July 7 - Our First Cafe

Went to the cafe to meet Mario and Palma (our amazing landlords) for second breakfast.  It was not MY second breakfast - it was my first breakfast - and as it turns out, it was also my lunch.  These people eat and drink all day.  I am not complaining, I just can't keep up. 

We had a pretty mellow day, spent a good deal of time in the apartment.  It is so nice to be able to get books from the library at home on my kindle here.  One of our primary difficulties when we lived in Budapest for the year was finding enough English books to read.  It is nice to have a steady supply without ever having to find an open shop.

We did our regular shopping this afternoon, and I cooked dinner.  Bruschetta and lemon chicken in an onion and pepper sauce.  (Making up recipies based on what I can find in the markets - thankfully I have a tolerant audience.)

Albert stayed home while I took my evening walk.  He did go out to take out the trash, but when it is still in the high 30's (that is Celsius), he prefers to opt out of the longer walks.  

I love the warm temperatures and the surprises that await me around every corner - like the lovely fenced in courtyards between buildings 

and the occasional modern building.

Toward the end of my walk, I came upon a religious parade.  In addition to a number of people carrying staffs topped with crosses and a band, there was a fairly ornate "paso".  It was decorated with a number of large candles.  

A man walked along beside with a ladder and every time one of the candles would go out (it happened a lot with the breeze) - they would stop, he would set up the ladder and relight the candles, then they would continue on.   At one stop, I was able to get close enough to answer the burning question - is that thing on wheels?  Nope, it is being carried underneath by some very warm men lugging it along in the persistent cloud of incense.  

I can't begin to imagine what it will be like here during Easter season.

July 6 - Many Walks

Today I went for four walks for a total of 10 miles - but first an early morning Mariner's game and then breakfast. 

Then we took a walk into center city - we started out walking through the big, traditional market near our flat.  It is only open until 2 or 3 in the afternoon and we had always walked by when it was closed before.  There are lots of fruit and vegetable vendors with great looking produce and pretty low prices, lots of intimidating meat and fish vendors (lots of big knives and fast Spanish), a few bakeries, cheese shops, and spice shops, and a couple of bars for morning drinkers. 

I am impressed with the number of nonalcoholic beers available - since beer (with and without alcohol) is cheaper than soda - I might need to switch... but probably not.

After our walk, we had lunch and then I went out for an afternoon walk while Albert stayed home and did some work.  My goal was to walk to the language school that I will be starting on Monday to make sure I could get there without getting lost on one of the many small streets between home and school.  Whew, I made it.

Statue Across the Street from Language School

Unfortunately, it was over 90 degrees and just the couple of miles left me dripping with sweat.  So, I went home and took a break, cooled off in the apartment and studied a little Spanish.  Then back out for a walk in a completely different direction to a part of town that we had not yet explored.

In addition to some interesting parks and buildings, I came upon a man standing in a busy intersection trying to sell things to drivers as they came up to the corner.  Was he selling pretzels (like in Philadelphia)? No... bouquets of roses (like in Washington DC)? No... He was selling windshield shades... yes, the shades that you put in your windshield when you park your car to protect the inside from the sun. 

After my afternoon walk, we had dinner.  We may actually have a meal outside the apartment tomorrow - we are meeting out landlord again - he has collected some information and forms for our "registration".  I think we owe him more that a meal!  

But for now, we have been enjoying some simple meals at home.  We have dishwasher in the apartment, I think it works, but I am not sure, we have been using the dishwasher we brought with us.

After dinner, we made a trash run and then extended it to a walk away from town to a Chinese market where we bought a few things including - an ice cube tray!  Our first experience with a one time use ice bag (while successful) will also be our last.

Sevilla is sometimes called "The Frying Pan of Europe".  Not surprising, it is 11 pm, and every cafe is packed with the people who stayed inside during the hot day and are now out and about.    I enjoyed the beautiful weather during the day (it may not be for everyone, but I love it) - and now I am heading in to read.  Buenas Noches.

July 5 - The Details

The landlords came by this morning to check in and give us a run down of some practical details.  I am sure we could have muddled through much of this without them - but they sure have made our transition better than we could have imagined.

They came with a long list and answered all of the questions on our list.  I think that they were here for at least a couple of hours - WAY above and beyond.

First and foremost, they are going to help us with the registration process.  With our visas, we must register with the local government within our first 30 days in Spain to get our residency cards.  If we don't do this, our visas will become invalid in 90 days.  On their end, they have to register anyone who is renting from them.  If you own a rental property in Spain, it has to be registered as a rental and the local police departments want to know who is renting it.  In addition to other things, this helps in the allocation of resources to areas due to increased population due to visitors.  So, Mario is visiting with the local government officials tomorrow to make sure he knows the procedure and he offered to help us with our end as well.  After reading about how messy this process has been for others (down side of having good web access - the ability to know about everything that could go wrong), we are glad to have someone that both knows the language and the government structure on our side.

