Day Two- Sevilla

We had pretty much decided that Seville would be our day trip prior to making our way to Salamanca. The real deciding factor would be the cost of the high speed rail. The info available on the official Renfe website seemed prohibitively expensive. But a travel review website stated the official website was seldom accurate and an in person visit would determine the best prices and seating availability.

I wanted to get up early and get going to maximize the day in Seville. Maybe it was the jet lag, or particularly strong mattress magnets, but we didn't stir until 7ish. An hour or so for showering and prepping (we had to dress stylishly, after all Europeans dress up just to walk the dog) and a visit to the 24 hr restaurant (in Spain a tortilla is an omelet), it was probably after 9 am before we were headed for the Metro (subway). I had studied the Metro map and had a good idea how we would get to the Atocha Renfe Station. As we stood in the flow of foot traffic trying to decide which of the Blue Line stair cases to walk down, we were approached by a man who in a thick southern drawl asked, "can I help y'all"? Without hesitation I had to ask where he was from. "Mississippi" was his answer. We offered that we were from Birmingham, Alabama. I just had to ask how it was that he found his way to the Alonso Martinez Metro station at this particular point in time. He was a firefighter, injured doing his duty. He made the decision that instead of hanging around and living on disability, he would come to Madrid and teach english. I'll bet he's a great English teacher, with little more than 10 seconds of instruction I was now a master of the Madrid Metro. I shook his hand, thanked him for his kindness and wished him God's speed. As we scurried down the correct Number 10 staircase (that was my folly, they are numeric not color coordinated) I thought, "I hope he teaches his students to speak English with a southern accent."

The number 10 line one stop to Tribunal station, switch to the number 1 line and six stops later we were at Atocha Renfe. On the number 1 train we struck up a conversation with an Asian couple that were speaking English. They were from New York City, in Spain for a spring break vacation just because they had never been. He was in finance, she a medical doctor, two sons and a daughter. A beautiful family, friendly and easy to talk to. A new set of friends. We arrived at Atocha Renfe and set off to find the ticket office, anxious to find out what the cost was for high speed travel to Seville. Buying a train ticket in Madrid is not unlike ordering a sandwich at a good delicatessen, you take a number and wait your turn. Just as I was pushing the button to get a number, up walked my new Asian friend. I pushed the button a second time and handed him his number and asked him were they were headed. They had planed a day trip to Toledo. He inquired our destination, high speed to Seville, my answer. He was green with envy! There was no way, the attention span for all three of his kids added together was less than 5 minutes, the 30 minute ride to Toledo was doable, but not Seville. I reassured him that Toledo was a great choice and they would thoroughly enjoy themselves. As my number was called and I strolled off to buy tickets, I thought to myself, "Gosh, I hope Toledo isn't a dump!"

At 124 euro per round trip ticket the high speed wasn't cheap, but it wasn't entirely unreasonable either. I waited for Caitlin to come find me, as she had wandered off while I was left to score the tickets to Seville. I bought a glass of zumo naranja (fresh squeezed orange juice) and waited. She finally appeared (she was not all that far away) and beckoned me to follow. I was lead to a sidewalk vendor (within the station) that sold inexpensive jewelry. Cait was sure she needed a couple of new rings. The vendor was a huckster of the first degree, he flirted with Cait and was certain she needed many rings. He asked me if I liked Obama, I stuck my tongue out and made the razz sound. He was not impressed, he liked Obama, he asked me if I was a racist. I was ready to go, Caitlin assured him I was not a racist but a conservative. I am more than willing to spoil my little girl, I bought her three rings. I have little tolerance for liberal hucksters, if that guy lived in Alabama I have little doubt he could give Larry Langford a run for his money.

