It seems we’re in full winter mode now. Highs during the day still creep up into the 50s, but lows are starting to go from cold to frigid.
Still, daily life in Sevilla continues unabated in the great outdoors. In a city known for its social culture combined with minuscule housing and high rent, every city sidewalk becomes communal living and dining rooms, even in the coldest months.
Our Euro-African Journey (So Far...)
Lately, we’ve managed to sink into some sort of a routine involving school in the morning and an outing during the warmest time of day.
Today, we got to fulfill one of the boys’ Christmas gift vouchers. This one was an evening of live flamenco at the Museo del Baile Flamenco, one of the premiere spaces for the performance and preservation of the ancient art in Spain.
No photography permitted during the actual performance (you can check out the place here), but it was surprisingly moving (and the level of artistry from all the performers—singing, guitar, and dancing—Lori even managed to get us front row seats). It was really incredible. Highly recommended!
Walking our street in Triana, I wondered when they might start harvesting the neighborhood’s iconic oranges. It is, after all, approaching freezing at night now.
Today while we were out and about, I got my answer.
We had wondered what they do with all the sour oranges. Some have told us they use them for marmalade. Others say they now mulch them for the farms outside of town. Seeing the workers’ sledgehammer approach, I tend to believe the latter.
Outside our Triana apartment.
School time.
The boys get our triannual haircuts.
Back in the U.S., we’ve spent a handful of New Year’s Eves with friends and family who observe the Spanish tradition of eating twelve grapes leading up to midnight.
I often wondered if this was still a widespread practice in Spain. Not only is the answer a resounding “Yes,” but they even sell the grapes in these handy-dandy containers.
They were considerably more expensive than the grapes in the generic package (below), so Lori skipped the wheel—but nice little gimmick.
Before leaving Sevilla in a few days, there are two major landmarks we still have yet to visit. One is Sevilla’s massive cathedral, which we had to buy tickets a week in advance for and are scheduled to do in a couple more days. The other is the Torre del Oro (Golden Tower).
This defensive tower was built around 1220 and added on to over the years. There are several theories regarding the origins of its name.
For centuries, legends suggested the tower was originally covered in golden tiles or used to store treasures from the Americas. But most people these days tend to believe the name comes from the golden glow the tower emits when the sun hits the exterior.
A 2005 restoration revealed that this golden glow is caused by a mixture of lime mortar and pressed straw used in the construction of the walls.
From here, we head to Parque de María Luisa, a large green space south of the Royal Alcázar that Lori’s been wanting to take the kids to for the past few weeks.
Along the way, we pass a number of landmarks, including Hotel Alfonso XIII, quite possibly the swankiest hotel in town…
…the old Royal Tobacco Factory, now the prestigious University of Sevilla….
…and the over-the-top Plaza España.
Lori has been talking about putting together a Spanish Tapas Crawl since we arrived in Spain. With mere days left in Spain, we were finally able to make it happen.
There are so many iconic and historic tapas bars in town, we were able to do an entire crawl just focusing on our own neighborhood of Triana, which has arguably some of the best.
Our first stop is Bar Las Golondrinas. Established in 1962, there menu has remained more or less the same for decades.
We’re here to sample their three signature tapas: Punta de Solomillo (grilled pork sirloin on bread), Champiñones con Alioli (grilled mushrooms with garlic sauce), and Chipirones (grilled baby squid).
Next up, it’s La Antigua Abaceria, famous for their cheeses and charcuterie.
We end at Bar Santa Ana (est. 1915), where we order espinacas con garbanzos (spinach and chickpeas), a classic Sevillano dish…
Queso Payoyo, their award-winning, artisanal Spanish cheese from the Sierra de Grazalema in Cádiz, Andalusia, made from a blend of milk from the native Payoya goat and Grazalema sheep, and aged for 120 days…
And top it off with one of their famous house vermouths.
And that’s it from us for 2025—one of the more eventful years for us in the past decade.
We started the year in our Class C motorhome outside of Merida, Mexico, backpacked around the Yucatan Peninsula, logged 7,000 more miles returning to the Pacific Northwest (taking in five U.S. National Parks along the way), had a great summer reconnecting with family in Oregon, Washington, and California, sold our RV and headed to Portugal for two months before ultimately making our way to Spain.
We’ll see where the road takes us in 2026.
Lori and I feel tremendously fortunate to be able to have this time with our kids at this point in their lives and getting to share these adventures with them.
It was a dream of ours to do something like this for years prior to having kids, so it’s been tremendously satisfying seeing the pieces fall into place.
It’s not an easy or wildly lucrative life we’ve chosen, but it’s a good life, and I can’t imagine doing anything else more fulfilling—or being anywhere else right now than with these three knuckleheads.
Happy New Year 2026!
