spring in sevilla

Sevilla is quite touristy, but its old city is full of sights. We visited the Cathedral, as typical in Spain, a Christian church built on Moorish Mosque, built on a Roman foundation. It’s got a certificate from the Guiness Book of World Records attesting to it being the largest Gothic Cathedral. We walked up 330 feet with what seemed like every student in France to the top of the only Moorish part of the church that’s left, the minaret. The pathway was not a staircase, but a ramp capable of allowing a horse and rider to ascend to make the Adhan (muslim call to prayer). Great 360 degree views of the city.
The church has the recently authenticated (DNA traces to his brother’s living descendants) tomb of Christopher Columbus. We also visited the Alcazar, originally a Moorish palace that became Christian in the 1200’s. It had the rooms Columbus, Ferdinand & Isabella, had some of their dealings in.

A highlight of our visit, especially for Liam and Isabelle, was going to a playground where we meet a very nice man (Jesús) and his 5 year old girl. She ordered Lydia around telling her to put out pretend fires, which Lydia graciously complied with. Liam has a way of being silly that includes loud mumbling and lots of staggering. The little girl, Helena, called him a borracho (a drunk) and pretended to take him to carced (jail). We met Jesús' woman and sister as they waited in line for the first bull fight tickets of the year- after a little chatting, which included commenting on Bush being a criminal, we were friends. You always know you’ve become a friend in Europe when you are kissing the air next to both sides on someone’s face. It was the second time that day that a Spaniard brought up that Bush was a criminal. Earlier we asked an older woman for directions, and as she talked about the parliament building somehow she brought up the Madrid bombing, that the amigo de Bush lost the election, and that Bush was a criminal.

la comida, by guest editor Heidi

The honest way to sum it up for us veggies here deep in carne country is- bread and cheese (Lydia has eaten her fair share of Nutella as well). We have had just about every iteration you can imagine. First of all it’s just too expensive here to eat out every meal for 5, so we eat out 1 or 2 a day. Our best source of food is a chain called “El Corte Inglés,” which means “The English Style.” It’s like a very nice Target with a grocery store downstairs, where we get the needed queso y pan. We have some success with tapas. Tapas are snacks served between lunch (about 2 pm) and dinner (about 10 pm). The best have been: a wild mushroom fried in garlic and olive oil with cheese & bread, goat cheese and olive pesto on bread, cheese and sweet walnut spread on bread. We tried two vegetarian restaurants in Madrid, which were pretty good but no different than in the US. Also their tres quesos (what else?!) pizzas are good with grueyere, gorgonzola, and goat. We had some very good Pallella con Verduras, and Tortillas de Español (potato omelette that looks like a torte- needs salsa though- should have taken less gold and more chiles from the new world!). Café con leche in the morning a few times has been heavenly. We’ve eaten some great strawberries, and Mandarin oranges from Valencia. As Chris has already mentioned the churros con chocolate, as well as the gelato (helado) that is everywhere, and the marzipan in Toledo have been great. I’ve been disappointed in the cookies- the ones I’ve had don’t have butter in them! The German ones at the grocery were better. Lastly, but certainly not crucially, food would not be food in Europe if it didn’t come with a large helping of second-hand smoke.

DANGER for strict vegetarians: do not read this paragraph. We have eaten a little carne. It’s hard to escape when your restaurant has stuffed bulls’ heads all over the walls (see photo). Ham is very important in Spain so we’ve had some with mushrooms, and once in some boccadillos (sandwiches). We also had some fried fish. This was 'adobo' (shark), served up by your local freiduría. All of which was fairly unpopular with the kids, but there’s only so much bread and cheese you can handle in a day.