was getting increasingly sweaty and his strange advances to keep hugging me were getting kind of awkward.  Now, for anyone who has told you that a marriage proposal is beautiful and joyous, they’re lying (or more confident of change than I am). For me, the next five minutes of my life in that park were potentially some of the most terrifying of my entire life.  Before I knew what was happening, and before the flight or fight mode kicked, my boyfriend was on the floor, asking me to move from the happy world of girlfriend to adult world of fiancé. It was bloody scary and although I managed a ‘yes’, the whole event resulted in me having to put my head between my legs to stop myself vomiting into the beautiful fountain behind me.

It was a pretty surreal experience but the beautiful park was the perfect place for a proposal (if any men are reading this!)

So, aside from my irrational reaction to a marriage proposal, Seville turned out to be a total gem of a city that you really must visit! With great food, beautiful buildings, cobbled streets, mesmerising flamenco and glorious sunshine, you can’t really go wrong, so go, go! And if you see a little bench by a fountain in Parque Maria Luisa, think of me!