Spain: Seville Explorers, Part One

After just about 150 consecutive days of traveling and living abroad, we hit our first major travel snag: With an early flight from London to Seville, plus pouring rain and a fairly complicated route via public transit from our apartment to the airport, I decided to call an Uber. But, about half-way into our one hour ride to the airport, the remaining travel time started climbing and climbing and our Uber driver started taking increasingly roundabout ways to try to reach the airport. Then, we discovered the reason for the delays: extensive flooding had made nearly all the roads to the airport impassible. By the time we reached the airport, our flight had already departed and our plans were in limbo.

Fortunately, we were able to book on an early flight the following day, so we hunkered down at the Hampton Inn and spent a day watching movies, taking extra-long showers, and wandering the pre-security retail offerings of Gatwick Airport. Honestly, I think we all needed a day to just chill out and nobody really seemed to mind this outcome at all.

Ben was learning yoga and meditation at school and put both to work this week.

The following day, other than our early wake-up call, our travels were smooth and we were settled into our hotel in Seville by mid-day. Though, we arrived to rain and the promise of sunny skies the next day, so we still had a slow-start to our visit in Seville.

Buenos Dias, Sevilla! Our room looked over this little square.

We took a walk through the city, ran a bunch of laundry (it took only 40 minutes to wash AND dry what would have taken me three days to run in Amsterdam), painted our nails and got tapas for dinner. Easy-peasy.

Probably the best surprise was finding all of the holiday lights in the main streets and squares in the old city neighborhood. There were thousands of people out wandering the streets, enjoying carolers and street musicians, and enjoying the lights. We were content to join them.

The beautiful Seville Cathedral.