Seville Day 1 - Apr 5

We got out of the apartment around 10:30 Saturday morning to discover that the incredibly tight parallel parking space was so tight, in fact, that the person parked behind us apparently had no choice but to put a six-inch-long scratch in the bumper of our brand new rental car. At this point, I was so tired of being irritated with everything that I told myself I wasn't going to let any more setbacks ruin my enjoyment of the trip and we'd deal with it when we returned it.
I did have the fortune of figuring out how to make my phone use GPS and a downloaded map of Seville to get around, so we didn't get lost anymore. We found our way through some pretty gardens and tiny alleyways filled with the sound of live guitar music from buskers. Rachel said that was her favorite part of the day. We made it easily to the cathedral and the Alcazar just five minutes away from our apartment, so we were glad we'd chosen it.

Because they were just opening, the lines were really long, so we decided to go wander pretty picturesque streets and see the big gardens further south in the city. Everywhere we went, flowers were budding and blooming and the scent of orange blossoms filled the air. It was perfect weather after the morning chill wore off. Elliott kept pointing out all the fountains as we went, and Amelia kept pointing out all the dogs, so we told them to keep track of how many they saw all day. That was an inspired instruction, because every time they started getting tired and bored, we'd just point out another fountain or dog, and they'd forget how tired they were! By the end of the day, I think Elliott had counted 35 fountains for himself and kindly kept track of Amelia's 8 dogs for her, too.
On the way to the park, we passed through the former tobacco factory and current Seville Polytechnic college where we saw a giant roman battle set up with Knights figures. Elliott was duly impressed. At the park, Rachel and Amelia posed with some fainting maiden statue, then we found a fun playground where a birthday party was going on.

As soon as they saw us, one of the moms invited us to join them. She was married to an American, and he and I got to talking over pizza and Fanta while the kids ate and played. He told me about some lesser-known sites to see and advised us to go just after 2:00 to avoid the lines at the Alcazar and the cathedral. Rachel was terribly uncomfortable with me accepting their invitation, but I thought it would be more rude not to, and in the end they helped us so much that I was glad we did. Several of the probably 10-year-old girls the party was composed of took to asking me lots of questions in Spanish, which I did my best to answer as I pushed Elliott and eventually several of them around on a merry-go-round shaped like a ring instead of a big plate. It's one of my favorite pieces of playground equipment I've ever seen!


We left the party and strolled over to the Plaza de España, an incredibly huge and beautiful plaza with every surface covered in brightly colored ceramic tile. The kids enjoyed dancing to some music and watching people row boats through the canal that surrounded the plaza. I enjoyed being able to hold Rachel's hand and kiss in public after the more conservative rules of Qatar!

On our way to lunch, we stopped at the site our new friend at the birthday party had directed us to. It was a hotel called Las Casas de la Juderia that we'd passed several times the night before without a second glance. But our friend told us the little-known fact that you could explore the hotel, which is actually an entire old neighborhood with its alleys open to the sky and all its old patios and houses preserved as hotel rooms! It also had a vast subterranean level that was fun to explore. I think Elliott found about seven of his fountains while we were in there.

Next we crossed the street to the restaurant where I'd asked for help the night before, and we bought lunch from them to say thanks. Rachel had some croquetitas and the kids split a ham sandwich (two slices of lunch meat and a slice of American cheese on plain white bread for 4.50 euros? Really?) Then we stopped back at our apartment so I could hit my head again on the lantern hanging in the entry way and so everybody could use the bathroom.
Just as our friend from the park had said, there was zero line at the Alcazar by the time we got there around 2:30, because that's when everyone else was having lunch. So we got in and spent until 5:00 exploring the extensive gardens including a hedge maze with live peacocks, the replica of several rooms of the Nasrid palace at Alhambra (the part you always see pictures of), and the rest of the extensive palace where the king and queen of Spain still stay whenever they're in Seville.

Unfortunately, we spent so long there that the cathedral closed before we could get inside. So we'll go back and do that later today. I drove over to El Corte Ingles, a shopping mall, to buy us groceries, then we made dinner in the apartment and put the kids to bed. Rachel elected to save seeing some flamenco until we get to Granada, partly because the only ones near to us were so ridiculously expensive compared to prices we'd researched, and partly because we were both completely exhausted. We went to bed as soon as the kids were asleep. Then Elliott woke up in the middle of the night with trouble breathing. He'd been sniffling since we boarded the plane, and he refused to blow his nose, so it all built up in his lungs and he was in a panic. Rachel woke up and was calming him with steam from the shower in the bathroom by the time I finally heard anything and woke up. She got him calmed down and breathing slowly with a wheeze, then I gave him a blessing and slept in a bed with him separate from Amelia so he would be warm and wouldn't cough on her. He was better in the morning.