A Day in Seville

We made it to Seville last night via a short layover in Madrid. We landed about 9:00 PM last night and were at our hotel in the heart of Seville by 10:00 PM. We're staying in a nice boutique hotel - restored relatively recently. It was built in the 19th century and very charming.

We left this AM to rendezvous with a guide for a half day tour of old Seville (the "historic" tour). Our guide, Lola, was great. We were joined by one other couple who spoke primarily French. They were from Quebec City. Lola had to do double duty in English then French. Near the end of our tour, she was clearly getting tired and would mix all three languages, realize her mistake start over in French with us.... I just smiled in English.

We toured streets and cathedrals, museums and gardens and castles. Seville is very Euro with its many cafes, bodegas, bars, trendy shops, beautiful people and gawky tourists. Glad we could add to the last category.

These photos include a smattering of sights we saw today. We did visit the Spanish-American Exposition (held in 1929) gardens and fed the pigeons. Wendy's tendency toward being creeped out gave way to giggles as our new pets swarmed us. We had a wonderful lunch of pieja, pizza and beer. Plenty of sun to flavor the meal. It is hard to believe it's only March. Apparently, the flowers are about 3 weeks late in blooming here because of the extensive rains during the past 3 months. Only the past week has the weather been plant-friendly.

Tomorrow, we pick up a rental car and drive to Granada (about 3 hours away). We'll most definitely take a scenic route and pick Molly up at the airport tomorrow afternoon, too. She'll spend a few days with us before she heads to Marrakech to met up with her friends for the rest of her spring break.

Morocco seems like a long distant memory! Spain has a familiar yet foreign feel to it with some things in common with Morocco. It's like they are 2 separate countries! (apologies to Ferd & Isabella). Buenas Noches.

p.s. If my brothers are reading this, the Lamborghini was not available for my rental car. I got as close as I could before 2 burly guards gave me the evil eye.

P.S. from Wendy: I admit it's a bit of a relief to be back in the western world where I can drink tap water and get a taste of non-Moroccan food. I have to say I really admire our daughter for being completely content living in the non-western world - I'm not quite there yet. I actually understand less of the language here in Spain, though - my high school French held up quite well in Morocco and I was able to communicate with the locals and read signage much better there than I can here. But crossing the street is not nearly as exciting here since there are stoplights with crosswalks and drivers actually stop for them. We took a quick stroll down the block from the hotel tonight and had a light dinner of beer and tapas - what a great invention!