Day 19: Dia de Las Bicicletas
Today was our day in Sevilla. The bed was awesome and I slept so much better than usual and slept in kinda. It was very pleasant. It was about 9am when we left for breakfast, yet it was so quiet and deserted, I liked it. We couldn't find anything open yet since apparently in Spain everyone is laid back and doesn't open up till late morning. Fortunately, there was one little cafe was open, but it looked like they were still setting up the cafe. Unfortunately, they didn't have much food options, so I just had a crispy croissant. Although the food wasn't top notch, it was a relaxing and peaceful meal.
After breakfast we went to a nearby bike rental place to rent bikes, obviously. We wanted to rent bikes just explore by ourselves, but then they offered us a spot on a tour. So we decided, what the heck sure. We got our bikes, but mine was a little tall for me (which is a pretty common occurrence). Our guide spoke English and Spanish. We had five other people in our tour, three Belgian women and two Argentinans. Our tour guide kinda looked like Cisco from the Flash. Anyway, we biked around on the bumpy road. Let me just say most of the roads are super bumpy and kinda give you a super aggressive butt massage. First we biked along the water and stopped to look at the bridge and nice view. Then we crossed the bridge to some neighborhood which is also its own district or something like that. It was small and crowded but cute. We went to one of the oldest churches and looked across the water. There we decided to have a water break. That's when Dad discovered Coconut in my backpack. Since he loves how photogenic Coconut is, he decided to stick Coconut out of the backpack for some photos and so he can also explore Spain. Coconut said Dads sweaty back made him sweaty too.
After crossing the bridge back to the main part of Sevilla, we went to the White House of Sevilla. Or at least that's how the guide described it. It was super big and fancy; exactly how a government building should be, I think. Don't quote me on that. Anyway, also next to the government building was the jail where Donkey Hote was written. That's not the proper spelling, but it's some play that
Sydney did in middle school. Next we went to explore different plazas. One of them was super big and snazzy. It even had a fountain which had cold water to cool off with. Also Mom, when we got there Dad almost ran me over with his bike, on purpose. Anyway, we also went inside and saw a flamenco dancer preforming. She was pretty good, but I don't really know anything about flamenco dancing. We also saw some teenage girls trying to row a boat. Emphasize on trying, I don't think they knew how to. Outside the plaza, we saw one of those frozen silver painted people, like Rachel Dare. From Percy Jackson, read them. Anyway, she was very sweet and let us take some pictures with her.
That was the end of the tour, so we got our luggage and went to this super snazzy burger place and ice cream place. One of the ice cream flavors I got was Blue Ice. I'm still not sure what flavor it is, I'm guessing smurf, like in France.
The plane ride was to Madrid and pretty short. I just chilled and jammed out to my tunes. And stared down a guy who was looking at Dad weird. Then we has another flight which took us to Porto, Portugal. We landed around 8pm ish, so by the time we got to the hotel and sat with Kim and Maria at the restaurant, it was 9pm. I had some dinner from the fancy pancy buffet. And I got vegetables all by myself. Mother, I hope you're proud. After I finished, I was pretty pooped. So I came upstairs to take a nice bubble bath with my rubber ducky.
Portugal is said to be very pretty so I can't wait to explore in the little time we have tomorrow. You'd think I would be fine coming here and speaking some portuguese, because I've had 5 aupairs who are Brazilian and I should have picked up some portuguese from them. Nope, I know, nothing, nada, zilch, goose egg. Except thank you and goodnight, but that's it. Welp can't wait to be a tourist tomorrow.
After breakfast we went to a nearby bike rental place to rent bikes, obviously. We wanted to rent bikes just explore by ourselves, but then they offered us a spot on a tour. So we decided, what the heck sure. We got our bikes, but mine was a little tall for me (which is a pretty common occurrence). Our guide spoke English and Spanish. We had five other people in our tour, three Belgian women and two Argentinans. Our tour guide kinda looked like Cisco from the Flash. Anyway, we biked around on the bumpy road. Let me just say most of the roads are super bumpy and kinda give you a super aggressive butt massage. First we biked along the water and stopped to look at the bridge and nice view. Then we crossed the bridge to some neighborhood which is also its own district or something like that. It was small and crowded but cute. We went to one of the oldest churches and looked across the water. There we decided to have a water break. That's when Dad discovered Coconut in my backpack. Since he loves how photogenic Coconut is, he decided to stick Coconut out of the backpack for some photos and so he can also explore Spain. Coconut said Dads sweaty back made him sweaty too.
