Monday, December 28th began super early as we had an 8 o'clock flight and had to make arrangements to take a taxi. Our concierge called the taxi for us, told us how much it would be-28 euro including the airport supplement; which we confirmed using multiple web sources. Our cab picked us up around 5:45 and we rode the 45 minutes to airport in a cigarette saturated taxi. What happened when we got to the airport? Oh yes, the cab driver ripped us off by telling us that the 28 euro did not include the supplement and that we actually owed him 34 euro (difference of $42 and $51). We argued with him for about 5 minutes, but he would not back down. We sat for a second considering our options...we had two 20s and our luggage was locked in the trunk...we angrily paid him his 34 euro and wished him a very Merry Christmas. Jerk.
Madrid airport decorated for Christmas
We had a lovely flight and by that I mean I was terrified because it was a really small plane and the turbulence was plentiful. At least it was short. We landed in Granada and hopped on a bus which took us to the train station. We found our platform and as we were about an hour and a half early we indulged ourselves in a couple of croissants. The croissants were as filling as croissants typically are so we also purchased the most expensive can of pringles on the planet(4 euro=6 dollars...imported chips) and a cheese bocadillo (cheese on a baguette); that way we could have lunch on the 3 hour train ride to Seville. The beginning of the ride was wonderful and relaxing once we got to our seats. We had our tickets, were aware of what our seat numbers were, found our entrance, found our seats...there were people in our seats... They were speaking loud English so I asked them whether or not seat numbers mattered and the woman loudly told me, "NO, it is open seating". We found other seats and sat watching what we were sure to be a problem. Sure enough, it was. Their son was in someone else's seat who knew better than we did and told him so. The train was beginning to move and the wife began to panic because they had no idea where their seats were. They had already stored their suitcases (which Larry and I could have both fit in) in the overhead racks and could not move them. The wife started screaming (literally) at her husband and they went in search of their seats. We reclaimed ours and enjoyed the beginning of our trip.
We traveled through hours and hours of olive groves.
About 2 hours into our lovely trip the train stops and the conductor comes over the loud speaker and says something about a problem and that we will need to take a bus. We didn't understand all of it so we asked someone in front of us to translate. She tried to in broken English basically telling us that their were stones in the way and that we had to take a bus to the other side of the problem where there would be another train waiting. Larry and I, being fairly laid back people, grabbed our bags and started to leave the train...when we hear that woman screaming again. They didn't speak Spanish so they just screamed at people... Once we got off the train, all the while trying to avoid this family, we see her trying to get information from one of the conductors. He tried to slowly explain to her son (who spoke some Spanish), but his mother kept interrupting the man by throwing her hands in the air and screaming "NO ENTIENDO!!! I DONtT UNDERSTAND!!! wow eventually someone filled her in. Unfortunately we had to sit next to these people on the bus and listen to the woman complain loudly the entire time. She lost a scarf in the fiasco which we then heard about for the next half an hour. It was the red one, it was in her jacket pocket, she saw it in the overhead rack. Why didn't her husband see it? Why didn't her son see it? She kept asking these questions over and over and over. She even said in a very loud voice, "Well, this is such a poor country I'm sure someone took it from me"...Luckily Larry was reading Harry Potter in Spanish throwing them off and keeping them from directing any questions our way. We now understand why people from other countries think Americans are loud and obnoxious.
We finally arrived in Seville and it started to rain the moment we got off the train and it did not stop until we got back on that same train two days later. It was raining pretty hard, but we opted out of taking a taxi after our experience that morning. We took a bus into the center and then planned to walk to our hotel. It was pouring. We were soaked. I think our umbrellas blew inside out at least twice. We attempted to stay positive; which was easy once we found the charming B&B Naranjo.
It was on a cute little street
The door to our room
The little living room outside of our room
The bed was a little on the small side
Did I mention we were soaked?
We only had two days in this beautiful city so we decided not to waste any time, but to make the most of it. We put on dry socks; which remained that way for maybe 5 minutes and ran down to the river walk.
Seville is beautiful! The streets are lined with orange trees
El Torre del Oro (The Gold Tower)
It stopped...for a second
Plaza of the Bulls
It was incredibly windy and we were once again incredibly soaked so we attempted to find a place to get some tapas. We found a place. It was even raining on the inside! The wine was great (so tiny), but the food looked sick so we drank and left in search of something else.
By that time it was really pouring and we were even more soaked (if that was even possible) so we totally sold out and had a lovely dinner at Burger King :)
We spent our evening doing a lot of this
haha
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