Today was our full sightseeing day with Joel before he starts his conference. We booked guided tours of the Alcázar and Cathedral the day before, so our plans were pretty set. We all fell asleep pretty quickly last night, but Caroline woke us all up around 1 am when her biological clock kicked in. She was starving, obviously, as she missed dinner and had eaten next to nothing since arriving in Spain. Luckily we had a banana in hand, so she was pretty satisfied with that, however she was wide awake singing and chatting away. It was pretty frustrating since Joel and i were actually asleep. Eventually she talked enough and woke me up, and then fell sleep around 2:30. Lucky for me, i was awake until 3:30. Yay!
I woke up around 9:30, completely exhausted, but thought breakfast ended at 10, so was a little panicked. I woke up Joel who went down to investigate whether or not he could just grab food and leave, but it was a sit down buffet. At least luck was on our side because it went until 10:30. We decided to let the kids sleep until 10:10, then rushed downstairs. The spread was great. Many stations and varieties of foods, beyond what we’ve ever had in Europe, most notably because there were actually hot breakfast foods like scrambled eggs and and sausage. They had probably 10 types of pastries and fruits each. The kids were happy.
After breakfast we headed off to the Alcázar, in the rain. It rained nearly the entire day, never more than a healthy sprinkle, but enough to leave huge puddles on the sidewalk, and leave us soaked and miserable. We waited outside the alcazar for about 20 minutes, then realized we had somehow separated from our guide, as our audio cut out, and our guide was our ticket in. We were definitely panicked as we pushed our way to the front, pointed to our green dot stickers and said, “they’re in there!” Anyway, we got in fairly quickly and only missed a few minutes of the tour.
Bennett actually enjoyed listening to the guide. Caroline didn’t get an earpiece since she wasn’t of admission fee age but i doubt she would’ve been as interested.
Caroline decided she wasn’t going to wear her coat, despite the cold, windy, rainy conditions:
In the room where Games of Thrones was filmed. No idea what else was said about the room because Caroline wanted to listen to my earpiece:
Somehow i convinced Caroline to wear her blanket like a cape, so at least she had SOMETHING covering her:
She was actually really well behaved during the tour. I was worried she’d throw a fit and want to leave, but she seemed content with the pace as we made our way through the palace. She just wanted to be held a lot, and listen to the earpiece, but this was a much better alternative to a toddler throwing a fit.
A photo taken by Caroline. By this time she was on to my photo taking agenda, and decided she was going to take photos of me.
A replica of a famous fresco we’d see later in the cathedral:
Taking a photo with mosaics of Queen Isabela and King Ferdinand in the palace party room.
Photo by Caroline:
Finally convinced Bennett to take some photos... usually he just shakes his head and rolls his eyes at me:
Photo by Caroline:
Waiting for the cathedral tour to start. Joel and the kids are taking shelter from the rain:
Crocodile! This is probably the thing Bennett found most interesting.
The chapel of Saint Anthony:
The tomb of Christopher Columbus:
Reliquary with the Holy Thorn:
Climbing the ramps up The Giralda
34 ramps and 17 stairs later, we made it to the top:
Tapas for lunch. Cheeseboard, octopus, and Iberian ham
Calamari with squid ink bread.
Bennett’s face as he tried the octopus. Pretty much describes it all. He spit it out in the end... all mind over matter.
After lunch the weather was clearing so we decided to get lost. A while later we found ourselves as Las Setas. It was something i was planning on doing with the kids, but i was thrilled Joel was able to see it as well. We rode the weird elevator to the top.
It was a super windy experience. The kids didn’t enjoy it. Plus we had the stroller and the majority of the bridge walk was stairs. Oh well, at least we got great views of the city and we did it.
Flashing their bunny fingers:
Photo by Caroline:
After Las Setas we did more city wandering. It had obviously cleared up by this point, and was quite pleasant, besides the giant puddles.
The kids had some popsicles (although i bribes them with gelato before we went on the tours. They definitely earned the gelato, but we never found a place with indoor tables. However we came across a store selling fresh fruit popsicles, so we went with that.) We also did a lot of flamenco dress shopping. We found one that we liked for 20 euro, after more visits, we came across it for 15.50, then eventually bought it from a shop selling it for 12.50. Same with the shoes. 12.50 at the first and second shops, finally found it for 7.50. Such a steal. Definitely the best 20 we’ve spent yet. She put it on immediately when we got to the hotel, and even wore it when we made an attempt to eat at the hotel restaurant. We got quite a few amused glances. Caroline commented that she likes her ladybug outfit.
Joel did some conference activities so we decided to get room service. I’m just not brave enough to do dinner with the kids after a long (nap less) day of sightseeing. Steak and potatoes. I was just happy to order something they could potentially eat, because up to this point, it’s been most bread, some bites of cheese for carline, and fruit. Luckily for me, they both had a few pieces, as well as a ton of bread.
Kinder eggs!
Caroline finally fell asleep after midnight, Bennett a bit before. About a half hour before she fell asleep, she realized she forgot to bring the stuffed lamb she wanted to snuggle with on this trip. Joel and i realized she forgot it back at the MSP airport, but obviously kept it to ourselves. She surprisingly took it very well. “I forgot Lambie at home!! Ooooh... Lambie isn’t here. I forgot her...” Then she asked if she could bring her on our next trip. So yay, crisis adverted. Tomorrow is Joel’s first full conference day, which means a full day of the kids against me. Yikes! I’m not too sure what we are going to do because we have to take a taxi to go anywhere. I think there is a park nearby but i think the conditions could be pretty wet. We’ll see what i come up with tomorrow.
No comments:
Post a Comment