They also helped with the dozens of small details -

Why we may want to use the bus but will probably not need the metro - and how to buy passes for each (bus passes sold in tobacco stores, metro passes sold in metro stations).

Where, eventually,we can get mail (there is problem right now with the lock - so we can't get mail for a little while).

How to rent a bike - which we will probably take advantage of - and the offer to drive us out of town if we decide to buy one and need a ride to pick it up- which we probably will not.  If we do go that route, however, there is plenty of room in the hallway to park it.  Lots of people do.  I am sure that the  lovely woman who comes in to clean the marble floors of the hallways LOVES having all of these bikes to work around.  

They explained which lines on the roof are ours to hang clothes (each flat has assigned lines).  We have a washer in the flat and this is our dryer.  I do like a dryer with a view.

It gets really hot in Sevilla.  It is supposed to be over 100 this weekend.  So as you can imagine, it would not take long for the city to start to smell if people left their trash outside.  So, garbage collection happens every night from centralized dumpsters that you are not allowed to use until after 8pm.  So, if we have trash to take out, it goes out after 8pm.  Luckily dinner is not until 10 pm, so this should not be a problem once we fully transition to eating like a Spaniard.  (Not sure this will ever happen....)

They told us about the best places to visit in Sevilla, best places to visit outside Sevilla in southern Spain, where to go to the beach, when the local festivals are, how to best adjust the air conditioning units, which markets are best for which types of shopping and when they are open, where some good language schools are, how to change the battery in the gas water heater unit, and on and on....

We did figure out a few things completely on our own - like how to make ice in a one time use ice bag....  We try not to take straws at restaurants,  we use reusable shopping bags, we recycle over half of our "trash", but now we are supposed to make ice in one time use bags?  We will see.  

After they left, I registered for a language class that starts on Monday.  I had to do an online placement test that took me about an hour.  I am not sure why you would want that much information on someone who is going to start in level A-1 (the lowest level), but I did my best.  The class meets from 4-7:30 pm Monday-Friday with two 15-minute breaks.  I signed up for two weeks.  If all goes well with this school, I will continue on and Albert will likely sign up for a class of his own.  There are a number of schools to choose from, so if the first two weeks don't work out - I will try another one.  

We went walking, shopping and stopped by the language school to pay.  Then it was time to cook dinner.  The kitchen and the shops are nice - so far, we have had every meal at home.  At some point, we will try out one of the many cafes that line the street that lies perpendicular to ours at the end of our block.  Maybe when it is 100 degrees, I will feel less like cooking and more like going out for gelato!

July 4 - First Day in Sevilla

Ok - the 4:15am alarm seemed pretty early.  I should note that at 4:15 our time here - it was 10:15 pm on the east coast and 7:15 pm in Walla Walla.  Thank goodness all of our travel was smooth.  I am not sure either one of us would have been able to handle anything complicated.

We arrived at our new flat at about 9:15 where our landlord met us at the door.  He is amazing.  We have had such an easy time working with him up until our arrival- and today was over the top.  He gave us a quick tour of the place (keys, wi-fi passwords, maps of the city, towels, ...) and then left us to rest up (his idea) with the plan to meet again tomorrow when we have had a chance to explore and put together a list of questions.  Also - he had the place stocked with fresh fruit, bread, good olive oil, butter, milk, crackers, a couple of beers... enough to get us through our initial meal. 

The street we are on is very narrow.  When we arrived it was empty (partly due to some construction at one end).  Later a class of pre-school age children walked down the street chattering away.  Then, around 8pm, the building across the street opened up into a sidewalk cafe.  It is so fun to watch this little slice of city from our window.

We did manage to make it to a grocery store - so we ate lunch around noon and dinner around seven.  We haven't made the switch to eating on a "Spanish" schedule.  We did however manage to celebrate with siestas this afternoon.  

We did a couple of short walks.  There is so much to do and see here - I am not worried about staying busy.  I am glad we don't have a car - with all the great food - I am going to need to walk A LOT or else buy a whole new wardrobe.  

Lots of Green Spaces 

Lots of Tourist Activities

Beautiful Walks Along the Water

It seems that many people sit out every afternoon in the summer and have an afternoon beer - I will probably pass on that most days - I will also pass on skydiving. 

I think this is the first time that all four people in our immediate family are living in cities with palm trees - Miami, Santa Barbara, and Sevilla.  Yipee for warm climates.

I really enjoyed the last three weeks, but I must admit that it feels good to be unpacked and living out of drawers and closets instead of suitcases and backpacks.  Now if I can just get used to the Mariners playing at 4am.....

