On Tuesday (day 13) we drove about two hours north to the city of Córdoba, Spain.

Carissa was our navigator.

After our first day in Spain, spent getting lost in the small, impossibly narrow streets of Seville, the first thing we did when we drove into the Córdoba was stop and get a map. Lucky for us we parked near a tourist information kiosk that had maps readily available. And while we picked that up, John went in search of a SIM card to convert his tablet to a cell phone (he found a store, but waited ridiculously long and never get helped).

Córdoba was an interesting place to visit, in part because of its history and in part its age. Right now there are only about 300,000+ residents but in around the 10th and 11th centuries it was the most populous city in the world, and for a time it was considered one of the most advanced cities in the world. There’s a strong mix of Roman and Muslim influence due being handed back and forth between the two peoples.

One thing I loved about the place is that it’s so OLD. I mean, just look at these pictures. I snapped these just as we walked from our car to our destination, the Córdoba Cathedral/Mosque. We were on some narrow streets among the locals and saw some school children in uniform walking back from school (not pictured).

The first item of business was stopping for lunch. The thing about Spain is that businesses commonly close around 2 pm for siesta time and don’t open again until 4 or 6 at night. So we made sure to eat early and get it done. We found a nice place inside a hotel. We ate in the courtyard.

I loved visiting the Córdoba Cathedral. It was unlike any other cathedral I’ve been to. It started as a place of Roman Catholic worship, but when the Arabs stepped in it was built up as a Muslim mosque. And later, after it returned to Roman hands, became a Catholic cathedral again.

Some cool beams hanging near the ticket counter from the original structure.

The inside of the cathedral was so beautiful, but I had a hard time picturing myself attending church there. I think I’d be staring at the red and white arches the whole time.

The place was giant. HUGE. You can see it a little better in the video.

Even the door to exit was big and grand and ornate.

Across the street, of course, were tourist shops. My mother-in-law and I enjoyed browsing the shops but John and Guy were ready to move on pretty quickly.

The kids? They ate ice cream (“helados”), of course.

After leaving the mosque-cathedral we walked across the old Roman bridge (I mean OLD–built around 1st century BC), crossing the Guadalquivir River to see the historical tower on the other side. It was hot. H-O-T. We passed some street performers (bridge performers?) along the way, and I can’t imagine how miserable they must have been under the sun.

You got a good view of the cathedral from the bridge:

Here is the tower on the end of the bridge. We bought water from the smart people selling it in the tent to the right.

And its moat. I don’t know what it is about moats, but they are just so neat.

We stopped at one more famous landmark in Córdoba, the Alcázar (which means “the palace). It was the residence of Queen Isabella and Ferdinand. It has a rich history including Isabella meeting with Christopher Columbus before his sailing to America, hosting some of Napoleon’s troops in the 1800’s, and serving as a prison. In the 1950s the Spanish government turned it into a tourist attraction.

The actual Alcázar wasn’t bad but the gardens were lovely, definitely worth the visit.

Alcázar entrance and statue of King Ferdinand, maybe?

There was one small bathroom that we waited around to use so I could change the kids’ diapers. No toilet paper, but at least we had baby wipes. Wes waiting on the rocks outside the restroom for his diaper turn.

Like I said, the gardens were the best part.

The kids liked playing in the dirt. We had to drag them away.

When we were walking back to the car we stopped to let the kids play at a playground. It was just what they needed. Kids need to play.

The funny thing is that we were at the park for a while, but it wasn’t until we were back in the car and driving away from the park that we noticed a sign on the building across the street from the park: “La Iglesia de JesuCristo de los Santos de los Ultimos Dias.” (Or something like that.) It was an LDS branch meetinghouse. Kind of fun to see.

It was a two-hour drive back to our hotel, and I thought our kids handled the car time pretty well overall. We had books and an electronic toy (for Wes), but it was often near bedtime by the time we headed home. During our time in England and Spain Carissa was just starting to develop a more independent and chatty nature. Here she is chatting as we neared Malaga.

