After a week of the flu making its rounds in the family, everyone was finally up and about. That meant, Christmas tree shopping time!
I really wanted to get my hands on a real tree. I’d read at one point or another that you could actually rent a living tree in Spain—an exciting prospect given that the last time we had a real tree for Christmas was the year before Noe was born.
Our Euro-African Journey (So Far...)
For the life of me, however, I couldn’t find a single place in Sevilla (they seem to be all the rage in Barcelona).
Lori and I didn’t think the boys would be particularly excited about a plastic tree from a Chinese Bazaar (i.e. cheap crap store), but boy were we wrong.
The mere fact that it resembled a real Christmas tree more than any other tree we’ve ever had in their lives was enough to elicit wild reactions (though you’d never know it from this very subdued photo).
That’s our hundred-year-old Triana apartment there in the background, on a somewhat rare sunny day (we’ve had a lot of rain, recently).
At home, decorating our little tree. I did the lights and the boys would get to do the rest…when we get the rest.
With Lori among the living again, we figured a trip down memory lane was long overdue.
Lori lived here for four months as part of a study abroad program over twenty years ago. She’s talked a lot about Sevilla over the years, and it was a formative experience in her life.
With that said, we’re finding her memories of the city are somewhat vague at best. Granted, it was 23 years ago, and she’s been to a lot of other places since.
With a little help from Google Maps she was able to find the institute where she attended classes (she thinks…).
One of these days, we’re looking forward to heading out to the suburb of Nervión where she actually lived. Maybe that will help jog her memory a bit more.
I truly believe Spaniards take this to heart. I’ve never been in a place surrounded by so many people drinking beer at sidewalk bars on every block of every neighborhood in the entire city at literally every hour. It’s truly an incredible sight.
We hit up yet another Chinese Bazaar in the Centro for some nifty ornaments. The boys are taking their job very seriously.
All’s left is the topper.
Somebody’s feeling better. Lori wanted to do dinner in the tiny-kitchen. After a week of prepping all the meals, I wasn’t going to protest.
Today, we thought we’d head south to explore more of Triana and also Los Remedios, the neighborhood a bit farther south.
This is the Chapel of the Mariners. It’s always got a long line of pilgrims waiting to pay tribute to the resident Lady of Sorrows, La Triana. Apparently, there’s some rivalry between La Triana, and the much more famous La Macarena across the river (the one that inspired the song).
Back on the other side of the river.
Sevilla’s historic bullfighting ring—still in operation.
Lori wanted to make the trek down to Plaza de España today, about a 40-minute walk from where we are staying. I asked her what’s there to see. She said it was a big plaza with a park. Another plaza, another park.
But this was not just another plaza or park.
At first glimpse, you might think that this place was once a residence for the king and queen, and that it’s much older than it actually is.
I was stunned to learn that it’s just under a century old and was built entirely for the 1929 Ibero-American Expo (yep, another expo).
Besides being able to walk through part of the structures, it’s not clear what they are used for, or what they were intended to be used for. Beautiful, yes, but it all just seems like they had a lot of time and money to burn (or could have used the money for something more practical).
Furthermore, the plaza is set outside of the city center and there aren’t any cafes or shops here, meaning it’s a bit of effort to get to a place to just walk around (or pay to row or take a carriage ride).
Either way, it was a fun place to explore on a sunny afternoon.
One thing’s for certain, they don’t make places like this anymore.
It was Poppi’s birthday, so we thought this alcove might be a nice place to give him a call. Turns out, it’s one of the more popular alcoves in the whole plaza to take a selfie with, so we eventually had to move to a different location.
Crossing the bridge on the way back, we caught the practice run for a big holiday light show that starts tomorrow along the river—complete with pyrotechnics!
