Though the time was nice, I was excited to see Mads after one week away.
When we finally met up, she buried her head in grany’s arm and then ran into mine, saying, “mommy!” Then, as she always does, she told everyone that this is “mommy”. She had changed while we were gone, for one, she was speaking & understanding French – amazing!
fishing for duckies @ jardin d'aclimatation
Feeling unmotivated to shop (I know something must be wrong with me), we decided to take Mads back to the Jardin d’Acclimatation in the Bois de Boulogne – she had gone earlier in the week with grany & granpy. Okay, this place is a kid’s heaven…I don’t think we have anything quite like it here in the Bay Area – not to my knowledge at least. It’s a mix between a petting zoo, the Children’s Playground and a carnival or county fair, but permanent. Mads ran around like crazy, checking out the animals, fishing for ducks. She seemed really intrigued by the mini-dragon roller coaster.
Before we knew it, we were packing up, including all the loot miss Mads received for her birthday. Luckily, I had packed my Longchamps tote and we were able to throw toys, books, and other miscellaneous items we collected on the way, like the double sized Nemo beach towel that we couldn’t leave the Disney store without. Yup.
We said our goodbyes at the airport and waited to board our flight home. Surprisingly, the flight was not full and we managed to have a whole row to ourselves. Mads managed to nap after takeoff and before landing.
Before we knew it we were home safe & sound…though I was hoping for cooler weather as a Bay Area heat welcomed us home.
We knew our vacation was coming to a close as we headed up to Sevilla. After minor directional setbacks (i.e. lack of visible and prominent street signs), we finally found our hotel, Las Casas del Rey Baeza, recommended to us by our friend BlondeTulip. The small lobby was decked out in modern black & white furniture and they greeted us with ice water and sangria! As we entered our room, we were glad to have these modern amenities on our last two nights in Spain. The rooftop pool is amazing, but since it was Sunday afternoon and the Real Alcazar is closed on Mondays, we skipped the pool for now and made our way to the Alcazar before it closed for the day.
alcazar arches
The royal palace was immense as it was amazing, but once you’ve seen one Moorish palace, you’ve seen them all. I still stand by the Mezquita as being the most impressive.
We booked tickets to a flamenco show at El Arenal that evening, so we laid out poolside the remainder of the afternoon.
I was happy to read, after the show, that the flamenco at El Arenal is the most professional of all shows in Sevilla. S + I were seated at the edge of the stage, so we got to see & hear everything up close. There were 2 older Italian couples seated behind us and by the middle of the show, one of the Italians decided that he could sing along. Wrong move buddy. S + I both swear that he got the evil eye from the lead singer and after he got sushed, I was convinced that the gypsies were going to jump him after the show. From that moment on, S + I patiently waited to eat or take a drink of water. Those flamenco women mean business.
Our last full day in Sevilla, sadly started out with a late breakfast (12noon) at one of the three Starbucks on Avenida de la Constitucion. We headed out to go shopping for gifts, but with high temperatures and high exchange rates, I was highly unmotivated to shop. So we went back to the hotel and laid out at the pool, the remainder of the afternoon.
S decided that we should go somewhere nice for our last night in Spain and that somewhere nice landed us at the Hotel Alfonso XIII – the BEST hotel in the city. They had just opened a restaurant in their patio and we were able to walk in without a reservation. The service and food were fabulous and the patio had Vegas-like water misters misting on intervals.
It was a wonderful ending to our vacation – but it wasn’t quite over.
We were on an early (9am) flight to Paris, so with checking out, returning the car, etc., we had to leave the city by 7am. In doing so, I think we managed to wake up the entire hotel: As I was showering, I saw Sylvain jump out of his skin, screaming that there was cockroach-like insect on the floor. Then I started screaming at him to get his shoe and kill it. No sanctity of life issues here. With that said, I really do want to recommend Las Casas as a great place to stay in Sevilla…maybe it was because our room was on the bottom floor, near the entrance…the pool, the room interior (sans roaches & other insects), the free & fresh oranges, the welcome sangria…perhaps, just a recommendation with high reservations?
By the time we got to the airport, we were happy to leave smoky, dirty Spain – I won’t even go into the cleanliness of the airport bathrooms were like – it’s Sevilla, not some back country village. (It seemed as though Spaniards love their cigarettes more than the French – by the time I went to bed every night, I felt like I had smoked at least two packs. Blech.)
Despite our last morning’s…ahem…activities, our vacation to Andalucia was wonderfully hot, wonderfully delicious and wonderfully relaxing.
We also learned that as we navigated the streets and roads of all these Spanish towns, S + I would be “that” couple on The Amazing Race getting frustrated with each other because they couldn’t find the frickin’ exit. Oh well.