My Travel Blog
Okay, so the whole 'let's wake up early!' thing didn't really happen this morning - that sort of crazy idea seems great in theory, but silly when you're in a warm, comfy bed on vacation. We did, however, reach our goal of eating breakfast before noon - I believe we ordered around 11:20 am, which in Spain is not actually all that bad. We went to a fantastic little café right by our apartment, and it was strange how many people were eating cake. Huge, huge pieces of decadent cake. Weird! This place was so delicious - they served tiny pots of dulce de leche with toast which was absolutely heavenly. Plus, their 
coffee and fresh-pressed orange juice were exactly what the morning doctor ordered.
With not a clear direction in mind, we set off on foot and ended up walking for hours. We saw the Royal Palace, the Plaza Mayor, and many other 'must-see' tourist destinations. We also popped into the fantastic Mercado de San Miguel, but we were disappointed to have just eaten breakfast because 
the tapas were so crazy-delicious looking! We ended up going back there later for a drink and some olives - it was just too good to pass up. There were all sorts of crazy food items - olive kabobs, tiny cones of various salami, and 'spaghetti' made out of fish! (Great for Paleo diets…)
After walking for hours we were actually a bit chilly, as today there was a strong, cold wind that cut right through us. We ended up back at our apartment to use the internet to hunt for the perfect lunch restaurant, and also to grab a few more layers to stave off the cold. Jeff ended up finding a place only a few blocks from us, and it was a great experience! Interestingly enough, it seemed like most of the people in the place were businessmen on their 2-hour lunch breaks. The portions were quite small, but the best part of the whole meal was the fancy 'galleta de la casa' that came at the end of the meal with our coffees - it was so delicious, and if we 
weren't so civilized we would've elbowed each other out of the way to get more than our fair share. At the end, a waitress spoke rapid-fire Spanish to us and we had no idea what she said, but we must've seemed agreeable because they brought us shot glasses and filled two with an apple liquid for the kids, and some sort of creamy delicious liqueur for Jeff and I. Hmm, nice!
The Spanish tradition of an afternoon siesta is more understandable after eating a long and filling meal like that one, and wanting to blend with the locals we headed home for a nap. Yep, we actually napped. I'm not sure how anyone here is productive after 3 pm… especially when I witnessed how much wine they drink with lunch. I suppose it would be a good idea to set all meetings before 1 pm. Surgery too.
The final important decision of the day was deciding where to go for dinner. This work is difficult!! We wandered the Latina neighbourhood, and it is really quaint and interesting if you feel like eating tapas and hopping from place to place. For some reason this doesn't appeal to kids, and so we will have to come back and do this in about 10 years. Instead, as mentioned earlier, we popped into the mercado for a snack, and then hit the streets waiting for the best restaurant to declare itself. 
We ended up at an amazing Italian restaurant and secured the second last table for the night. (A lovely family from Birmingham got the last table right beside ours.) This restaurant hand makes all of their pasta and pizza, and it was delicious! An added bonus was that is located down the street from Choclatería San Ginés - an establishment selling churros and chocolate since 1894! Well, of course we had to try it - and it was fantastic! By themselves, the churros weren't sweet at all - I would almost say they had a saltiness to them. The chocolate was very thick and dark and the perfect accompaniment to the churros. They obviously know what they are doing. Yum.
Now time for bed - tomorrow is our last full day and we have nothing planned other than finding great food and then walking it off on the streets of Madrid. Better rest up. ;)
After a fantastic Seville tapas send off last night, we were ready to head on to the last leg of our adventure. Destination: Madrid. We were here 6 years ago, but the weather was insanely hot and we remember very little of the trip. We need to fly out of here for our connection home, so we wanted to take the opportunity to see it in springtime temperatures, as opposed to the summertime Tandoori oven we remember.
We planned to stop in the small city Mérida on the drive to Madrid, as we had read some interesting facts about its well-preserved Roman ruins. They have a lot of really impressive ruins, but because we were on a tight timeline we only had time to explore the amazing theatre and arena. If we had a few more hours we would've also checked out the remains of a 
Circus Maximus and the Puente Romano - the longest of all existing Roman bridges. We caught a tiny glimpse of the bridge as we drove into town, but it would've been fun to walk on it and see it up close.
The Roman Theatre was constructed between 15-16 BC (!!) and then renovated between the 1st and 2nd centuries. For some reason that makes me chuckle - how much construction innovation occurred during that time period? Probably a lot, but I still can't imagine what renovations would've been undertaken at that time. The seating capacity is estimated to be 6000 people, and once again I wonder about bathroom facilities. We have all been to a sports game and have seen what happens even when there are 20+ stalls available. Medieval times? Yikes. Then again, they probably didn’t serve 2L drinks.
The amphitheatre is considerably younger than the Roman theatre in that is was constructed in 8 BC. This theatre was mainly used for gladiator fights, and as we toured the area there were descriptions of the various styles and types of gladiators. Some wore more armour, some wore less - sometimes it was man vs. man, and other times it was man vs. 
beast. I am so glad I did not have these fights as my main form of entertainment! This arena held 15000 people, which once again is boggling.
We really enjoyed touring the ruins, but we were starving and had to find some lunch before hitting the road. Considering the amount of tourists, there was a surprising lack of restaurants in the area. We happened to see a placard advertising a €10 'menu del dia', and despite the unattractive exterior, we decided to give it a try. I think the place was brand new, and the two guys working it were very keen. It smelled a bit like fresh paint and there weren't any pictures on the walls. You could see the electrical cords coming out of the wall where (I assume) a TV will be attached. They were doing their best with fancy orange napkins artfully arranged on the table and pleasant yellow walls. The only menu available was one in which you picked a first course, a second course, and dessert. A drink was included as well, so for €10 this was quite the deal! There were five choices in each category so you couldn't complain about the lack of options. The food was mediocre at best, but the two guys were really nice and the service was great. I hope they are able to make a go of it!
We continued on our drive without much to report. Hills, trucks, olive trees, gas stations, and the occasional castle on a hill - how ordinary! :) We had a slight time crunch as we needed to pick up the keys to our rental apartment at 5:30, drop off our stuff at our apartment, and then get the car back to the airport for a 7 pm drop-off. It sounds manageable in theory, but we were dealing with tiny one-way roads, lots of car and pedestrian traffic, and absolutely no knowledge of Madrid. But - we did it! The staff at Friendly Rentals were fantastic and very quick and thorough. We found our apartment quickly and easily, and before we knew it we were safely ensconced in our bright and spacious two bed/two bath apartment. Hurray!
We decided to take a break from Spanish cuisine and ate at a Thai place very close to our apartment. Any remnant of the head cold from yesterday was destroyed by the baby chili peppers we ate tonight. Our eyeballs were sweating! The food was really good, but the service left something to be desired. In any case, I think it helped kick my cold a little closer to the curb.
We are going to attempt to get to bed at a reasonable time tonight and perhaps even eat breakfast before noon tomorrow. We have been living in a strange time warp, especially in Seville. Some restaurants didn't even open until after 9 pm, and it wasn't unusual for us to be eating dinner at 10 pm. That obviously pushes everything later, including wake-up times. We only have a few days left and we'd like to make the most of them. We will see if we feel the same when the alarm goes off tomorrow… ;)
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