Spain Overview

So we've been home for a few days and of course we have reflections and other odds and ends to tell about. 

The flight home...was eventful. We booked the tickets through British Airways and were overall happy with the flight and food service. The issue we had was that our first flight from Madrid to Heathrow was operated via Iberia and at 6:50am. We didn't think that was a big issue until 9pm the night before when Iberia sent us an email saying that we needed to be at the airport 4 hours before our flight. Seriously? We thought that was ridiculous but we complied. We ended up at the airport with 3.5 hours to spare and some very grumpy and tired people. ME INCLUDED! 

So some of us literally slept on the floor of the airport while waiting for Starbucks to open. Then we attempted to board the plan in boarding group 4, and the plane was now full with carry-on luggage and our roller bags had to be checked. No, no, no. Some lessons learned - tell the staff that you have a connection. Make sure your bags have name tags on them.

When we arrived in Heathrow 20 minutes late, we were quickly realizing that we were going to have a problem connecting because we were disembarking the plane at 9am, and our next flight boarded at 9:50am, the email said we had to be through security at 10:15am and the doors to the plane closed at 10:30am. We had to first exit terminal 3, get our checked bags at the baggage carrousel, then take a train to terminal 5, go through security, and find our gate. 

It was nerve racking and felt like a marathon. At one point I told someone in our traveling group to stop talking to me. I also had a headache - of such is my life!

So after losing someone at the security gate...we all rushed in separate directions and walking speeds toward the gate in the hopes of begging them to hold the plane while we searched for the missing person. Long story short, we all made it to gate at 10:15am only to find that the flight wasn't boarding and shortly thereafter there was an announcement that it was delayed. 

Who cared? Nobody. We were so thrilled that we had not been left in England. We quickly got in line at Starbucks and dropped $40 buying coffees and pastries. 

We took off about 30 minutes late and proceeded to SFO. Todd and I were lucky enough to have an extra seat beside us and I promptly moved over and laid my head down to sleep. We had woken up at 2am and were working on barely 3 hours of sleep...

Once we arrived in SFO, we were able to get through customs quickly and get the car from the long term parking and head home. The drive was quick and many people napped (not the driver of course). We grabbed Jimboys for dinner and proceeded home to wash 2 weeks of laundry. 

What did we learn? 

1. We did a lot. We found places we'd like to go back to, and places that we feel like we've seen enough of. I think two weeks was enough and I probably wouldn't go back to the big cities until I've been to other places. I would go spend a week on the beach of Almunecar...it was paradise.

2. Hotels and Air BnB's have their own positives - we liked that hotels could hold our luggage if we were checking in earlier, but we liked that Air BnB's have living rooms and couches to hang out.

3. Booking excursions - so since COVID there is a lot of preplanning required for visiting popular places. The negative is that you are locked in with a date and many times even a specific time frame for visiting. 

4. Ask for student discounts and bring your student ID.

5. Spend some money on the extra things - these are often the things that are most remembered and that will be the discussion topics later on.

6. Make sure you have luggage tags with your name and address in case it does get lost (didn't happen to us on this trip, but Katie just experienced that with another trip).

7. Spain cares about electricity costs - the bathroom lights in restaurants literally went off within 10 seconds of entering the bathroom. You had to wave your hands around while on the potty. 

8. We love traveling - despite the cost, the stress, the planning, and the jet lag - we love exploring and seeing new places. There were so many times throughout those two weeks that we thought about the similarities of where we were versus where we live in California. Being on the other side of the world can sometimes feel like you're a world away, and at other times can feel like you're at home. 

And what will we do next time?

1. Next time I'll book a few things ahead of time and just suck it up. I hate to have a rigid schedule, but without it, sadly you simply cannot visit certain places due to popularity. 

2. To find cool Instagramable photo spots, check out the city on the Instagram map and you'll find some cool stuff! That's how we found the Mushroom Street in Alicante :)

3. I might actually look into a travel agent for big trips like this. It's exhausting and time consuming to plan an international trip. I work full time and don't always have the time to thoroughly investigate everything. 

Madrid - Our Last Day

So today is the last day of this trip. We fly home tomorrow. One thing that I keep forgetting to post about is the cows. We don’t know why, but there are cows at many of the stores and we’ve driven all over the country finding the same symbol. It’s actually a bull with horns, but whatever. They are all over the place!

Today was our first day of poor weather and it was the perfect day for rain  we had a five hour drive from Seville to Madrid and we hit the road running at 8am. We didn’t stop for coffee because it’s Sunday and seriously, at 7:45am there was not a SINGLE shop open in our super busy corner of Seville. It’s just so weird to me!

