wonders like a croissant breakfast in front of cartoons,
and wonders like finding this beautiful public art installation in a park square.
it's a wood lattice elevated into the sky on columns, looks like mushrooms, and brought beauty to a old and deteriorated market square. under the parasol was a thriving children's chess tournament, and atop the parasol were views for days and days.
we went to the top, and ramona took this beautiful elevator, and james absolutely refused the elevator (consistent with his opinions on this trip thus far) so he and i walked up the fire escape stairs.
and up on top, where they sell smoothies and espresso drinks, and the views go on forever.
down below was my favorite part of the whole thing....it was the roman ruins found in the excavation to build the structure. i won't get this right, so i'm not even going to try very hard, but the history of sevilla is long, and started with the founding of the city in the 8th century BC by the phoenecians, and then a series of take-overs including the visigoths, the vandals, the romans, the arabs, and all kindd of kinds. christianity arrived in the 13th century, and riches from colonialism arrived in the 16th century. sevilla has been home to plague illness, vast tobacco wealth, and was the launching point of the spanish inquisition (ugh...shivers....). so there's a lot there, but the ruins they found and preserved were roman.
after all the climbing and learning, we took a walk through the twisty streets of sevilla, where we happened past the "american store" full of stuff that prompted the kids to say...huh? we don't eat that at home....
finally we got back to a place we affectionately referred to as restaurant street. it was full of restaurants with outdoor seating, and full of people all the time. we figured an early lunch (read: 1 pm) would get us a table, and it did. ramona had her eye on a restaurant full of bull heads with placards listing the date and details of the bullfight that killed the bull. it was a charming little place.
with our bellies full, we wandered about the squares near the real alcazar, marveling and the beauty of it all, and awaiting our ticketed entrance time to the tour of the real alcazar.
inside the alcazar, it was gorgeous gorgeous gorgeous.
a christian structure, built to be a royal palace, in mudejar style on the original structure of a mosque, and all the bits of history are evident. we toured the upstairs portion that claims to be the home of the spanish royal family when they visit sevilla, and it was laaaavish. but we weren't allowed to take pictures inside, so let's hope memory survives.
we came upon a couple taking pictures on their wedding day...what a beautiful backdrop they found.
after some time in the real alcazar, we wandered through a park, past the sevilla university, and to the plaza de espana. it's pretty, but the kids were kinda a hot mess by that part of the day. we skipped the boat ride.
back at the apartment for some rest time, and this tired girl couldn't even make it over the threshold before collapsing from exhaustion.
after resting, we headed out for a dinner nearby...
complete with ham...
and cheese.
then it was bathtime/pose on the spiral staircase time/bedtime.
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