Seville, Spain - Day 5

Monday, March 4, 2024

Today was our last day in Seville, Spain. I speak for all four of us when I say that we’ve very much enjoyed our visit to this city. It’s funny how one memorable accommodation, a few days in pleasant weather, or the upbeat atmosphere of a place can totally change our travel experience. After Andi was so sick this past month, we needed a reset, and Seville gave that to us.

Something I wanted to do before we left Seville was tour the inside of the cathedral. You have to buy tickets to enter inside the church, either online or in person. Andi and I picked to visit the cathedral today, on a Monday, hoping the lines would be shorter than on the weekends. Our entry time was scheduled at 12:20pm.

Andi made us all one last breakfast in our airbnb apartment using what was left of our groceries. For me, he made hard boiled eggs with spinach and toast. Aden and Tory had cereal and fruit. Andi ate leftover chicken noodle soup.

It was raining and about 55°F this morning, so we all bundled up in our puffer jackets and wore our raincoats on top of them. We always travel with rain coats, just in case, but sadly we’ve worn them more than I would have liked on this winter trip.

“Why don’t people in the United States use umbrellas?” Tory asked as we walked through the narrow, cobblestone streets of Seville to get to the cathedral. “Because we drive in our cars,” I answered. I don’t even own an umbrella at home. If it was raining outside, I think I’d throw up my hood and bee-line from my car to inside the building of wherever I was going. It would be a whole different experience living in a place where walking is the mode of transportation, even on inclement weather days.

There’s a separate cueing line at the cathedral for people who purchased online tickets. Fortunately for us, it wasn’t very long and seemed to move quickly. We waited in line for about 15 minutes before entering inside the Cathedral of Seville.

Admittedly, touring the inside of the cathedral was not high on Tory and Aden’s list of places to see in Seville. Perhaps it wasn’t at the top of Andi’s list either, but I really wanted to see it. The Cathedral of Seville is the 3rd largest cathedral in the world and holds the title of the largest gothic-style cathedral. It was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1987. I love history, and found it fascinating that the cathedral was built on top of where the great Almohad mosque once stood.

Entrance into the cathedral was a bit chaotic as groups of school children filed into the building, as well as other visitors all shaking off their umbrellas and rain coats. Andi paid for the audio tour as part of our tickets, so we walked to a desk inside to collect our headsets. From there, we followed the herd of people into the Giralda Tower.

The Giralda Tower is the bell tower of the cathedral. It was originally the minaret of the Islamic mosque during Seville’s Moorish era in the 7th-11th centuries. A long, wide ramp leads 35 floors to the top of the bell tower, originally designed so that the muezzin (the person who calls the Islamic prayers five-times-daily) could get to the top of the tower on horseback. When the Christians defeated the Moors in the 12th century, they kept the tower and incorporated it into the building of the cathedral. The Giralda Tower remains a symbol of Seville standing at 331 feet tall (taller than the Leaning Tower of Pisa and Big Ben in London).

We followed in a single-file line of people to reach the top of the tower. It was a humid and congested climb without much chance to stop and rest, or to look out the windows along the way. The line of people continued to move, and we were forced to move along with it. At the top of the bell tower, it wasn’t much better. People stood shoulder-to-shoulder making their way around the perimeter. The four of us waited our turn to step into an opening by a window to see a bird’s eye view of the city and take some pictures. It was a beautiful view, but I didn’t love all the people. Andi and I gave each other a non-verbal shrug. “Kinda got to do the thing, right?” he said. I agreed.

The four of us made our way down the ramp and into the main cathedral. Andi and Tory were having trouble getting their audio headsets to work, so we sat on a bench inside one of the chapels to fix the settings. Each of the many chapels in the wings of the cathedral are filled with christian paintings and statues.

Tory figured out how to search for content using a numbered system on placards around the cathedral, so the four of us spent the next hour or so wandering through the various rooms and chapels listening to the audio recordings. I tasked Tory and Aden to each learn and report three facts about the cathedral, but the audio tour hadn’t been very informative. Both of the kids really tried though, and I was proud of their engagement. In the end, we found it more enjoyable to simply look around the cathedral at all the artwork in the forms of paintings, woodcarvings, and sculptures.

Christopher Columbus’ tomb is located inside the Cathedral of Seville. The explorer and discoverer of the Americas was born in Italy, but lived as an adult in Seville. It was the Spanish monarchy who funded his expedition to find a trade route to the Indies, in which he discovered the North American continent by accident.

Today, a monument which includes Columbus’ tomb is displayed inside the cathedral. Four figures representing the kingdoms of Spain at the time hold up each side of the casket. In moments like this, I’m awestruck by how fortunate we are to homeschool while traveling. It’s one thing to learn about Christopher Columbus and the Age of Discovery in a lesson book, but it takes the kids’ learning to an entirely different level when we can experience world history in the flesh.

