We enjoyed all of our usual Christmas family traditions this year—church, dinner with the Miners, new pajamas, and Christmas books on Christmas Eve and an early Christmas morning of stockings overflowing with small gifts, then a nice breakfast, and then onto the gifts under the tree. This year we had fewer Christmas decorations around the house and fewer gifts under the tree and I have no pictures from our Christmas morning, but it’s all for good reason. At about midday on Christmas Day, we headed to the airport, off on our real Christmas gift to each other: a 10-day trip to Spain.
Christmas Day was a travel day, after a layover in Philly we caught an overnight flight into Madrid. We landed in Madrid at 8:15am local time—2:15am East Coast time—after not much sleep (Jack still talks about the annoying toddler yelling random words in front of us overnight). We had all decided, though, that we were going to do our best to get on local time, so we happily powered through, which honestly wasn’t too hard at first because we were all so excited to be in Europe (first travel out of the country for the kids). Our first few nights in Spain we were to stay in Seville but our train wasn’t until 1pm so we had several hours to take advantage of some sights near the train station in Madrid. Admittedly, we had a bit of a slow start in Madrid—granted, we were functioning on just a few hours of sleep—with a bit of trouble paying for metro tickets, getting cash, finding where to store our luggage in the train station while we explored Madrid, and then finding a place to eat. But, we figured it all out and that’s part of the experience in a new culture.
Putting our schedule together for our time in Spain was a bit of a puzzle between all of the holiday days over the course of our trip and the resulting reduced schedules of the sights we wanted to see. Ella and I were really hoping to make some time for the Reina Sofia modern art museum while we were in Madrid, but it wasn’t going to work out when we made our way back to Madrid. Luckily, the Reina Sofia is right next to the train station so after our first breakfast in Spain of cafés con leche, churros con chocolate, and toasted pan (Spanish bread—unlike other bread, so I have to make the distinction because I remember as a kid just how special it is) with olive oil and tomato we headed to the museum. At the Reina Sofia we saw works by Pablo Picasso, Salvador Dalí, and Joan Miró (all artists we had researched before coming to Spain) as well as other contemporary Spanish artists. The most striking piece of artwork we saw there was one we had paid particular attention to in our research, learning the history behind it, Picasso’s Guernica. It is 11’5” tall by 25’ 6” wide and fills its own room. Ella couldn’t believe an artist could paint something so large. I think she was pretty awestruck in general to see the works of such famous artists in person. I’m so glad we fit it in and it was fun to get a little taste of the sights before we got on our 3-hour train ride to Seville.
{pablo picasso’s guernica—no photography is allowed in that part of the museum, so this is as good as it gets.}
{the kids got spray sour warhead candy in their stockings so this was a regular occurrence throughout the trip…at least they were sharing…}
{atocha train station—beautiful train station with an atrium full of gardens, we went through here to get to all of our destinations. train travel is so incredibly easy and comfortable in europe. we got comfy seats, beautiful views, and free headphones and movies on each train ride. it was wonderful downtime and you can get everywhere fast—we went up to 200 km/hr.}
Seville! After a relaxing train ride, on which surprisingly none of us napped, taking in the rocky terrain spotted with fields and fields of olive and orange trees, we pulled into the Seville train station. We made it to Seville on a gorgeous day, just in time for the beautiful warm late afternoon light to illuminate the intricate gothic and Andalucían sights of the city. We took a taxi from the train station to our hotel and the taxi driver basically dropped us off in the middle of the street. There was no hotel pull-in or driveway and no signs for our hotel. The taxi driver didn’t really speak any English so he just kind of motioned up a curving side street when he saw our confusion. Sure enough, our hotel, just blocks away from La Catedral de Sevilla (and Giralda Tower), was up a hill, off a side street, with just a small sign marking that it was the Fontecruz Sevilla (a Marriott). It was such a beautiful hotel that unfortunately didn’t have rooms for more than three so we had to get two rooms for the four of us and, although our two rooms were in different parts of the hotel, the concierge seemed utterly confused that Jonathan was staying with Jack and I was staying with Ella—no adjoined rooms, but the hotel more than made up for it with the modern rooms, lovely views, wonderful breakfasts, and charming character of the old building it occupied (not to mention the complimentary wine, cheeses, fresh-squeezed orange juice and pastries on our first night).
After getting settled, we enjoyed a lovely evening stroll, following one of Rick Steves walks, around the cathedral, over to the Patio de Banderas (where you get the picture perfect view of Giralda Tower and where they are currently excavating a Moorish palace), down Calle Agua, by the burial site of Sevillan painter Murillo, and on to see a statue honoring Seville’s famous 17th century citizen Don Juan. On our walk we stopped in at a convent of cloistered nuns where through a lazy susan window (because you can’t actually see the nuns) you can purchase convent sweets. We put our euros on the lazy susan, spun it into the convent, and out came two bags full of tasty communion wafer tabletas (basically the scraps after communion wafers were cut out). Ella and Jack both loved this concept and actually loved the tabletas, happily snacking on them for our entire walk. We found a few other cloistered nuns in Toledo and Madrid later in the week—and they are typically known for more delectable treats than communion wafers—but unfortunately they were all closed on the holiday days (and even days around the holiday days) we happened upon them. I’m glad we at least got to experience this part of the Spanish culture once—the sisters raise money by selling their goodies and have for centuries.
After our walk through the oldest part of Seville, we followed the crowds (and locals were out in serious masses—January 5th, Three Kings Day, is the bigger celebration this time of year so while we were in Spain the Spaniards were out every night doing their holiday shopping, and actually this evening walk in the crowds, or paseo, is part of everyday life in general there) to the shopping areas (where we found Seville’s futbol club’s store), outdoor dining, and even a holiday festival and craft fair. Our walk was ultimately leading us to what claims to be the largest wooden structure in the world, the Metropol Parasol, or known as the mushrooms to locals. The entire bottom of the structure was surrounded by fair tents so my vision of spectacular images of the entire mushrooms structure was kind of shot, but once on the top it did make for some stunning views. I love how Seville lights up all of its major sights. Atop the mushrooms was the perfect place to watch the last lovely light of dusk fade away on our first night in Seville.
On the way back to our hotel, amidst the crowds, we searched for a place for our late Spanish dinner, amazed we’d made it so late on our first night. We were lucky enough to snag an outside table at a restaurant busy with locals where we tried a mix of delicious tapas, trying to select those unique to the region—fried fish, jamón, espinacas con garbanzos, and montaditos (Ella particularly loved the Spanish tortilla sandwich) accompanied by what would be our usual mealtime refreshments, dos fantas de naranja y dos crianza (orange fanta, which has real pulp and is so much tastier in Europe, and two Spanish red wines—although sometimes we did order small beers, or cañas). We were definitely in bed before the locals, but we did pretty well for our first full day in Spain!
{with their treats from the cloistered nuns.}
{heading to the top of the metropol parasol.}
{the view atop the mushrooms.}
{trying whole fried fish—love that the kids were willing to try anything.}
{some of our free hotel goodies.}
