Ken and Kristy’s Spain and Swiss Escapades: Day 1- Sevilla and Carmona

Yes, the Lawrances are on another adventure in Europe. We decided to do some exploring in Spain, Switzerland and southwestern Germany before we return to the US. We don't have internet access everywhere, so we're keeping a Word document with each day and will post as we can. (Hence multiple entries today.)

Our flat was packed up Friday morning and we got up at 3:00 Saturday morning to be on a plane by 5:30. Luckily, we both were able to sleep almost the whole flight to Spain. We arrived in Sevilla around 11:15 and picked up our rental car. Ken was happy to get a Mercedes B-class instead of the Opel that was reserved.

We spent the early afternoon walking around downtown Sevilla. There were a number of old buildings built with a Europe meets Arabia flavor. My favorite was the Plaza de España. It was decorated with the beautiful colored tile artwork. Around the rest of the city, the tile art was mostly blue and white, but here it was multi-colored. Another special feature of this city are the orange-tree lined streets. All were in full fruit, and they were everywhere!

We headed out of town mid-afternoon. On the way, we were listening to Spanish radio. Both of us took Spanish in high school and college, so we could make out some words. However, in the US, they teach Latin American Spanish. The biggest difference is the soft “c” sound or c pronounced “ssss”. Spaniards pronounce this with a “th” sound. The word for five, “cinco”, is pronounced here as “thinko”.

We then went to Carmona, a town outside of Sevilla. This place has not been polluted by the western world. There are absolutely no chain restaurants or stores. We stayed at the first of 3 paradores on our trip. These are hotels built in old monasteries, castles, or palaces. This one is in a castle on the edge of a cliff. The town is tightly packed from the castle down to the farmland below. Almost all of the streets are one-way and very tight.

I’m typing this around 8:15. We are impatiently waiting for dinner. One piece of Spanish culture that we will struggle with is the late dinner hour. The earliest any restaurant opens is 8:30. We tried to walk around from 6 until dinner but ran out of steam. We’re eating in the hotel restaurant tonight- if we can stay awake.

(15 minutes later…) We struck out. As is expected, hotel dinners are expensive and here nearly all were fish. The restaurant was also pretty fancy. We gave up. Luckily Ken checked the room service menu. They had ham and cheese sandwiches. We were so excited. I’ve never been so happy to eat ham and cheese.

Kristy