Drive to Seville; fly to Barcelona

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Our plan was to meander to Seville and then fly late tonight to Barcelona, probably arriving around midnight. Mike reviewed the map and plotted a scenic route to the airport. It was a good thing we had been early for breakfast as before we finished the entire hotel staff took off to watch the Holy Week procession on our street. We could not resist joining them and got a kick out of seeing some elderly nuns watching from an upper window.

There was much debate as to how we would attack the day. Do we drive into town? Do we park the car and keep our luggage safe for the day and take public transportation? Do we go to the airport and park at the car return and take a train into town. I suggested we go to airport, check-in our luggage, get our boarding pass, then take a train into town.

Mike reviewed the map and selected a scenic route to Seville that would terminate with a short jog to the airport. We couldn't help but stop and enjoy the view of the countryside. We had hit the wildflowers at their peak, but I will only upload a couple of the pictures...there were many. We also stopped multiple times in quaint little villages to enjoy its particular favor and elements of Holy week.

Ruth and Lynn were always attracted to the herd of goats, so when I saw a herd along the expressway, it made an opportunity to pull off and fill the rental car gas tank. It was fun to sit and watch the sheppard and his dog work the herd. We observed a contraption hanging from the Billy's belly that we can only attribute to some sort of birth control.

Can't remember how it all transpired but we did end up returning the car and going into airport to check-in. We were met by frantic ticket agents for Spanair that were relieved to see us. The last plane for the day was leaving at 2:30pm... in 45 minutes!! They had apparently canceled the late flight, so the 2:30 was going to be the last for the day and they were all heading home. We would have arrived not only to see canceled flight but no airline employees to answer questions. (Another example that this trip has good carma.) Spanair people were quite relieved as they had sent emails, but we had little access to computers, and had not responded.

We got our boarding passes and headed to the the gate, and off to Barcelona in an uneventful flight...best kind. The cab driver took us up along side the La Rambla and pointed to our hotel. Lynn had again made an excellent choice, as we were right in the middle of everything. La Jardin Hotel is very clean with relatively small rooms, which we don't mind as we only use the room to sleep and clean up. But the location is fantastic, with a nice view of an adjacent cathedral and courtyard with various vendors selling their ware.

It was time to track down some beer and wine so we meandered around until we found a quaint public plaza, Placa Reial where there was a lot of street life and multiple sidewalk cafes to choose from. We had had a series of meals where we didn't know what we had ordered, so I said what the heck. We the waiter approached our table, we ordered our beer and wine and I suggested he bring several traditional tapas that would be sure to bring us back to his cafe. That strategy was quite successful as we enjoyed the meal, the conversation and watching the children playing.

We then made our way to the main Cathedral and Placa del Rei to get oriented as they will be our first destinations in the morning. As we approached the cathedral the size of the crowd gave us the hint that we were in for another Holy Week Procession. We enjoyed watching and listening again. When the procession had moved on we made our way to the complex around Placa del Rei. We had heard good things about the Museum Historia. Then made our way back through the maze of back alleys over to walk some of the La Rambla and a spot for the last of our tapas for the day. Mike and I were up for a little more beer than our typical cana (haven't figured out how to put the ~ above the "n" in cana).

Our walk back to the hotel was detained a little by, you guessed it, another Holy Week procession. We got to our room, opened the window widely, and settled into our beds. We were glad we were settling in bed rather than trying to make our way to the hotel in the dark and hassling with the processions. We were glad for the flight change.

What a view out our window...doesn't get much better than this.

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