Today, we decided to explore the city and try to finish all the tourists spots in Sevilla.

First stop - the arts museum.

We choose the arts museum as it was not far away from the hostel, so after tuna sandwich and orange juice breakfast that we prepared earlier, we walked to the museum.

We are among the early birds at the museum that look like other old buildings in Sevilla with big thick wood doors with huge ring handles/ brass knockers.

The elderly man who was manning at the counter ushered us in. He did not asked for ticket fees. Wow! We entered the museum for free.

The Fine Arts Museum of Seville was set up since 1839 and is located in the former convent of the Merced Calzada at the Plaza del Museo. Construction works of the convent started in 1602. It is an example of Andalusian mannerism of the 17th century, designed around three Patios and a large stairway.

The Fine Arts museum of Seville was founded as a Museum of Paintings in 1835. It opened its doors to the public in 1841 with the works from closed down convents and monasteries. Today it is one of the best museums of fine arts in Spain after Padro Museum in Madrid.

The museum's impressive collection of Spanish art extends from the medieval to the modern, focusing on the work of Seville School artists such as Francisco de Zurbarán, Juan de Valdés Leal and Bartolomé Esteban Murillo.

The entrance, according to the brochure we took at the front desk, is decorated with ceramic cartouches from disentailed convents and monasteries. The museum is divided into 14 rooms and all have its own theme such as Medieval Spanish art and Sevillian painting and sculpture in the 15th century, renaissance arts, altarpieces by F Pacheco and Velazquez and A Cano and so on.

Of course most of these arts are to show devotion towards Christianity with paintings and statues of baby Jesus, adult Jesus, Mary lady Magdalena and so forth. From Statues to Panels to Painting, all epitome of Christianity.

I guess, the best room was Room V, a former church of what used to be the Convent of the Calced Mercedarians. The room shows part of the series of paintings executed for Convent of the Calced Marcedarian's main cloister (according to the brochure). Its high dome-styled ceiling was filled with intricate paintings.

Well, being romantic at hearts that we are, we were mesmerised with the Sevillian Romantic Arts at Room XIII. Painters such as Esquivel, Gutierrez de la Vega and Dominguez Becquer really captured our attention.

And of course Jules just have to take picture with potrait of Gustavo Adolfo Becquer a poet in Renaissance time just because he resembled ahem! Johnny Depp. Just for a record, the potrait was painted by his own brother Dominguez Becquer.

Besides the paintings, the patios are another attraction. The Moors believed that patios are important for a place of relaxation.

The building, which revolves around three courtyards and a large staircase, owes it present form to the remodelling work carried out in the early 17th Century. In 1603 Juan de Oviedo y Banderas presented the plans for the building work which began with the demlotion of the old Mudejar building. In 1612 the church was concluded and almost one and a half centuries later the rest of the fabric, a beautiful example of Andalusian Mannerist architecture was finished (brochure).

So in every courtyards theres a garden and it must be an image of paradise with its lush greenery, the four lines representing four rivers of life met at the water fountain at the centre of the patio.

Governed by mathematical proportions technique, and combination of Moors and Islamic garden concept, it has beautiful geomatric groves of trees with flowers underneath them. So these patios really serve its purpose to calm oneself and for relaxation. The sound of water trickling from the fountain, birds chirping at the trees and cooling effect of the water... ahhh a bliss.

We decided since we are leaving to Granada tomorrow, we want to take things slowly today. We want to savour the city and do last minute shopping.

So after spending few hours in the museum, we decided to have another pasta late lunch, but decided to do so after we done our shopping.

Jules wanted to buy her mom a handbag. It is a must gift as her mother collects handbags. We found this boutique selling all sorts of piel bags. She had her eyes on this particular bag for quite sometime so I urged her to just buy the bag as they were having sales at the time.

She picked this black and white elegent looking bag for her mom which we both like. Again we were having this love-hate relationship with the credit card. Jules was using her Maybank credit card and Maybank closed at midnight in hometown. So, whatever credit card transaction using this service had to be done before midnight malaysia time or equivelant with 3pm Seville's time. Looking at the time, we still have 20 minutes to browse before the transaction expired for the day. After 15 minutes of browsing, we decided to take the first item that caught our eyes - the black and white bag which was displayed behind glass window.

Asked the saleslady to take the bolso (bag) from the window, swipe the card and viola, we went out from the shop with the bag safely tucked in plastic bag.

From there we went down to supermarcedonia to buy more chocolates bars as souvenirs for family and friends back home. We figured that we have to buy it here where we can find cheaper bars rather than had to buy at souvenirs shops or the airport where the prices are doubled or tripled.

After spending another EUR10 for chocolates and lugging some one kilo or chocolate bars and bonbons, we decided to have our lunch. The time was already 4pm and we headed to one of the three bars selling paella, pasta and tapas outside.

I picked another spinach pasta and so was Jules. We savoured our food and decided to call it a day....