After a breakfast of yogurt with fresh strawberries and granola bars crumbled into it (Elliott's and my idea), we left the apartment for the Mezquita in Cordoba around 9:00 in a hurry since it would close at 11:00 and we didn't know what time the box office closed. When we got there, I dropped Elliott and Rachel together by the Roman bridge so they could walk up the hill straight to the Mezquita and I could go park while they got tickets. Amelia was asleep in the back seat. I found parking not too far away, so I caught up with them just after Rachel bought the tickets. I'd been there before, so I just suggested she take the kids in for free without me while I refreshed my memory of where to find the other good sites nearby in order to save us wandering time later.
I enjoyed walking around the familiar places and finding the Calleja de las Flores to show to Rachel. It's a narrow whitewashed alleyway lined cieling to floor on both sides with wall-hanging pots of flowers, and the view out from it points directly at the Mezquita's bell tower.
When the family came out of the Mezquita at 11:30, I took them there, then through the narrow streets of shops back down to the Plaza del Triomfo and its big arch, then onto the Roman bridge, along the river past the waterwheel, and back inland when we hit the Alcazar.
That road led us to where I'd parked, so we ate snacks of cheese and apples and pita in the car as we drove back to Seville. We enjoyed the beautiful green rolling fields, the yellow wildflowers, the white little farmhouses and small cities, what looked like a giant solar collector power plant with a giant glowing tower at the center of a circle of solar panels/reflectors with beams of light shooting up from them toward the tower, and the ubiquitous giant black bull billboards that don't advertise anything anymore. It was nice to just drive at a leisurely pace for once after several days of being in a hurry and always late. We listened to Primary songs and Rachel prepared a lesson for the kids since we discovered that our internet connection at the apartment wasn't fast enough to watch General Conference. We caught up with some talks later in the week as we drove, though, or before bed.
At home, we finished lunch, then spent two hours at the Cathedral where we saw the tomb of Christopher Colombus, lots of jewel-encrusted reliquaries, and the spot where Magellan and his men prayed to give thanks for a safe return after circumnavigating the earth.
We marvelled at the amount of work it must have taken to build the cathedral with its enormous stone pillars and arches, its intricate carvings in both wood and stone, its gold and silver and brass everythings in the dozens of chapels along the sides, etc.
At the apartment again in the evening, we scraped together a dinner from ingredients our host had left behind, saying we could use what we liked. So multicolored rotini noodles + laughing cow cheese + milk + fresh minced garlic + salt + pepper sort of = a nice pasta alfredo with a side of steamed carrots. Then Rachel gave us a lesson on eternal families and talked about the temple we'd be visiting in Madrid later this week. I bathed the kids while Rachel did the dishes by hand, then she read to them and put them to bed while I planned where we should stop in Malaga and Nerja on our drive to Granada.
I enjoyed walking around the familiar places and finding the Calleja de las Flores to show to Rachel. It's a narrow whitewashed alleyway lined cieling to floor on both sides with wall-hanging pots of flowers, and the view out from it points directly at the Mezquita's bell tower.
When the family came out of the Mezquita at 11:30, I took them there, then through the narrow streets of shops back down to the Plaza del Triomfo and its big arch, then onto the Roman bridge, along the river past the waterwheel, and back inland when we hit the Alcazar.
That road led us to where I'd parked, so we ate snacks of cheese and apples and pita in the car as we drove back to Seville. We enjoyed the beautiful green rolling fields, the yellow wildflowers, the white little farmhouses and small cities, what looked like a giant solar collector power plant with a giant glowing tower at the center of a circle of solar panels/reflectors with beams of light shooting up from them toward the tower, and the ubiquitous giant black bull billboards that don't advertise anything anymore. It was nice to just drive at a leisurely pace for once after several days of being in a hurry and always late. We listened to Primary songs and Rachel prepared a lesson for the kids since we discovered that our internet connection at the apartment wasn't fast enough to watch General Conference. We caught up with some talks later in the week as we drove, though, or before bed.
At home, we finished lunch, then spent two hours at the Cathedral where we saw the tomb of Christopher Colombus, lots of jewel-encrusted reliquaries, and the spot where Magellan and his men prayed to give thanks for a safe return after circumnavigating the earth.
We marvelled at the amount of work it must have taken to build the cathedral with its enormous stone pillars and arches, its intricate carvings in both wood and stone, its gold and silver and brass everythings in the dozens of chapels along the sides, etc.
At the apartment again in the evening, we scraped together a dinner from ingredients our host had left behind, saying we could use what we liked. So multicolored rotini noodles + laughing cow cheese + milk + fresh minced garlic + salt + pepper sort of = a nice pasta alfredo with a side of steamed carrots. Then Rachel gave us a lesson on eternal families and talked about the temple we'd be visiting in Madrid later this week. I bathed the kids while Rachel did the dishes by hand, then she read to them and put them to bed while I planned where we should stop in Malaga and Nerja on our drive to Granada.
2 comments:
Thanks for the warning of John the Baptist's (I assume) severed head. I was eating.
It's just like a big brother to do that even from thousands of miles away.
That one's just for you, Heather. :P
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