Our tour concluded in the Patio de los Naranjos (orange tree courtyard). The rain stopped, and we were able to admire the exterior architecture of the building. The details are simply breathtaking to admire. Two of the exterior walls of the enclosed courtyard are part of the original mosque that stood in this place during the time of the Moors. We knew this by the “three steps to heaven” lining the top of the wall as we also saw during our visit to Morocco. The absolution fountain in the center of the courtyard is from the Visigoth period, before the Moors or the Christian eras. It’s interesting that various rulers through time kept pieces of this religious space, like the fountain or the Giralda Tower, and incorporated them into their own church designs.

After touring the cathedral, Andi, Tory, Aden, and I walked in the direction of our airbnb looking for a place to have lunch. Andi suggested stopping at one of the many tapas restaurant we passed by. The four of us were seated at a table inside Pelayo Bar & enjoyed several small plates of grilled chicken with pesto, skillet shrimp, Iberian pork tenderloin, a cheeseburger, and fried cuttlefish. We liked everything, but the cuttlefish… and definitely shouldn’t have Googled a picture of the fish after we ate it.

When we got back to our airbnb, we realized we’d been locked out of the apartment. Originally, we’d planned to check out today but decided to stay one more night because the four of us were enjoying this city so much. The keypad on the door must’ve automatically reset, so we had no way to enter the building. While Andi waited to hear back from the airbnb host, we walked to the nearby plaza to sit and wait on a park bench. Andi worried we wouldn’t hear back from our host for a few hours given that it was afternoon siesta time, but fortunately we only had to wait about 20 minutes.

Once we got into our airbnb, the kids and I did math and language arts together, and reviewed what we learned about the Cathedral of Seville. I was impressed by how much knowledge Tory and Aden gained about the city of Seville this week and its famous landmarks.

It occurred to me how well adjusted Tory and Aden have become to doing school work in the afternoons. When we’re at home in Wisconsin, we typically do school in the mornings because that’s when the kids are freshest, but while traveling we tend to adventure during the morning and early afternoons, and do schoolwork in the late afternoon/evenings. This was hard for the kids at first, but now they’re excelling in our new routine. Like everything in life, it takes a little while to get into a new groove.

After school, Tory thought it was the right time to give her presentation to Andi about why she and Aden deserve the drink package on our upcoming cruise. Last year, we took a cruise in South America and opted not to purchase the $170 drink package, instead paying for each individual drink we consumed. This upset Tory and Aden because they were obligated to drink water during the cruise when they wanted soda or juice. For this cruise, Andi said the kids needed to present to him their reasoning as to why they deserve the expenditure. (I’m the push-over parent; I would have just given it to them!)

Tory has been sitting on her presentation for weeks, waiting for the right time to show Andi. Apparently, today was the day. She and Aden presented to Andi in Powerpoint the reasons they deserve the drink package. She outlined their good behavior, what they’ll receive by getting it, and suggested different payment options including splitting the cost with us, or working off the cost of the package by doing chores.

Andi said he was impressed by the amount of thought she’d put into the presentation, and gave Tory tips on how she could refine future presentations. They discussed the $17/day price (per person), and why it may be more cost-effective to pay for drinks individually. I mean, how many sodas will each of them truly drink in one day?

Andi asked whether the presentation was written by Tory, or both Tory and Aden, which prompted an argument between the kids. Tory wrote the majority of the presentation with a little input from Aden, but Aden became defensive when Tory referred to her own opinions instead of speaking on behalf of both of them.

In the end, Andi asked the kids to do a cost-benefit analysis on whether it’s worth paying $17/day each, or if it’d be more economical to purchase sodas as desired. The kids are going to talk about it, and get back to him before the cruise begins at the end of the month.

None of us felt like going out for dinner, so Andi and Tory walked to a couple restaurants near our airbnb to grab food to-go. They returned 20 minutes later with two poke bowls for Andi and I, and McDonalds for the kids. I can’t imagine living in a place like Seville where you have so many food options available outside your door. I’d never want to cook!

Tory is obsessed with the gelato shop across the street from our airbnb, and convinced Andi to take her there after dinner. “You don’t really need ice cream at 9:00pm at night, do you?” he asked her as he climbed into bed. “Yes I do,” Tory exclaimed, “you promised!” Andi conceded, and walked across the street with Tory to pick out her treat.

Tomorrow we say good-bye to the city of Seville, and journey to an area known as the “Pueblos Blancos” — a series of whitewashed towns and villages in southern Spain. Looking forward to it.