Seville, Spain - Day 1
Thursday, February 29, 2024
Today was our last morning in Lagos, Portugal at our airbnb apartment about 10 minutes from the city’s Old Town. Andi and I spent the first hours of the morning packing our bags, and tidying our rented apartment in preparation for departure. I woke Tory and Aden up for the day around 8:30am, and the four of us were on the road by 9:15am.
Yesterday, Andi and I made the last-minute decision to change our travel plans and drive from Portugal to Spain, crossing the border by car. Our original plan had been to start heading north through Portugal’s Planície Dourada (Golden Plains) region; the agricultural heartland of the country known for its olive groves, cork forests, and vineyards. We’ll still probably go there, actually, as we make our way back to Lisbon to return our rental car in mid-March. For now, we’re hoping a detour to southern Spain will give Portugal a chance to warm up a bit in temperature.
Changing our plans on the fly wasn’t a problem because we didn’t have anything booked. Andi was able to find an apartment for us to rent in Seville for the next few days, and we simply paid an additional €42 on our rental car to be able to leave the country with it.
Our drive from Lagos to Seville today was 2 hours and 45 minutes. We stopped in the town of Tavira, Portugal on the way, about 15 miles from the Spanish border, for a driving break. Tavira is an authentic, small-sized Portuguese city in the eastern part of the Algarve. The four of us walked along the cobblestone streets to the charming town square and Roman bridge built in the 18th century. There were a few tourists around, but Tavira is very much a regular Portuguese town where people live, work, go to school, and play. Fishing is big industry here given the city’s proximity to the Atlantic Ocean and the slow-moving Gilao River.
Admittedly, Andi and I were in a bit of a funk this morning. I could tell he wasn’t feeling well, and I’m tired of being cold. The air was windy and cool today with overcast skies. I just want it to be warmer here.
We considered touring the Tavira Castle (every town in Portugal seems to have one), but decided to skip it. Andi said he needed something to eat, so we went to Padaria Vila Doce, one of the few cafes in town open at 11:30am. Andi ordered a bowl of bean soup, a pastel de nata, and an espresso for himself. I ordered a pastel de nata as well, though I’ve since learned they aren’t worth eating unless they’re fresh and warm. Tory and Aden each picked a dessert in the shape of an animal. I’m not sure what these were exactly, but there were dozens of adorably-decorated painted dough animals in the bakery case. Their treats tasted like sugar cookie dough.
I wanted to mail a few postcards that the kids wrote to their friends before we left Portugal, so we searched downtown Tavira for a post office. We finally located it, and I asked the front desk worker which colored box outside the building was for international mail. She directed me to the blue one, and Tory and Aden dropped their postcards in the box.
As we were walking away, Aden asked, “Did you put the addresses on those, Mom?” Ugh, I could have kicked myself! I addressed Tory’s cards after she wrote them, but I totally forgot to add mailing addresses to Aden’s postcards. There was no way to get them back now. I had been so proud of myself, too, for buying postcards, getting Tory and Aden to write them, tracking down Portuguese international postage stamps, and finally getting the cards in the mail. Those postcards are going nowhere fast without mailing addresses.
Back in our rental car, we crossed from Portugal to Spain with ease. Truly, crossing the international border between these two countries felt like driving to another state in the USA. Since Spain and Portugal (+ 25 other European countries) are considered Schengen countries, travelers can freely cross between their borders without showing passport identification. I didn’t quite believe it would be that easy to travel between countries by car until we experienced it ourselves, but it was so simple.
The remainder of our drive to Seville went smoothly. With the one-hour time change, we arrived to the city around 2pm. Andi and I were a bit nervous about driving our rental car in El Centro, the heart of the city. Driving is limited, thanks to its narrow, one-way roads. The airbnb host kindly booked us a long-term parking space in a nearby garage, and sent Andi a YouTube video to watch and a map with detailed directions how to find it. Given the level of detail provided, we could tell driving in the city would be challenging to do. In the end, it wasn’t too hard with Andi driving and me navigating. We parked our car in the lot and made our way up to street level. It was a 10-minute walk with our bags to our rental apartment in the city centre. Thank goodness we aren’t traveling with a lot of stuff!
Our airbnb rental apartment in Seville is located right in the action of the city. I love standing on the balcony and watching city life go by. This place is a two-bedroom, one-bathroom apartment with a full kitchen, living room area, and a washing machine. I figured the city noisy would be loud inside the apartment, but it’s surprisingly quiet in the bedrooms which is nice.
We’d hardly eaten much today, so the four of us left our apartment on foot to find a restaurant for lunch. Southern Spain takes afternoon siesta time very seriously as it is quite hot here for much of the year, so we discovered there aren’t many restaurants serving food at 3:30pm. Quite a few people were sitting on patios smoking and drinking baby-sized beers, but nobody was eating. It’s typical of stores and restaurants in Seville to have a morning session and an evening session of business hours with a long break in between the two.
Eventually, we stumbled on a restaurant called Bacalao which was serving food until 4:00pm. We had about 15 minutes to order something before the kitchen closed. Andi and I ordered a few things from the menu to share — a cheese plate, fried cod croquettes, meatballs, and an Iberian beef sirloin. The waiter also served bread to each person at the table. We all found something to eat, though Tory and Aden struggled more than Andi and I. The meatballs and fries were very saucy and the beef, served medium-rare, was chewy.
Speaking of the small-sized beers, I was interested to learn that drinking beer in Spain is all about the size of the beer, and less about the brand of the beverage. Everywhere I looked this afternoon, people were sitting outside restaurants drinking the same colored beer in tiny glasses. Spaniards drink tap beer in small-sized glasses because it helps their drink stay colder. The most common size is called caña which is a little smaller than a half-pint glass. There’s bigger sizes also, though locals rarely ask for a bottle of beer itself. I also learned that each region of the country has its own local tap beer, and that’s what everyone drinks. When ordering a tap beer in Seville, you’ll get a brand called Cruzcampo.
Andi hadn’t felt well all day, and this meal didn’t help his stomach cramping. We stopped at the grocery store on our walk back to the apartment, and then he wanted to go lay down for a while. Surprisingly, there was a pretty big Aldi not far from the restaurant where we had lunch. The Aldi had two levels of groceries inside the store. We purchased our usual airbnb basics (yogurt, bread, Nutella, deli meat, cheese, jello, gnocchi, pasta sauce, fruit, wine, and some fresh veggies like spinach, mushrooms, a cucumber, and carrots.
Back at the airbnb, Andi laid down for a while and Tory, Aden, and I did school. None of us felt like pulling out school work after a busy day of travel, but my goal is to do Math and Language Arts with them at least three times a week. It went pretty well actually. They got their assignments done quickly.
Around 6:30pm, Andi invited Aden to walk with him to find a copy store. One of Aden’s friends back home in Wisconsin asked our family to participate in his class assignment. Aden’s friend, Will, recently read the book Flat Stanley in school, and his classmates made “flat” versions of themselves to go on adventures. Will asked us to take a few pictures of “Flat Will” in Spain, but first we had to get his drawing printed and laminated. About 30 minutes later, Andi and Aden returned with Flat Will in hand.
By now, we were all tired and none of us felt like going out to dinner. Even though I vowed not to order take-out from Uber Eats for a while, we decided to have something delivered for dinner. Andi picked a bowl place for he and I, and the kids got McDonalds. The meals tasted sub-bar, but what do you expect when the delivery guy shows up on a bicycle? At least it’s convenient.
Tomorrow morning, Andi booked us a city walking tour in El Centro so we can get a lay of the land. I’m excited to see more of Seville tomorrow! It looks like an amazing city.
