May 26, 2025
Travel day! We head to Seville today and are excited to finally stay somewhere for a week again. Not to mention we know we like Seville, it is super walk-able if you can stand the heat, from our honeymoon. But before we get to enjoy it we have a day of travel logistics to deal with. The drive from Tarifa to Seville is about 2.5 hours and the car service wanted to charge us the same renting a car and parking it would be for the whole week so we went with the rental. I had to take a cab 30 minutes this morning to get to Algeciras where all the nearest major rental companies are.
I snuck out before the boys woke up, and got to the Enterprise pickup easily. It was a nice drive along the coast and the driver only spoke Spanish so it was quiet. I made sure I booked a slightly larger car this time and that it was an automatic. When I arrived they seemed to be scrambling a bit and they soon told me they didn’t any cars in the class I booked so gave me some fancy M class BMW SUV. This was a little exciting but comes with more nerves about anything happening to this fancy car that I don’t even know how to use most of the features on. At least they drive on the same side as the US here.
Kayleen dealt with the boys in the morning. Shepherding them through breakfast, a bubble bath in the balcony tub, and packing up the room. Ollie started the day by waking and immediately asking her “can you get an eye ring?” She told him no but people get eyeBROW rings and tongue rings. “TONGUE RINGS?!??!? That is crazy!” Hopefully this is not going to be his next obsession.
I made it back with the car just before 11AM and had a Hoboken flash back spending 20 minutes to find a parking spot. Even harder with the signs in Spanish! Eventually I found a 2 hour spot, which was all we needed. Kayleen had most everything packed so I just threw my stuff together quick and we started to bring it all to the car. Packing for the car is much more pleasant then the airport squeeze packing job. Though I went too casual this time and Lenny found one shoe a dropped on my way to the car with Ollie. Kayleen and Lenny followed behind as they were waiting for a batch of popcorn to finish in the hotels big popcorn machine. Notice Lenny’s other hand!
We hit the road and the boys were excited about our “fancy” car, but I think they mainly liked the color and the fact there was a “boost” button that I have no idea how to use. We stopped shortly after we left the town center to get lunch at a small beachfront restaurant. The boys ran on the beach on in their new Morocco national team soccer kits. The beach had a kitesurfing school which the boys reminded us they wished they could try.
The drive to Seville was an easy one except for the boys being terrible in the backseat. We missed the large van we had with Abdul where they could be kept in their own row of seats. They kept poking at each other, fighting over the air vents and who got to lay down. Add in that Ollie was asking to start Harry Potter every 5 minutes while Lenny yelled he hated Harry Potter. Then the multiple requests for bathroom breaks. We were ready to be out of the car!
Once we reached Seville we could feel the heat outside even with the car air conditioning on. The highs each day are in the high 90s to low 100s and those temps don’t come until 5 to 6PM. The AirBnb management warned us that it was not a good idea to try to drive to the apartment so using Google Maps might get us into trouble. They suggested we follow a multiple page PDF with pictures to find our way to the parking garage. The streets in the main part of the city are very narrow one way roads with people walking on them. I’m not even sure you can drive on all of them. Kayleen seamlessly navigated us to a tiny parking garage entrance much to my relief. Our spot was FIVE levels underground but we eventually found it.
We dragged all our stuff on the 10 minute walk to find our apartment. The cobblestone roads and sidewalks really make the suitcases on wheels a challenge. We eventually made it and were happy to be in the AC for a bit. The apartment is great for us. The boys are on the pull out couch in the living room and there is one separate bedroom. All the windows are doors that lead to a little wrap around balcony overlooking the busy streets below.
There is a rooftop that we can access via the elevator but it requires a special key inside the elevator. Of course the boys love this…. The roof has a little pool and some old chairs, nothing fancy but good to cool off with the boys. From the pool the La Giralda bell tower is right in the background.
We did a family food shopping trip by walking a few blocks. The narrow streets provide some nice shade and a lot of restaurants have misters on their awnings that the boys wanted to be lifted into to get sprayed. After our shopping adventure we went back to have dinner at our apartment. The boys enjoyed their long asked for tiny star pasta with pesto. Ollie, randomly thinking of a Hamilton song lyric, asked Kayleen “what is a pot to piss in?”
We watched the original Lilo & Stitch movie, just in case we end up seeing the new one here during the hot afternoon hours. By then it was 9PM but still fully light out so we went to the gelato shop that is a few steps from our front door and walked around a bit. I’m sure we will be back there many times during our stay. The boys call it “our gelato shop already.” The nights and mornings cool off nicely with no humidity so it feels great to be outside. Then back home and time for a 10PM bedtime.