Anyway, two hours later we stopped for gas and got a gas station espresso with milk - no actually coffee, just lattes! Another hour later we stopped at what we thought was a nice restaurant from the images online but turns out the restaurant part only opens later and at 10am they had…you guessed it - baguettes with ham, or croissants! The lattes were good and we enjoyed the rest and stretch before heading back on the wet road.

Next up was Madrid, and we pulled in just before 2pm which was hotel check in time. Finding the hotel entrance was a search like Where’s Waldo, and resulted in driving the wrong way down one or two streets. Thankfully we aren’t even staying in the busy section of Madrid tonight because we wanted to be close to the airport for our very early flight tomorrow. Oh the driving! We will NOT forget that part of this trip.

We settled and unpacked for about 30 minutes and then hit the train for a neighborhood near our nighttime plans so we could grub and do some sight seeing. We took the train!

We found a ramen place and proceeded to order and fumble our way through ordering bowls and rice dishes. Everyone seemed pleased with what they ordered and we had a dry place to relax and eat after the long drive. 

Cute place, and they were really nice to us with our broken Spanish and google translate. Afterward we took a stroll to the a Temple of Debod to show Russ and Karen. Then a walk to the Royal Palace and the Cathedral. Karen and I went inside the crypt which was not at all what I expected. It was essentially another church under the cathedral, but it has bodies in tombs and grave markers. It was ornate and detailed but just not what I expected. I guess I was imagining bones and dirt 🤷‍♀️ 

Next up was an Irish Pub! Why not! We’re on vacation with a red head after all. We had the nicest bartender who tried to put on the NFL network so we could watch the Niner game but then we realized that we are 9 hours ahead of SF and the game want even on yet. The kids had drinks, we had drinks, the bartender brought us chips and snacks. It was a nice stop. 

And last, we went to a Flamenco show! This was a nice treat from Russ and Karen and it was an amazing unique experience. Apparently the place has a Michelin star!!! We were regretting not eating dinner there but we did get dessert and drinks which were all delicious. 

That French toast dessert with banana ice cream was amazing. The show was about an hour long and it was loud and theatrical and skillful. This was a delightful way to end the vacation and it is surely something to do at least once. Well worth it!

It was about 9pm but the time we got out of there and we walked to the train station and took the metro back to our hotel. We said our goodbyes and good nights because our flight leaves way to early tomorrow - in fact, we got an email telling us to be at the airport four hours early…that would be exactly 2:50am. So I write this blog and then I’ll shower, and maybe sleep for three hours? Ugh. It’s gonna be a rough day tomorrow, but then we’ll be home and in our own beds. And that’s always nice right? Being on adventures in fun but it’s always nice to go home and feel those comforts. 

Sevilla Day 11

Seville is blending together with the towns of Valencia, Barcelona, and Madrid. It’s a big city with tiny streets, lots of restaurants, and a late sunrise. Nearly 8:40am.

We started today around 7am with showers and then headed out for coffee. Our slow mornings with cappuccinos and cafes are a nice way to begin. A few hours later, the kids joined us for breakfast and we planned out a few places we wanted to see today. We also stopped and got two pairs of glasses fixed with new screws for 5 euros and two balls of yarn for Emily’s crocheting adventures for another 5 euros.

Up first was the Cathedral of Seville which is the third largest in the world. We didn’t opt to go inside but we have read that it’s pretty. The exterior is quite grand with lots of gothic architecture. 

Next, was a walk to the Plaza de Espana which is was built in 1929 and pays homage to all of the cities in Spain. This plaza is unlike the others where you walk through and see shops or churches. This is massive and the beauty was splendid. https://www.visitasevilla.es/en/history/plaza-de-espana

You can get a boat and row your way around the canal or you can listen to music in one of the many staircases where musicians were playing and singing live for tips. It was 11am and already a great start to the day. 

We began a walk toward our next stop and happened upon a well developed waterfront with a carnival. This is the type of tourist attraction needed at the waterfront in Sacramento. 

And once we made the walk back, we grabbed snacks and coffees before entering into the Alcázar of Seville which is a royal palace originally developed by Moorish Muslim kings (the upper levels are actually still in use as the royal family residence.

The interior architect and design was beautiful and much different than other buildings with faces and human depictions. The exterior gardens included a maze, dozens of rose gardens, water features, and a million orange trees. 

