Our first visitors arrived this week and it was lovely.
When we began planning this trip, we really wanted to find a way to visit some of the many friends and family we have dotted around Europe and the UK. As a family of five now however, we weren’t too sure how people would feel about us showing up on their doorstep. We are ‘busy’. After many different planning sessions, we decided that the simplest way was just to book our own itinerary and then spread the word and hope that friends and family come and find us wherever we are.
I have lots of family in the UK still thanks to my British ancestry. I also lived and worked in London for five years and some of my colleagues and friends are still living in London and other parts of England as well as Berlin, Copenhagen and Amsterdam.
So…we spread the word! And to our wonderful surprise, a few friends and family actually booked. (And I’m still hopeful others might book last minute?! hint hint;)
The first stroke of luck was that cousin William proposed to his lovely Maria from Jerez a few months back and they have decided to move to Seville this month. What are the chances!
William and Maria are busy searching for a home and work in Seville. A very busy and exciting time for them. We enjoyed tapas and drinks with them on their first night here. It was extra nice to have Maria help translate and interpret for us. We had many questions for her about life in Spain and she was kind enough to listen. We are still trying to work out the very different time schedule here so we asked Maria. From what we can fathom out, it seems to look something like this:
- 9am – shops open
- 2pm – shops close & tapasbars are open (and busy!)
- 5pm – shops re-open & tapasbars close
- 630pm – tapas bars re-open
- 830pm – restaurants open for dinner
The part of the day we’re struggling most with is early evening. At home, 530pm is ‘pub’ time in our house. The bar is open and we enjoy a tradition of a drink with the kids. This is a special time for us. Dave gets home from work and instead of rushing straight into dinner/bed routine, we enjoy 45minutes together as a family. We head to a different space in the house – our music room/pub so it feels “new”. We catch up. We chat about our day. We hear each other’s stories. We listen to some music. Sometimes we play music together. The kids climb all over us. They usually go a bit wild and then we know it’s time to quickly get dinner on the table…
As you can probably guess from the schedule, 5:30pm here in Seville is VERY quiet. We can’t find anywhere open for our ‘pub’ time so instead, we settle for our own tapas creations at home. The tapas bars are open and full of life from 2pm – 5pm but everyone disappears around 5pm for siesta time! We have tried many times to find somewhere to pop into early evening and everywhere is empty.
We have yet to attempt to go out for dinner as it means heading out of the apartment after 8pm and that just seems crazy with our entourage!? Dave has ventured out after the kids are in bed a couple times and he has returned to tell me that the city is truly buzzing with people after 9pm. We continue to hear it through the night from our apartment windows.
Our second visitor, was my long time friend and singing colleague Peter, from London. Some of you might also remember Peter from the 2nd annual Yellowpoint Christmas Spectacular (2008). What a joy it was (as he would say) to meet up in this beautiful city. It was great to have some English speaking companionship and I loved hearing the British sarcasm again. We had a great time reminiscing about singing together and the fun we had while I lived in London. The boys also enjoyed getting to know Peter and by the second morning, they were waking him up and climbing into bed with him for morning snuggles. He kept us well entertained for three days and we will miss his enthusiasm, energy, passion for delicious Spanish treats, ‘reason for everything’ and company! We definitely need to eat salad tonight though…
We took Peter back to some of our favourite Seville landmarks and we also explored some new areas. We especially enjoyed the experience of purchasing traditional sweets called Yemas from the nuns at the San Leandro convent through the secret door. The nuns aren’t allowed to be seen, so civilians leave money in the revolving door and this is exchanged for special homemade sweets (individually wrapped in a fancy box). They are made of egg yolks and taste extremely sweet – too sweet even for Dave and Nick which is saying alot;)
It was lovely hearing Peter singing and humming most of the time he was with us and it really got me thinking I should start practicing my own singing again. I’ve had a bit of a hiatus while having children but singing and music were such a big part of my life for so long – it would be great to get back at it! It was so nice to hear Peter’s beautiful baritone voice echoing through our apartment with an array of ditties: arias, Spanish songs, oratorio, pop tunes…you name it. I found these pictures today – a trip down memory lane of Thursford when Peter and I sang together back in 2004. Who would have thought I’d ever be paid to sing dressed as a sunflower!?
Peter and I also got to enjoy the Calle Aire Ancient Baths. My hydrospa tradition at Kingfisher didn’t work out this year after the Christmas show so Dave promised me a spa day in Spain instead (amazing!). He hung out with the three kids for the afternoon while Peter and I lounged in luxurious spa baths and drank champagne. What a treat! Just what I needed after a few sleepless newborn nights, lots of walking and playing tourist and lots of child management. Thank you Dave!
It's About the Ride 