The Events of Tuesday, April 12, 2011

                On this lovely Spanish morning, the Taylor family woke up in two individual and very distant, but otherwise nice hotel rooms. Disjointedly, we packed up our separate hotel rooms and reunited before jointly lugging all our luggage down four flights of stairs, down into the hotel’s parking garage, and into our car. Once we were all packed up and ready to go, we drove out of the city of Castilleja de la Cuesta to IKEA for our first adventure of the day: breakfast. Yes, surprisingly, in Europe, even breakfast becomes an adventure.

                After Gypsy (our GPS) safely and efficiently led us to IKEA, quite unlike in our recent shopping excursions, we parked in a spacious, nearly empty garage and followed the Spanish signs into IKEA, a Swedish store with outlets all over the globe. IKEA sells everything from beds and bureaus to scissors and silverware. As we rode the escalator together as a family into the store, Abby and I exclaimed joyfully at the familiar smells of fresh paint and new wood that we instinctively link with IKEA. Yesterday, Mom had the ingenious idea of eating breakfast here because of our fond memories of their frosting-drenched cinnamon rolls, Swedish meatballs, and linden berry juice (we weren’t planning to have the latter two for breakfast). After finding the cafeteria and restaurant easily enough, we surveyed what was known as their restaurant, but it looked like a buffet-style cafeteria. After holding up the line for what seemed like forever, we finally made it through the cash register to the tables with six trays of breakfast.

                As we ate, Mom remarked that for a country that doesn’t “do” breakfast, they sure had a lot of breakfast fare. How strange it was that the IKEA food selection in California was limited to cinnamon rolls, Swedish meatballs, and linden berry juice, and nothing special for breakfast. On the other hand, here in Spain, on the other hand, breakfast is not a large affair, but a light snack of chocolate con churros. However, our Spanish IKEA breakfast consisted of several of the following for each family member: gofre (dense waffles drenched in thin chocolate syrup and whipped cream), croissants with peach or strawberry jam and melted butter, and small cinnamon rolls (without the frosting). Ben and I thoroughly enjoyed the gofre, especially after seeing them sold in street stands everywhere we went in Spain. Longing for something a bit more familiar, Mom gratefully munched bacon, while Daddy tried a walnut spice coffee cake and yogurt with berries and granola. As for beverages, we all drank water, but, in addition, Mom sipped mango juice and Abby found fresh-squeezed orange juice. Also, Mom and I enjoyed thick Spanish hot chocolate, Daddy and Lindsey sipped café latte, and Abby finagled a Cola. Yes, for breakfast!

                After such a filling and special breakfast, we cruised through the store and shopped for some substantial plastic ware for our now almost daily picnic lunch. Having successfully found what we were looking for, we wandered through the somewhat familiar-looking fake bedrooms, dining rooms, and kitchens before finding our way to the caja (cashier) and then to the salida (exit). Somewhat turned around, we got lost trying to find our parking spot in the vast free parking garage. Eventually, however, we found our way out, to the bridge across the Guadal­­­quivir River, to the same parking garage we had parked in yesterday, on Paseo de Cristóbal Colón (that’s Christopher Columbus in Spanish – he’s really big here, for some reason). We ascended to street-level in the same elevator, emerged onto the same street corner, and strode down the same avenue to the very same cathedral we had passed yesterday; however, today, we strolled into said cathedral.

                The first part of the cathedral was actually the free part, the place where people could just walk in and pray or gawk at the wonder of it all, instead of paying the admission fee before doing so. When we’d finished gaping at the partum gratis, we walked around the block to the main entrance. This cathedral takes up a whole whoppin’ block of Seville. It’s the third-largest church in Europe, after the Vatican’s St. Peter’s Basilica and London’s St. Paul’s Cathedral. Furthermore, it’s the largest Gothic church anywhere. It’s even in the Guinness Book of Records for “the cathedral with the largest area…126 meters long, 82 meters wide, and 30 meters high”.

                After viewing chapel after chapel, we stumbled upon Christopher Columbus’ tomb, and then viewed the impressive treasury, main altar, and choir. Next on our tour was the Giralda Tower Climb. We ascended 330 feet up, on 34 spiraling ramps, not stairs, because it was designed to accommodate riders on horseback, who galloped up five times a day to give the Muslim call to prayer when the cathedral had been a mosque. When we reached the top, we enjoyed a grand city view from all four sides of the top of the bell tower. Mom especially enjoyed seeing how Sevillians so wisely utilize their rooftops, with restaurants, pools, laundry drying, and even outdoor living rooms.

                When we’d descended the tower’s ramps down into the cathedral, we wandered through the shady patio of orange trees before crossing the street to admire the tower from the outside. It’s called “giralda” because of the 4,500 pound bronze statue symbolizing the Triumph of Faith that caps it and turns like a weathervane (for which the Spanish word is giralda).

                Having completed our tour of Seville’s cathedral, we walked back the exact same way as before, and said goodbye to Sevilla. Not far from the city, however, we paused for a shopping excursion at Carrefour before driving on to Portugal. We stopped for lunch while still in Spain, and sat on a large patch of grass in the middle of a rest stop. It was a delicious lunch of baguettes, ham, cheese, red peppers, fuji apples, peanuts, and Magdalenas for dessert. Magdalenas are like white cake in the form of cupcakes, with sugar on top – very sweet.

                Back into the car, we soon drove into Portugal and began to notice some beautiful Portuguese country sides and landscapes. We also quickly became aware of some crazy fast Portuguese drivers, who enjoyed passing us up like they were practicing for Nascar.

                Next, we paused at an awesome rest stop with a colorful playground and a wall mosaic with a head-sized hole, through which to stick your face for cute pictures. Next stop was a gas station with swallows’ nests in the eaves and lots of swallows. The car next to us at the service center was an old-fashioned-looking Jaguar, driven by a little old man who wore leather driving gloves and drove like he was twenty years old. It was quite humorous.

                After crossing a bridge that looked very much like the Golden Gate Bridge (it was built by the same company) we arrived in Lisbon. There we met up with landlord Luis, who spoke pretty good English, with an endearing British accent. The apartment he showed us was on the ground floor of a twelve-story building (what a blessing!). It was large, spacious, modern, clean and just generally wonderful. We unloaded our luggage from the car in a jiffy, and moved in with joyful spirits. Due to the late hour, we decided not to cook dinner, but to have sandwiches instead. After a quick, but yummy meal, we made up the beds. Ben got his own bed in his own room. We three girls shared a large, nicely decorated room. Abby enjoyed the top bed of the bunk bed, while Lindsey willingly chose the bottom bunk. I got the roll-away bed. Since there were two roll-away beds, and I would only need one, we borrowed the mattress from the extra roll-away bed, so that I had a double mattress. This made for a delightful sleep, though Mom said I reminded her of the Princess and the Pea. Our poor parents’ bed in the next room, however, creaked a cacophony with every turn.