Seville Spain 2011 First day- SHOPPING!

Taking a break- this was taking outside of a cathedral in spain

Our little Matador

The family in the south of Spain.

August 3 2011
In my mind there has always been something romantic and glamourous about the thought of traveling. I’ve always pictured myself somehow gliding through Europe, gracefully stopping to see the sights.

Well, was I in for a shock on this trip! Although,so far it’s been amazing, it’s also been a lot of back breaking work. Lugging 133lbs of suitcases, 3 backpacks, and 2kids through the maze of planes, trains and automobiles has been somewhat of a challenge.
Add not speaking the language here in Spain and my inherent need to be polite I am finding myself very frustrated at times. (that is it I am learning Spanish)
Having said that, it has been good developing my patience and beyond amazing to say the least!

Our last day in London was grand! Although we weren’t fortunate enough to get a ticket into buckingham palace to see Kate’s dress (the tickets were sold out before we even arrived in London) we were able to take a 2 hour guided tour of Westminster Abbey. That place was astonishing!!! I am not religious but was mesmerized by the history and the impact the church has had and still has on the English culture. I cried (yes actual tears) when I saw the picture of Kate being walked down the aisle of the Abbey by her father. It’s hard to imagine what an honor it would be to have your marriage blessed in such a place. In 600 years only 15 marriages have taken place in those magnificent walls.

We stopped to pray and light a few candles, one for Loggie and one for our close friend Reid and again I couldn’t hold back the tears…amazing to think of the collective energy of so many prayers in one place. Religious or not, I felt closer to god.

From there we moved on to another one of gods great creations, Oxford Circus …shopping heaven!
Brody is now looking very English in his red skinny jeans and cardigans…the style here is very different than what we have at home. I reckon in a years time we will all be wearing our old cut off levis jeans with black nylons underneath…..just a tip, you’d better hit up the thrift shops now.

We finished our stay by watching Wicked at the Apollo theatre….well half of it anyhow. By intermission both kids had fallen asleep in their seats and since we had a 7 am flight to Seville we decided to head out early. I was disappointed to leave, the show was remarkable but in the end it was a good thing we did since our 45 minute cab ride to the airport took us nearly 3.5 hours!

Yes, just our luck we got a cabbie who didn’t speak and couldn’t read any English on his GPS. Jared thinks we were close to France and probably could have just drove to Spain since we were so far away from the airport!
He ran a red light, which got us pulled over by the police (who happened to be traveling to Vancouver himself that week) and in the end it was Jared who found our hotel and the airport with only 4 hours to spare before we had to check in. Thank god I woke him up to navigate.

Our adventure to Spain didn’t end there! We flew Ryan air… and for those of you who haven’t had the pleasure let me share with you why the flights are only 8 pounds….because it’s a gamble if you will even get on the flight.
It is like nothing I’ve ever seen before, what a gong show! Hundreds of people lined up with no idea what they are doing. Screaming and hollering about being charged ridiculous fees for baggage overages and forgetting to print their boarding passes. People crying and begging and pleading and agents who have learned to become nothing less than callus. For 8 pounds you get a seat on the plane, but nothing else! I have never been so panicked about missing a flight in my life….we arrived 2 hours prior as instructed on our boarding passes and were literally running to the gate during the final boarding call.
But all that matters is we made it! Seville is amazing! The main shopping area is blocks and blocks of narrow streets with colorful buildings and tiny balconies above head reminding us of the history here and the days when the early inhabitants probably just tossed there waste into the street. It is a bustling center built around a magnificent cathedral. The streets are lined with tapas bars and patios serving the best sangria imaginable. It’s a relaxed life…from 3-5 every day people siesta….and every local coffee shop and watering hole is packed with people looking to recharge for their evening shifts. The scenery is beautiful….and so are the people…tall, dark and handsome are everywhere, and I am sure Jared would attest to seeing a few stunning senioritas himself.

We took a horse drawn carriage ride through the city and wandered through the shops in search of the perfect leather shoes, there are more shoe stores here than any place I’ve evert been.
It’s 35 degrees today and Seville is known as the 2nd hottest place in Europe…we are lounging poolside for a few hours today before we head out to explore the cathedral and the flamenco dancers.

It’s hard to believe it is only Day 5 on our trip with 21 more to go, it seems like I’ve seen more culture in these few short days than I have in my whole life. I am loving it all! And other than the few times a day where Loggie has a seizure we’ve almost forgotten about our new situation. The spells are quickly becoming part of our everyday normal…we have a system…Loggie sees the flashing lights and I stop to hold her in my arms while she goes limp or gets dizzy and has a little twitch. Usually it happens in an area where I can pause and take in a few of the outstanding sights…and only once on a crosswalk in the middle of traffic so i guess we are doing ok!

And every time she has one Brody being his little joking self pauses to say….”oh Loggie’s just had a seizure and one mom needs a ceasar!” what a kid…..and how thoughtful of him but for now I think I’ll stick to the sangria!

Cheers and much love to all!