The next day was Wednesday, and we had enough of road trips. We were going to stay home, do laundry, and play!

My two kids were in the backyard the other day, and after a while when I peeked out I couldn’t find them. Looked empty to me.

Then I saw this:

And this:

What would a mommy be without a pink purse?

Today I needed a break from the house. We’ve been working on potty training all week, which means we’ve been fairly homebound. Funny thing that a “break” for me entails taking the kids and doing something that they might enjoy. But at least we got out of the house.

I took them to Farm Country at Thanksgiving Point. It was our first time. Wes was pretty brave but Carissa was more timid about getting too close to the animals.

She was brave enough to touch the cow a few times.

They liked the duck pond. Wes spent most of the time tossing gravel at to the ducks. Carissa spent a bit of time watching the little birds land near her on the bench and fly away again.

Two kids and two kids.

They brought a miniature donkey out for kids to pet. Wes was more than willing to help by holding the lead rope. Carissa wouldn’t go near the donkey.

Wesley’s admission included a pony ride. He loved it and I had to use some serious persuasion skills to pull him away from there when it was over. We also got a wagon ride around the property that both kids liked.

After an hour or more I dragged them inside to wash up. Once Wes discovered that you turn the water on by stepping on a bar near the floor he was happy to stay there all day and play in the water.

It was lunchtime but I bought the kids suckers that Carissa picked out. She likes suckers; Wes not so much, but he took a few licks anyway. They were the kind that turn the tongue colors.

On the way home.

Our first day waking up in Spain. …That is, John was just waking up. I’m pretty sure Carissa had been awake and playing for a while already.

We had about seven days in southern Spain. We picked three cities we wanted to be sure to visit while there: Seville, Cordoba, and Granada. They were all a bit of a drive (minimum 1-2 hours) each way, and with kids we knew that would get tiring quickly. So we picked the city farthest from us–Seville–and started there on our first full day in Spain. Seville was at least a 2.5 hour drive to the northwest from our hotel near Marbella.

Seville is the capital of the Andalusia region and Spain’s fourth-largest city (about 700,000 people in the main city). Spain had these trees everywhere that reminded me of wisteria, although I’m not sure really what they are.

Seville has a famous area dead central in the city known as “Old Town.” We were aiming for this area, as it houses the two main attractions we wanted to see: The Seville Cathedral and Alcázar of Seville (a palace).

And herein we learned our very first, very important lesson about using GPS in a city as old as Seville: NEVER, EVER set your destination as “Seville City Center.” John’s mom was in charge of the directions and she assumed we could get to the center, near the two attractions, and then find a hotel or parking garage to park in.

The city center is Old Town. Are there roads in Old Town? They’re ancient, but yes. Are they drivable? They’re narrow and one-way but, technically, yes. Is it a good idea to try to drive them if you’re clueless Americans in a mini-van on your first day in Spain? NO.

We got loster than lost, really fast. The streets are NARROW. They’re a maze. They’re meant for horses and wagons of ancient days, and maybe pedestrians and motorcycles or small European cars of modern times. Not meant for a minivan full of Americans unsure of their directions.

This is just entering the Old Town streets. You can see they’re one lane wide. But this was a wide street compared to some of the others.

Once we found ourselves lost in the Old Town streets it seemed impossible to wind our way out again. This was maybe the most stressful part of our entire week in Spain. After a while we noticed a small car behind us that seemed to know its way. We forced John out to go and ask directions (he was the only one fairly fluent in Spanish). The driver, fortunately, was able to help and followed us until we were safely back on a two-lane street again.

I videotaped a few minutes or our driving. There’s one point in the video (at about 1:00 in) where we are going around a slight bend and you can hear some gasps because we came really close to scraping the wall. I mean, REALLY close. For some reason I didn’t follow my eyes with the camera, but we were probably four or five inches from the wall. At about 1:35 you can see how close we are. John’s stepdad was driving, and I give him props for navigating us out of there successfully.

