Seville: Day 3
I am tired. Traveling is hard work. Planning, organizing and most of all, deciding. That seems to take the most energy … the three of us trying to come to some sort of consensus about where to go and what to see.
Because we got rained out on Saturday, we decided to attempt our walking tour again. The sun wasn’t out but there wasn’t a drop of precipitation falling from the sky so that was a win in our book! We made it back to the Seville Cathedral and walked around it, in its entirety. It really is massive. There are 15 doors that lead into the cathedral along its four walls. Our guide book had us finding La Puerta del Pardon, which we would know when we could see the Courtyard of Oranges just inside, and and from there turning left to follow the Avenida de la Constitucion from which we were to find the Plaza del Cabildo. Reece actually remembered seeing the Courtyard of Oranges and took us on the scenic route to find it. Had we walked the opposite direction, we would have come upon it in a few steps. I am feeling a sense of deja vue. Lesson: go the opposite direction of whichever way we think we should go. I thought my husband had a decent sense of direction but he admitted that he did not. How did I not know this?
After logging another 1000 steps, we found the Courtyard of Oranges and turned left. But is that left when you are facing La Puerta del Pardon? Or is that left when you are coming out of the Courtyard of Oranges? Only the writer knows so we made our choice and went in search of the Avenida de la Constitucion. Now, the roads and streets are, in our experience, actually well-marked in a rather lovely way … an ornate sign is placed high on the wall of the building at the intersections of these streets. No sign posts to maneuver around.They are easy to spot. Usually. We could not find the Avenida de la Constitucion. And we gave it our best shot. But since it wasn’t raining, we continued our meandering because that is what we are best at.
We found ourselves at the Plaza de Espana. That was amazing and beautiful. The Plaza de Espana is located in the Parque de Maria Luisa and was built in 1928 for the Ibero-American Exposition in 1929. It’s mostly used as government offices but as been the location fir such movies as Lawrence of Arabia and Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones.
Then we meandered through the Parque de Maria Luisa. Everything is really so very clean. It is impressive.
After 4 hours of walking, we ready to head back to our lovely flat. We settled in, warmed up (it was chilly though it never did rain on us) and worked on our individual endeavors. For Reece it was studying. For me it was buying train tickets to Madrid and booking lodging. For Keith it was catching up on sports … you don’t need to know the language to figure out what is happening or who is winning.
Day 4: More Walking
Getting out the apartment at a decent hour continues to prove difficult. The real test will be tomorrow when we must be out by 11 a.m.! Today it was 11:30 after coffee, fresh squeezed orange juice and a breakfast of eggs, pan fried potatoes and toast with honey.
It was SUNNY today! Real sun … not a single threat of rain and it actually got warm. We decided to make the most of it and walk in it as much of it as possible which meant finding El Rio de Guadalquivir. Google Maps accurately pointed us in the right direction and we walked along basking in the sun’s warmth and the Guadalquivir’s beauty.
By this time, some of us had to use the restroom facilities … we haven’t found a lot of (or any!) public bathrooms, but we did find a café where we ordered some more orange juice, a couple of cafes con leche and one pain de chocolate.
More sunny wanderings took us back to the Parque de Maria Luisa though this was not our intention and a return to La Plaza de Espana. And then we headed back along the River.
Tomorrow: Madrid
We have enjoyed our time in Seville and while we considered staying on a couple of extra days, we have decided to continue on to our next destination: Madrid. I found a beautiful little “cave” to hole up in during our five days there. And after much research, I purchased train tickets on Spain’s national railway, Renfe.
Helpful Hints
For those of you with future European travel plans I would like to take the time to share with you what I have learned. I had considered purchasing Eurorail passes, which you have to purchase BEFORE you travel to and arrive in Europe. However, I came to the conclusion that we wouldn’t get our money’s worth after pricing out our projected itinerary through Europe. The Eurorail isn’t the deal that it used to be a couple of decades ago. Though I couldn’t purchase those same passes now that we are in Europe, even if I wanted to, I did double-check prices and found that yes, my original research seems to be accurate and it was much less expensive to simply purchase tickets as we made our definitive plans. Good thing, as I would have spent the rest of our travels lamenting over the fact that I paid more than I should have.
A couple of things to note … you should, if possible, purchase your tickets in advance online. You will get better rates and have access to fare reductions and sales. Also, you can guarantee your seats, as trains can and will fill up and sell out if you wait until the day you want to travel. This, of course, is dependent on the time of year.
Different train companies have different ways of “delivering” your tickets. Some use email and send you a PDF which you then print off and bring to the station. A difficult scenario when you are traveling and without a printer. However, on the email confirmation, it did say that tickets can be retrieved at the station as long as you have the order number. That is happy news as I wouldn’t have wanted to spend today trying to track down an internet café or an Office Depot. Some train lines use paperless tickets and have those sent directly to your phone. That would have been convenient. Others still can only mail them to you. So be aware as you make your purchases. I found this blog to be particularly informative. He writes about other modes of transportation, as well, not just trains.
We are excited about seeing some of the country as we ride the quick 2 hours and 30 minutes to Madrid. And I look forward to telling you all about it.
As we leave Seville, there are some things I have noticed about us as a family, as travelers and as individuals.
1. First, on a practical note, one person each day should be in charge of taking photos. Three people taking photos every day makes for a lot of photos to go through and also hard to keep track. Besides, we tend to take versions of the same things. No point in being redundant.
2.We are a tight little threesome. It will be interesting to see how, in the future, that dynamic changes when a new member gets brought into the fold. And I am referring to Reece and any future, permanent relationship she may have.
3. Reece needs to be an advocate for herself and this experience. She may have to prod her stodgy mom and even stodgier dad to get up and out to experience new things. I am sure you have heard of Newton’s First Law of Motion that starts: “an object at rest stays at rest.” The First Law of the Bleakley Family follows along the same lines: Once we are at “home” (wherever home may be at the moment) we like to stay at home. It takes too much effort to go back out. Not very fun for a 16 year old.
4. My family is used to me making the majority of decisions in our everyday life so they undoubtedly wait for me to tell them what is next. I do not want to be in charge all the time on this odyssey. It is time for them to step up to the plate. And it’s time for me to let them.
Basically, what it comes down to is something my cousin, Mark, reminded me of: We are who we are no matter where we are. And while that is okay it’s also important to take some risks and reach out beyond our comfort zone. And recognizing that THIS is the perfect time for that to happen puts us one step closer to making it happen.
Cheers!
Teresa