Hitting Spain's Sweet Spot

                                             Isn't Brad muy guapo in his hat??

Honestly, when we landed in Sevilla, we exited the plane like naked mole rats, squinting after living for months and months under heavy cool gray skies (honestly the weather in London was just like the weather in Portland in June).  

We had had an uneventful flight to Sevilla from Gatwick despite all of Brad's premonitions.  He had been preparing for his encounter with Ryan Air (the UK's budget airline) for months - ready to spar if they were going to charge us for overweight bags or any other incidental fine.  He had been on several forums during our research and picked up some tips along the way so he had that "bring it on" attitude all the way.  Except nothing happened.  They weighed our bags, put on the tags, and off we went.  We even got the red carpet service at the gate since we had paid extra for assigned seats (another tip Brad had picked up) -- we had our waiting area with the few other assigned seat passengers while the rest of the crowd elbowed their way to the front of the line.  When it was time to board, the flight attendant scolded the crowd and told them no one would be boarding if everyone did not step back.  One passenger tried to wrangle the crowd into place but it took a good fifteen minutes for the crowd to get into place (note to Ryan Air - follow Southwest Airline's model of seating passengers without assigned seats - crowds need to be reassured that someone is in charge and everything is going to be okay).  Anyway - we are all grateful hat Brad had done his homework.  It made the trip a lot less stressful! Plus we did meet two Americans who were charged $150 because their bags were five pounds overweight so the myths are true!

It was around 8 pm when we landed and about 95 degrees.  It was lovely and we were all overcome with this feeling that our vacation had just begun.  Sure - London was great but let's face it - it was work navigating open and closing times, tubes, crowds, and everyone's needs.  It especially felt like vacation when we got to the roof of our apartment and it had this:

Elliot's first words out of his mouth was "I love Spain!" (translation: why have we been huffing around cloudy and cool London looking at gravestones?)

(He's right in that we did spend an hour in Highgate Graveyard hunting down the gravestones of various famous people including ...)

(... Karl Marx.  In all seriousness, this graveyard merits a visit so put it on your list but Elliot was all ......)

(.... are you kidding Mom and Dad??  You have been holding out on me ... I could have been on this rooftop with our very own pool all along!!).  Our apartment is pretty swanky too (needless to say, we have been very happy so far with our acommodations through Air B and B!)

So that night, we meandered towards town and found a restaurant.  We were all giddy to be there and to finally be in a culture where food is front and center (we basically starved in London).

We finished dinner around 11 pm - kind of early for Sevilla!  We found a great playground crowded with kids in a square buzzing with people and let the kids play until 12 am.  I think we got to bed around 1.  So yeah, we were pretty much living like Sevillans.

But then, of course, we woke around 11 and got out of house around 12.  We made our way towards the center of town and hit the cathedral with the intention of making it back to our apartment for siesta around 2.  We overshot that goal and made it back around 5 - at the peak of the intense heat and about the time when siesta is wrapping up.  So yeah, we were pretty much living like tourists.

Luckily we have more days ahead of us to hit Spain's sweet spot and find that balance between living like Spainards and living like tourists.  Does it exist?  
(did I mention we are in love with Sevilla?)

Adios!
Nancy