Phew.

The next most stressful moment was maybe trying to park the minivan in a typical European-sized parking space.

After all this, we were ready for lunch. And more than ready to finally try some real Spanish food.

We picked a street cafe around the corner from our parking garage. The food was delicious. We always tried to order things the kids might be willing to eat, too.

I had croquettes (fried breadcrumbed roll filled with chicken and cheese) and fried potatoes with some sort of creamy side for dipping.

John had fried chicken with fries. (Notice the huge bottle of water. We bought water everywhere in Spain.)

John’s mom had a tortilla española (Spanish omelet), which is made out of fried potatoes.

And John’s stepdad had the most famous dish that I know of in Spain, paella. It’s a rice dish mixed with all sorts of stuff, in this case–seafood. Honestly, it doesn’t look good to me in this picture because I’m not a big seafood fan, but I tasted his rice and shrimp, and it was well made and good tasting.

My friend had lent me a Spanish-English dictionary that I took with me everywhere in Spain. It came in quite handy at times. John speaks Spanish pretty well but I wanted to be able to do it myself. So while we ate lunch I looked up and practiced pronouncing (with John’s help) some key phrases, like “Dónde está el baño?” (“Where is the bathroom?”) I was pregnant, after all, so that was an important one to know. I was also able to look up words like “fork” and “pepper” and ask the waiter to bring us these things.

While we were sitting at our sidewalk table, eating, I noticed a store opening for business a couple doors down. I pulled out my dictionary and discovered a new, beloved Spanish word: “helados.” It means “ice cream.”

So guess where we went after finishing lunch? John is sweet to put up with me and my love for ice cream when he’s not a big fan of the stuff. We got a cup to share with the kids. Spanish ice cream is DELICIOUS. My favorite flavor was turrón. I didn’t know what turrón was but it tasted and looked like peanut butter. We got a second flavor for Carissa to eat (she’s allergic to nuts). Which was a good thing because later I learned that turrón is actually a Spanish candy made out of honey, sugar, egg whites, and almonds or other nuts–and on top of nuts she’s allergic to egg whites, too.

After lunch and dessert we got lost again trying to just WALK through the Old Town streets, searching for the Seville Cathedral. I chose to stop at a Yogurtland to use the bathroom and change Carissa’s diaper. I took that opportunity to use my amazing (NOT) Spanish skills to ask the employee how to get to the Cathedral. I was really grateful for his help because his English wasn’t so good, and my Spanish wasn’t so good, but he smiled and worked through it and helped me understand basically which way to go. It’s a good experience trying to use a foreign language, especially when you need help finding something. It’s the quintessential traveling experience.

Meanwhile John let Wes play on a playground that was just outside Yogurtland in the plaza. He was sad when we pulled him off to go find the Cathedral.

The streets were narrow little, lovely pedestrian walkways. At least we weren’t driving.

Loved the orange trees. Not something you see in Utah.

Finally we made it to the Seville Cathedral. There were lots of horses and carriages out front selling rides.

This is the largest Gothic cathedral in the world and the third largest church in the world. Yeah, it was giant.

Big, but not the most amazing cathedral I’ve ever seen. The York Minster in England was more beautiful, in my opinion. But it had some interesting things to look at, like:

You exit into a courtyard filled with orange trees.

Following the Cathedral we walked practically next door to the Alcázar of Seville, which is a palace that used to be a Moorish fort.

My favorite part was the beautiful gardens outside.

Carissa loved the fish in the water and didn’t want to leave.

Before heading back to our hotel we stopped for churros and chocolate. It’s part of the Spanish Experience. Churros are like fried donuts (which, I quickly realized, was a bad idea since I had fried food for lunch and fried food doesn’t actually agree with me when I’m pregnant). The chocolate is a thick, dark hot chocolate.

The kids liked it.

We got home after the kids’ bedtime and prepared for our next day trip: Cordoba, Spain.