Spain Day 8

Today we left Granada for Seville. We started off with breakfast. Caroline ate her favorite, chocolate spread with a spoon. 

We had quite the snafu getting to the train station. Currently people leave Granada on a bus, whether or not they’re traveling by bus or train. The taxi driver, who it was clear didn’t care about anything, barely paid attention to what we were saying and just said, “Si, autobus.” She dropped us off at the bus station, and we just knew it was wrong. Asking someone inside, our fears were confirmed. We were at the bus station but needed to be at the train station. We hopped on a taxi. By this point it was about 11:07. Our bus was scheduled to leave at 11:24. The lady in the train station said it’d take about 15 minutes to get there, so we were anxious. Our next driver was an old guy. Joel told him our bus was scheduled to leave at 11:24, and he gunned it. On top of that, he used Google translate to talk to us, telling us he always asks people if they are going to take the train via bus, or bus the whole way. It was just so sweet the way to was using technology to talk to us, updating is the entire way. “If I gonhey way, 5 minutes. This way, 3 minutes.” Anyway, he got us there not even 10 minutes later. Bus victory photo:


The bus and train ride were about the same. Bennett was lost in video games and Caroline was temperamental. On top of that, somehow the videos on her Kindle were wiped, and we cannot download more because were in Europe. BOO! Luckily I am somewhat smart and downloaded some videos on to my phone, just in case of emergencies, so she had something to watch. On the train, she started crying and luckily a scary conductor lady came by and told her, “no crying. Smile. No more crying,” it worked kind a charm. Then, like usual, about 10 minutes before we arrived st our stop, she fell asleep. Couldn’t fall asleep during the 1.25 hr bus ride, or 1.5 hour train ride. Just the last 10 minutes. We nearly got off at the wrong stop while in the train. Luckily there was so super slow lady in front of us, who couldn’t get her bag off quickly enough. Her friend was standing on the platform waiting for her, and she tried to open the door, but it opened halfway and the door shut again so the train could leave. I was sooooo thankful Bennett stayed on the train. I had him walk around the lady, so he was standing near the train door, but stayed on the train to wait for us. I was so grateful he didn’t get off and wait for us on the platform because the doors surely would’ve closed, separating us. I honestly don’t know what I would’ve done had that happened. 

We made it to our hotel, which is super cute. Then decided to walk to the fair, because the guy checking us in said it can get a little crazy at night with all the people drinking. Just driving from the train station to the hotel, we could see the town was so different. There were women in fancy flamenco dresses everywhere and decorated horse carriages on the road. There was definitely a festive feel in the air. The fair was about 30 kinutesfrom our hotel. The closer we got, the more dressed up people we saw. Even the men looked dapper in tailored suits. 

The gate to the fair:




We walked around the Casetas, and sat in one of the public ones to enjoy a beer and people watch. It is clear this fair would be an awesome place to drink with friends. Unfortunately we just had each other and two bored kids, so it wasn’t as fun. Plus there were just SO many people, horse carriages and horse poop everywhere. It made it hard to get around with the stroller. There was also a part of the fair that had rides. Joel bought tickets for the kids to go in one, but Caroline was scared so Bennett had to go twice. He said he was super dizzy after. Later, Caroline wanted to go on a carousel.










We wandered out of the fair, which had filled up even more from the time we got there.












We stopped to get kids gelato on the walk to find dinner.


We ended up near the cathedral and alcazar, and saw a church we hadn’t seen the rainy day we were touring the town.




We found a restaurant near the Salvador church. It was okay... yesterday’s lunch and dinner were pretty amazing so it just didn’t compare. However I did order a grilled mixed fish plate and the grilled baby squid were fantastic. I wish I would’ve ordered an order of that instead of the mixed grill.










Photos of our suite, the hotel only has suites. The boys are sleeping on the pullout in the living room and is girls have the bed. It is a nice place and a great location. 

Since Joel has finished his conference we’ve been averaging 15k steps each day, and hit 17k steps today which is pretty good considering we spent so much time getting from Granada to Sevilla. When Joel was attending his conference I only walked 10k steps. Tomorrow we possibly daytrip it to Cordoba, although I’m pretty hesitant because of how awful Caroline has been on trains. We don’t have much to see in Sevilla though, so I’m sure we’ll head there.