We arrived in Sevilla at the beginning of siesta and it showed. The airport was a ghost town and there were no passport officers around to stamp my passport. In our search for our rental car company, we discovered that [1] the company doesn’t have office space in the airport and [2] we had to call them to pick us up at the meeting point in the arrivals lobby. Lovely. After waiting for about 15-20m someone finally showed up to take us to our mode of transport for the next week: a lovely golden Opel Corsa.
image from www.opel.es
So we headed out in the 90F+ heat to Cordoba, a drive in which we learned that most large transport trucks could out run and out power our little Corsa. Oh well, who’s in a hurry to climb that big hill?
The one thing about Spain that drove us crazy was lack of PROMINENT + VISIBLE street signs. It took us, no joke, about 45m-1h to find our hotel. S did a good job maneuvering the narrow streets – so narrow you had to question if it really was a street that allowed cars. Thanks to very broken Spanish and a bartender, we managed to find our hotel. It was hard to miss as the Mezquita was literally across the street.
After we got settled, we walked around the Jewish Quarter as best we could in the stifling heat – the chocolate ice cream cone helped ease my discomfort and we started on our tapas hop. Of all the tapas we had, I think that patatas bravas were my fave – roasted/fried potatoes with a creamy, spicy, tomato sauce. The jamon and manchego cheese were just as fabulous. Unfortunately, we were too full to check out a real neat salon de te we stumbled upon.
Per Rick Steves’ guide to Spain, the Mezquita opens 8a and is free until 10a, so wanting to beat the crowds and get started on our drive to Granada, we got into the Mezquita just before 10a. “Wow!†was my first reaction when I first stepped inside. I’ll spare you the history, but basically this is a mosque with a cathedral inside and it’s probably one of the most impressive buildings I have ever seen. The double arches, the intricate ceilings, the marble floor tiles that are the same size as prayer rugs. Unfortunately, our pictures don’t do this place justice and words just can’t describe, so I think you should check it out for yourself! (Oh, and props to Cordoba’s history as being a city where Jews, Christians and Muslim lived together – peacefully.)
details, details in the mezquita
This turned out to be a longer post than I had anticipated, so I’m breaking it down into digestable posts.
I know exactly when school is starting when my weekday driving routes are more congested than usual and it takes me more than an hour to get to work.
So, yes, Kellybean and family are back from vacay and back to work/daycare today.
Our flight to Paris was, for the most part, uneventful. Mads did scream and throw a tantrum for the first 30m of the flight, but all was well after that. She made friends with the toddler sitting next to us, managed to eat most of the toddler’s pretzels and even managed to sleep in a way-too-small bassinet provided by AF. (Sidebar: for the money we paid for these airline tickets, the very least Air France could have done was provide a newer plane with a coach section that includes individual and on-demand movie screens. Plus, the quality of their meals has gone down.) We noticed that even our flight path to Paris was impacted by high fuel prices – instead of making that nice big curve that takes you over northern Canada and Greenland, we flew straight through, over the Midwest (MN, IL, MI) and then turned right at France. Needless to say, the flight was bumpier than usual.
We arrived in Paris just in time for a late lunch of cheese, bread and rillettes. (Perfect!)
We spent the next few days getting over our jet lag and prepping Mads for a week with grany & granpy sans mommy & papa. We took her to Parc Corbiere in Le Pecq – complete with large grassy fields, your usual playground equipment and with resident bunnies, donkeys, chickens, geese, ducks and goats.
hi canards!
Our first baby-free evening, we dined at Restaurant La Gare, in the posh 16th with S’ family and friends. Highly recommend it! My scallops were perfect as was the molten chocolate cake. It was late when we left the restaurant, and off in the distance, I could see the Eiffel Tower lit up in sparkly blue lights. Sigh. F*** all the clichés, Paris is effin’ romantic.
The day before her birthday, we had a wonderful family feast, celebrating 3 birthdays! (Mads and her cousin Leo share the same birthday!)
On her actual birthday, we took Mads on her first RER trip into Paris. Of course she fell asleep in the stroller in the train, but when she woke she was strolling down the Champs Elysees and we were looking for a place to lunch. After lunch and a stop at the Disney store on the Champs Elysees, we walked towards the Jardins des Tuileries. (Lesson learned: don’t wear sandals when walking thru the Jardins des Tuileries as your feet will be SO dirty and dusty!) We stumbled upon a carnival type event and eventually found something that Mads would enjoy: a trampoline. (She refuses to go on a carrousel – refer to our Mpls trip.) It took her a few moments to get warmed up, but once she saw the other kids going “bouncy, bouncy†she was all over it!
We continued our walk towards the Louvre and then along the left bank of the Seine. We found a crepe stand and snacked on a nutella crepe in front of Notre Dame. Decided that we had enough walking for the day , we made our way to the nearest Metro station and headed back home. Sounds like a wonderful 2nd birthday, if you ask me.
We spent another baby-free night with friends and family with Domino’s pizza (way better options than Domino’s here) and a crazy modern mob docu-drama flick, Gomorra. It was in Italian with French subtitles, so I did my best to keep up.
Before we knew it, S & I were off to Spain…