We settled into our seats on coche 6, waiting for blast off. The high speed train was stylish, clean and comfy. We fit right in! The seats have jacks for plugging in headphones, which they hand out like candy. There are video monitors that display time and temp, and after we got on our way, played a movie. We started off kind of slow until we were out of Madrid, then speed slowly increased till we were scooting right along. Top speed of this train is claimed to be 300 kilometers/hr. (about 190 mph for the non metric crowd). I had no way to accurately verify how fast we were going, all I know is it was incredibly smooth and quiet for a vehicle that large traveling at speeds in excess of 150 mph. The country side whisked by, for a while we passed orchards of gnarly looking trees I assume were olive trees. We passed lots of farm land tilled and probably planted with some crop that had yet to peek through the soil. Our train was not a non stop, we made a single stop at a small city the name of which escapes me as I write. But once we were on our way again, we entered Spain's orange grove region. Orange grove after orange grove, for an hour at high speed. That's a lot of orange juice! Soon the train began to slow and we were at the Seville train station. I probably should have expected it, the Seville train station was clean and stylish and full of cool little shops. We looked around for a while, I studied a map of Seville, I had no idea what we should do or where we should go. That didn't matter, we had a city to subdue and we were burning daylight, it was time to go exploring.

Let me set the scene as we left the train station, it was a sunny afternoon, sky a perfect hue of blue, a mild breeze to fill our sails, and the temperature a perfect 22C (about 71 Fahrenheit for the non metric crowd). It was as though God had given us a little wink, and encouraged us to enjoy a perfect day. We wandered down street after street with no particular destination. We eventually wandered down a street where there was an interesting looking cafe. We were hungry so we chose a table and waited to be served. There were two waitresses, neither one seemed too interested in waiting on us. Eventually we were served, the pinchos were a delight, the drinks soothing to the palate. But the service, I didn't know if it was another case of us being unfamiliar with the Spanish routine or just having the bad luck of a couple waitresses that didn't want to be at work on such a perfect day. What ever the case, I didn't let it bother me for long, I paid the bill (la cuenta por favor!) and we continued our roaming about. Seville has very wide sidewalks, with a blue pathway dedicated for bicycles. We spent a moment at an automated bicycle rental kiosk, but couldn't determine exactly how to proceed, so we moved on. Many of the streets were lined with orange trees, one had but to stand under a tree and let the aroma of the orange blossom wash over you. I thought they smelled like honeysuckle, Cait wasn't so sure. We walked for a long time, eventually Caitlin said, "Dad, lets sit down."

I sometimes think a black hole has nothing on me when it comes to being dense. The emotional release in baggage claim a day earlier should have warned me that my little girl was rapidly approaching her limit of anxiety and self doubt. So as we sat on the bench, and she poured out her heart expressing her every fear and doubt, I felt another person's emotional pain more acutely than ever before. This wasn't just any body's pain, this was my darling daughter, and her pain made me feel as though I'd failed her in some way. I prayed for the right words, words of comfort and encouragement. I don't know how long I held her close, or how long we cried together. I don't know if my words provided any measure of comfort. All I knew was love, a deep unconditional love. For my daughter, my wife, my whole family, all my friends. They all enrich my life, often in ways I don't perceive and can't understand.

We were sitting at a table outside a little cafe near the train station. We were chatting and enjoying some ice cream (mine was a frozen yogurt, it was simply the best....ever!). Cait motioned toward something behind me and said, "there goes someone in one of those pointy head outfits, lets follow him and see where he goes." After the pointy headed guy we went, Caitlin making sure I didn't follow too closely. After several blocks there were more pointy headed guys, several more blocks even more pointy guys. We followed them into the old section of the city. Before long we were perched on a wall that bordered a little park, underneath a really large gnarly looking tree, waiting for what would be the Friday night procession. From up the street in front of us came two mothers with their children, two little girls that could be twins and one little boy. One of the little girls had a drum that she beat on, all three were kind of singing/dancing and being adorable for adorable's sake. I tried to record their antics with my i-phone, but by the time I got into position the performance was over. We waited for the procession, every now and then we would hear something, but no procession. Caitlin and I both were getting hungry, so we gave up the wait and went off in search of something to eat. We never did find a place that was suitable, and as time and daylight were running out we retreated to a place in the train station. It wasn't bad food either! We wandered the train station, I bought some really great black licorice. Before long we were on our way back to Madrid, the high speed train isn't quite as exciting at night. I tried to watch the movie, but found myself reviewing the day's events and all that I'd learned. We stumbled out of the Alonso Martinez Metro Station and up to the hotel. It was nearly 2 am, we needed to rest and prepare ourselves for the trip to Salamanca in the morning.