After crossing the bridge back to the main part of Sevilla, we went to the White House of Sevilla. Or at least that's how the guide described it. It was super big and fancy; exactly how a government building should be, I think. Don't quote me on that. Anyway, also next to the government building was the jail where Donkey Hote was written. That's not the proper spelling, but it's some play that
Sydney did in middle school. Next we went to explore different plazas. One of them was super big and snazzy. It even had a fountain which had cold water to cool off with. Also Mom, when we got there Dad almost ran me over with his bike, on purpose. Anyway, we also went inside and saw a flamenco dancer preforming. She was pretty good, but I don't really know anything about flamenco dancing. We also saw some teenage girls trying to row a boat. Emphasize on trying, I don't think they knew how to. Outside the plaza, we saw one of those frozen silver painted people, like Rachel Dare. From Percy Jackson, read them. Anyway, she was very sweet and let us take some pictures with her.
That was the end of the tour, so we got our luggage and went to this super snazzy burger place and ice cream place. One of the ice cream flavors I got was Blue Ice. I'm still not sure what flavor it is, I'm guessing smurf, like in France.
The plane ride was to Madrid and pretty short. I just chilled and jammed out to my tunes. And stared down a guy who was looking at Dad weird. Then we has another flight which took us to Porto, Portugal. We landed around 8pm ish, so by the time we got to the hotel and sat with Kim and Maria at the restaurant, it was 9pm. I had some dinner from the fancy pancy buffet. And I got vegetables all by myself. Mother, I hope you're proud. After I finished, I was pretty pooped. So I came upstairs to take a nice bubble bath with my rubber ducky.
Portugal is said to be very pretty so I can't wait to explore in the little time we have tomorrow. You'd think I would be fine coming here and speaking some portuguese, because I've had 5 aupairs who are Brazilian and I should have picked up some portuguese from them. Nope, I know, nothing, nada, zilch, goose egg. Except thank you and goodnight, but that's it. Welp can't wait to be a tourist tomorrow.
Bikes
Old Church
Water picture
Spanish White House
Pretty Plaza
Silver Frozen lady
Dad taking advantage of Coconut
Donkey Jote building (red one blocked by the tree)
seville is awesome. there is an ordinance that no building can be higher than the giralda steeple, which is like 10 stories. this makes a huge difference - it feels... authentic? i loved abu dhabi, but it did have a bit of a vegas feel - a huge amount of "mine is bigger than yours" development from the last 50 years. seville has none of that, because its all the actual streets and buildings.
ReplyDeletethe plaza d espana was incredible. there was an epic scene from star wars prequels that was shot there - the princess and R2 were outside at the palace.
it has 58 alcoves with tile artwork for 58 cities in spain, with a real map for each. the crazy thing is, this is an actual govt office. the spaniards are certainly pragmatic. there were thousands of tourists wandering around this palace of dozens of acres... and govt workers were walking back and forth amid it all.
we were actually not allowed to take planes, according to the rules. since we're not competing, we could do anything we wanted, but adhering to the rules and scavenges is what makes the experience funner than most other things !
Great day, and lucky to get offered such a nice tour.
ReplyDeleteLOL: Don Quixote = Donkey Hote; Oh the memories Coconut will have. you made it to Portugal!!
ReplyDeletelolol
DeleteSevilla and Vancouver, that's all I'm good for! You guys and Rick Steves are my travel heroes. I know they have narrow streets and daring bus drivers. I love La Giralda, I think Cheesecake Factory owes those people something.
ReplyDeleteSorry I missed a few days - I was with my sisters. I love how you "protected" your dad with the stare-down. The government building is pretty cool looking. Love seeing Coconut having a good time too!
ReplyDelete