Hasta Luego Sevilla

We are winding down our time in Spain. As we prepare to leave our third country, there is a lot to reflect on. Jason and I continue to grow closer as we share thoughts about how travel is affecting our family. Is this what we imagined? Are we making the most of our time with each other? What is working? What can we do better? There have been ups and downs as we adjust to new schedules and work through feelings of homesickness. With less than two months of travel under our belts, we have been humbled, challenged, inspired, but mostly grateful to have this time together and grow as a family. I think we are all looking forward to various points in our travel, but for now I am trying to enjoy all the moments, little and big.

Our last days in Spain have been busy as we try to squeeze in our last few things.

We made it one last time to Feria. We ate some yummy fair food: Chocolate-dipped chocolate filled churro, fresh powdered donuts, cotton candy and of course the traditional Rebujito (a mix of fino or manzanilla sherry and Sprite). People set up various homemade stands to mix and sell them around the fair. We’re not sure if it is official for them to be there, but nobody seemed to care.

We took the kids to see an old-school circus as well. Admittedly seeing the animals perform was not my favorite part. But the rest of the acts were pretty awesome. We loved seeing the kids’ excitement during different shows. Spencer could hardly contain himself during the clown slapstick comedy routine and could not wait to see the motorcycles in the giant spherical cage. Adele was out of her seat during the dancing laser light show. We met another traveling family as we waited for the circus to start. They have an amazing lifestyle of traveling that was very inspiring. We hope to keep in touch with them. They have four children and our kids took to them immediately and enjoyed the circus together like old friends!

We finally visited the Real Alcázar, the royal palace in Seville.

We put it off, because we wanted to tour the royal apartments and they were booked until this week. All of us got on our bikes for the 20-30 minute ride with about an hour to spare until our tour started. Unfortunately our kids are not skilled or comfortable enough on their bikes to navigate the narrow streets filled with cars, motorbikes and pedestrians. We lost time pulling over to walk here and there. And then there was the freakout when Adele lost control going down a short hill towards a busy street. Being the amazing dad that he is, Jason jumped off his bike and jumped in front of her to stop the bike. An hour later we got to the palace at exactly the time of the tour, got in line behind the rest of our group and were told we were too late. We were required to be there 15 minutes prior. Sigh. So we wallowed in our disappointment with chocolate waffles and then toured the rest of the palace. And it was amazing.

Very similar design and architecture to what we saw in Morocco. The gardens were filled with the most gorgeous bouganvilla, fountains, tile work and crumbling frescos. We found a shady spot to sketch in our books and ran through the maze trying to lose each other.

Our last day in Seville, we made it to a local tapas bar that we had eyed many times. It was always filled with locals or closed due to random holiday hours, so we were happy to squeeze it in. We tried some delicious tapas, adding several new foods to the kids’ palettes. We have a food post planned, so I’ll wait and share the details there.  But I’ll leave you with this tasty photo.

After lunch we took our bikes to Parque de Maria Louisa. While it was a last minute idea, it turned out to be a highlight of our visit. All of us enjoyed the freedom of riding around the beautiful park, exploring and playing.

After returning our bikes, we treated the kids to a farewell churros con chocolate. It was amazing and far better than our first. The chocolate was thick and creamy with just the right amount of sweetness. Turns out, that was our dinner. None of us were hungry after filling our bellies with churros.

Then we took the kids for a final play at their favorite playground, affectionately called “the yellow slide park.”

Hasta luego Sevilla.