July 3 - Day 2 in Madrid

Today was a full day as Madrid tourists.

We got a list of great suggestions from the front desk woman and headed out to catch the public bus/metro.  Today, we knew where we were going and things went much more quickly.

Once downtown, we bought tickets for the hop on/hop off tour bus and set out to see Madrid.  We still needed to use the English translation headphones... maybe one day we will be able to string together more words in Spanish than your average toddler - but not yet.

It seems like the whole city is under construction - I am glad we were riding and not driving.  I do like that the "construction tarps" are painted to look like the buildings that they are covering.  It makes the construction a little less invasive - at least from the street view.    The top half of this building is covered with a light grey tarp with the windows painted on.  

We ate lunch at the upstairs counter of a restaurant facing the main street through downtown (Gran Via) which made for great people watching - and not surprising with all of the traffic and construction, we were able to witness a cab on cab fender bender.   

We walked around a large Market (and went back there later for dinner), through a large park (and stopped in for a beer and diet coke), around the royal palace, and through lots of plazas.  The bus tour also went by the stadium where Real Madrid plays,  the US Embassy (which was heavily guarded and preparing for a 4th of July event), and LOTS of great buildings.  It is also PRIDE week in Madrid, so there are rainbow flags hanging on many buildings large and small.  There are also signs (about half in half in English/Spanish) with this year's slogan...

Photo of Sign on Side of Building

We didn't stop for dessert, but that is not for lack of options.  I love this one...

Really.... CHOCOLATERIA...mmmmm.   Many shops close for siesta in the afternoon - especially on the smaller streets.  Most of the shops in the touristy squares and at the big market seemed to be open all day.

Sign in window of CHOCOLATERIA- "We will come back at 3:30! Thanks"

Albert took lots of great photos - I did take a few of the sights and of course a few of Albert taking photos. 

After a full day of touristing, we rode back to our hotel on public transportation and are tucked in to our hotel room for the night.  We have a 5:30 am shuttle to the airport.  Tomorrow, we go to Sevilla.

July 2 - Madrid

The flight ran on time and two meals were served and the in flight entertainment was good - however, no matter how you cut it - an 8 and a half hour red eye on which I did not sleep was a LONG flight.

We arrived in Madrid at around noon and cruised through immigration and customs.   The weather is beautiful and we made it to our hotel around 1:30 or so. 

After a few false starts, we managed to ride a bus and take a subway train to the city center.  There were lots of food choices, including Burger King, McDonalds, KFC, and Starbucks that we didn't choose.  Since it was about 5 pm Madrid time, it was about 11 am Miami time - Albert had eaten breakfast on the plane (I opted out) and I had eaten part of the late dinner meal on the plane (Albert had opted out) - neither one of us really knew whether it was lunch time, early dinner time, or what.  I suggested perhaps we just eat dessert and call it good - I mean there was plenty to choose from....

But we went for empanadillas and empanadas instead.

We walked around for a while - got some ideas for what we want to see more of tomorrow.  In addition to the beautiful buildings and statues, there we lots of small vendors, some protesters, and lots of buskers like this guy posing with a skateboard on his feet "holding" himself up on one hand.

It was a very lively downtown scene - especially for a Monday afternoon.  We made our way back to the hotel using the public transportation and are planning to be in bed by 10.  Tomorrow a full day in Madrid.

July 1 - Last day in Miami

This morning we ran around packing up, cleaning, and moving out of the condo.

It was a good thing we made a trip to Rachel's on Friday, because the car was packed tip to tail as we made the trip to Rachel's today.  We got to meet Rachel's new housemate and she got to witness the great re-packing as Albert and I adjusted our suitcases from "cross country" mode to "Spain" mode.  We each have one backpack, one carry-on, and one large suitcase.  It both seems like a lot (to travel with) and very little (to make it though a year).

From Rachel's house, we walked to a restaurant for lunch.  A nice warm walk. 

Then, we drove to the Frost Science Museum where we walked around for a couple of hours and then attended a planetarium show.  So many memories of all of the children's museums in years gone by....

Then a quick dinner at a sandwich place that Rachel likes...

And then a bit of a teary goodbye (ok - maybe not everyone was teary - but I was) at the airport with just enough time for Rachel to grab a family selfie, before Albert and I headed off to check-in and Rachel and Emily headed back to south miami.

Luckily I was able to finish up my walking for the day with a few short laps up and down the terminal.  Now Albert and I are sitting in the gate area preparing for our red-eye flight to Madrid.  It has been a great 3 weeks camping, hiking, beaching, visiting with family and friends, seeing the US from Walla Walla to Key West  - now it is time for Albert and I to start our Spain adventure.