Day Trip {Sevilla #1}

We took a quick trip to Sevilla over the weekend.  We again timed the drive up (a little over an hour) with Serafina’s first nap.  This time we took the express highway (the autopista) on purpose!  We knew the city would be busy with Semana Santa celebrations starting today, but we braved the crowds anyway.  Parking was an adventure (we found many full lots, not so many empty lots) but eventually we were parked and on our way to the Cathedral and to explore the city.

Again, we took the stroller and this time left the carrier in the car.  We also packed a picnic lunch since lunch time in Spain can be upwards of 3 hours long and our wild peanut will not sit for that long!

but she sure is cute

We immediately made our way to the Cathedral and found a lot of streets being prepared for Semana Santa (blocked off, chairs being set up, gold and red being hung everywhere) -- it was pretty cool to see.  The line to get into the Cathedral was long, but we figured we would wait and let Serafina run around.  Luckily, the line went by fast – but if anyone is going to Sevilla, I recommend making reservations online prior to arriving to the Cathedral.  We took some pictures of the outside of the Cathedral while waiting:

 

Since Serafina was already out of the stroller and would not go back into the stroller quietly, we were the crazy people letting our little one walk around the Cathedral.  Don’t worry – we didn’t let her wander away and she was actually great!  This was the second church she has been in and she seems to do very well while in churches.  She just walked around staring at the stain glass windows, all the details and other various statues.  She would walk around waving and saying “hiiiiiiii” or “oh-wa” (hola) to anyone would pay attention to her.  There was one area that had really good acoustics and well, Serafina loved hearing her voice echo – we quickly got her away from that area!

[excuse the dark and blurry picture, but she was just so excited to be taking it all in]

The Cathedral was gorgeous (and huge)!  Trevor and I have been in many churches throughout Europe but we were both very impressed with everything. We kept finding new areas of explore!  I believe we spent over an hour in the church – with a one year old.  That’s pretty impressive!  Christopher Columbus is also buried in this church (and yes, his remains have been identified through DNA results).

Christopher Columbus' tomb

the main alter

the bell tower

When we finally exited the church, we were all hungry so we headed to Plaza de Espana  -- many will recognize the plaza from Star Wars Episode 1.  It was gorgeous with lots of horse carriages and birds for Serafina to attempt to run after (we had trouble getting her to pose for pictures because she just wanted to watch the boats and birds).  We had a very quick picnic lunch because the clouds started to roll in and we didn’t want to get caught in the rain on our walk back to the car!  But it was a gorgeous spot to sit, eat and people watch.

It was such a fun day!  We loved Sevilla and can’t wait to go back to explore further.