It was a few hours of time to see it all and I’m certain we didn’t actually see it all. By now we were mid afternoon and looking for food again - such is life on vacation. We found a place right by our hotel and Todd was excited to order seafood paella again. Only a few more opportunities to order it before we head home! 

The end of our meal was again gifted with shots of lemoncello so obviously the kids were excited. The adults partook as well. 

With the kids retiring to the hotel for some R&R, the adults pushed on despite complaints of knees and hips that were making noises. Perhaps liquor at a different establishment could loosen these joints? 

This is a photo of two old friends, dead set on ordering an Irish coffee. Three bars later, they get a manger to make it for them and now someone has thrown out the word “grande” and the ten minute creation begins. The anticipation was killing them and as they watched the drinks being made, they might have started to realize that their eyes were bigger than their livers. 

Four shots of espresso, whisky, and then whipped cream, these massive drinks were handed to the gleeful guys as their wives might have rolled eyeballs. Let’s just say that they were sad to not be able to finish their drinks, but the wives were in no condition to be rolling anyone back to the hotel. And besides, the streets here are quite nasty. 

Naps. The siesta was earned today with already clocking 14,250 steps by 4:30pm. 

After an hour of rest, we cracked out the cards and snacks, found a table in the lobby, and got to work on a card game. We chatted about how we would change the trip, things we would do differently (that might have just been me) and how planning vacations is a lot of planning and preparation. I’m glad that everyone is thankful for a nice trip. And it has been a nice trip. 

Food guys, it was 7:30pm and there were snacks on people’s minds. So you know what Boba is? How Californians love it? Well it’s nowhere to be found here - except right around the corner from this hotel! The kiddos got boba and maybe some bagel sandwiches. I got a huge ice cold water and I’m quite happy (ate my gelato before 6pm but forgot to mention that earlier!). 

And lastly, we browsed in some shops, checked out the Metropol Parasol at night all lit up, and synchronized our watches hahaha, our iPhones, for a departure time tomorrow. We hit the road bright and early!

Disc Golf? In Spain?

So we have some avid disc golfers in our crew, and they scoped out a few courses for this trip. I think we are only going to make it to one, but there were a few to choose from!

Pumping gas was an experience that required google translate today as nothing is open here as it’s Three Kings Day and that’s some sort of big deal here. Like everything is closed. The first gas station we went to had pumps open but you had to do it yourself. It wouldn’t work until you replaced the pump on the handle and it processed your credit card. Anyway, it was an experience!

We left Benalmadena early this morning, before 9am, and got gas at the first station but espressos at the second -which were made fresh in the gas station. Like they have a full espresso bar with milk frother and everything inside the gas station. I’m just amazed.  

We drove about two and a half hours today and what we saw was a lot of what you see in America. Windmill farms, solar farms, hills, etc. there were many times when I said “this looks just like Reno, or Idaho, or Salinas (there is a lot of farmland here). So essentially the landscape is very similar to places we’ve seen before. Of course the big cities are very different but we’ve been in the countryside lately. 

So to the disc golf course we went and we met up with a friend of Todd’s from high school and his wife who are vacationing in Portugal. 18 rounds of disc golf later, Todd was crowned the champion. 6 discs were lost in the water, and Karen and I got some sun sitting on park benches and waiting for the golfers to finish. 

And after those sunny hours we headed off in search of food. Oh my, this was a doosie. Todd found a place on the map that said it was open. We thought it might not be because of the holiday but we said “Let’s try it!” And then we found ourselves on pothole filled muddy dirt roads (where did this rain come from when we have had sunny skies all week???). There was a very full RV park and a completely packed restaurant parking lot. When we walked up and said table for seven, the lady laughed. Reservation only on a day like today! 

Hey, at least we got to see the Atlantic Ocean! Oh my, so we drive out and headed toward a town but everything else was closed. We found a gas station with bathrooms and just headed to Seville. 

About an hour and a half later we came into Seville and then the driving got fun! No more open freeways and 80mph speed limit. This is an example of one of the roads (and notice the tiny little sidewalk). 

Ugh, luckily we parked the car and won’t get it out for two days. Right outside our hotel is the Metropol Parasol which is a wooden structure built in 2011. It claims to be the biggest wooden structure in the world. 

We grabbed some dinner/tapas at a local place and the dinner came with lemoncello shots at the end! Happy kids!!! Most of the food was pretty mundane so only a picture of the pretty tuna was taken.

We ended the night with some gelato, a donut, another espresso, and a chocolate croissant. Isn’t that coffee pretty!?!

Only 9,400 steps for me but the golfers had 5k more