Today was a great day filled with lots of new sights, wonderful food, and fun times. After another stop into the café underneath our apartment for hot beverage fortification this morning, we hit the streets. Today was so different than yesterday - there were actually people out and about! Yesterday, we found many areas of the 

chairscity that felt either like a ghost town or a carnival. Today there were people out shopping, eating, and being merry. Apparently the Saturday between Good Friday and Easter Sunday is a normal free-for-all, and the masses were out enjoying the day. We found a great sidewalk restaurant across from… something that we never did figure out what is was. On the map, it is a giant block of nothingness! But there were thousands of chairs set up for something exciting happening tomorrow for Easter, and we thought we would figure it out when we returned to our apartment and Googled it, but we came up blank. People here seem to know where to go and when, but we haven't quite figured it out, even with the internet at our disposal.


Acathedralfter a delicious lunch (shout out to my sister - we had CRAZY buffalo mozzarella on our salad and I thought of you!), we went in the direction of the Seville Cathedral. I'm not going to pretend that I knew much about this cathedral before going there, but I have since learned that it is the third largest in the world and was completed in the 16th century. Umm… slightly impressive! I am massively boggled by the fact that they broke ground in 1401 and completed it in 1528. What the *#^$??! It is huge and very impressive. We didn't go inside because the line-up was ridiculous, but we admired it from the outside. We wandered into a little side-square that felt a place like where military formations probably practiced before quenching their thirst from the many orange trees around the perimeter.


We left the cathedral, with Plaza de España as our next destination. This part of the city is very different from the other areas we have explored. The buildings are larger and grander, and the boulevards are much wider. The Plaza is very impressive, and the first thing I thought was that there must've been some sort of exposition or something that occurred there because the area is so pretty and expansive. Well, thanks to Wikipedia, I discovered that it was the site of the 1929 World's Fair, which makes total sense. All along the outside of the plaza, there are mosaics depicting the 50 different Plaza de Espanaprovinces of Spain, and I'm sure there are many people who proudly pose in front of their home province. I can only imagine how fantastic it must've been at the time of the Expo, although while we were there I really had to pee (sorry, but it's true), and I couldn't help but wonder how they dealt with that 'issue' back then. Hide behind your parasol?? And the corsets and such? Ugh.


By this time we were pretty exhausted (Google Maps tells us that from our apartment to the Plaza de España it is 4 km - not including the side streets we explored on the way). So, we unapologetically took a taxi back to our neighbourhood  and stopped for a refreshment before hitting a grocery store for a few apartment essentials.


As is the custom here, we returned home for a siesta. I was a bit chilly and cuddled up under the covers only to accidentally (?!) fall asleep. Oops. I had to get up for family 'exercise time', which I had skipped yesterday. Gah!!! The 50 jumping jacks, 10 sets of stairs, 20 sit-up burpees, and 50 jumping jacks came fairly close to killing me. I don't think this is what 'siesta' means to most people. Crazy.


After recovering (sort of), we went out in search of dinner. It was a beautiful evening, so we sat outside and ordered some drinks. About 10 minutes later the temperature dropped, and a slight wind came about. All of a sudden sitting outside wasn't quite as appealing. Apparently everyone else felt the same way, and we had trouble finding a table inside a restaurant. There is a cute place close to our apartment that we hadn't had the chance to yet check out, so tonight was the night! It was really interesting (and had a heater, which was a plus!). It seemed to be geared towards people with food sensitivities, as underneath each item it said whether it had gluten, eggs, dairy, etc. As none of that really mattered to us we didn't pay close attention, but I can imagine it would be great if you did care. We ate delicious salad, mini hamburgers, paella, patatas, burritos, and calamari. Yum! Quite the variety, but very light and delicious.


Now we are back home and getting ready for bed. Our little apartment isn't as fancy and spacious as the one we had in Lisbon, but it has two bedrooms, a bathroom, and a cozy living room which serves our family just fine and allows us all the space and privacy we need. The kids have usurped our bedroom and are laying together giggling over something on the iPad, Jeff is on the couch engaged with something online, and I am sitting at the kitchen table writing to whoever is reading this!


Tomorrow we plan on hitting the road and seeing a few other sites/sights here in Southern Spain. Ready or not, here we come!


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