Saturday, March 21 - Train Station and Utrera

At last we visited a European train station.  For months, almost every night the kids have wanted us to read to them about train stations.  They've seen Union Station in Denver a couple of times, but it's not nearly as big as some of the European train stations.  And when we were getting ready to go to Spain, the boys said that the two things they wanted to see here are newstands (they're everywhere and the kids love them) and a big train station.

At 9:30am we left our apartment and drove to the train station.  It's about a 10-15 minute drive.  We parked and as we walked in, the kids' eyes grew big and their mouths opened wide in awe.  We caught the 10:17am commuter train to Utrera.

Here are the kids and I waiting for our train.  We can see it coming down the track.

Here are other people waiting for the train.

Here it is!!!!!!!

Very happy Cody and Scott on the train.

Exited Devon and Rosa on the train.  Rosa tried unsuccessfully to hide from the picture.  Devon had his eyes glued to the outdoors.

We chose to go to the town of Utrera because it's close and because it's a town we considered living in for our stay in Spain.  It'd halve Scott's commute, but there wasn't any room in the bilingual school.

We walked by this fountain on the way into the center.

The kids LOVED playing at the fountain.
Rosa slept in braids and the waves lasted a few hours into the day.

Here's a view of Utrera from one of the main plazas.  Scott's back is to a playground where the kids are playing.  There are a number of restaurants around.

beautiful architecture

A ridiculously yummy coffee.  My best yet on this trip.  Perhaps it's the chocolate flakes on top.

We're finding these vending machines tucked in on various blocks.  They advertise how if you're hungry or thirsty that they're open 24 hours.

We liked the look of these houses with their front patios.

We arrived at the train station with about 40 minutes to spare, so we treated the kids to ice cream.  Most of Cody's ended up on his face.  He seems okay with that.

All in all a very successful day.  Devon kept on telling us how much he loved the trains!  Uncle Bruce, I kept on thinking of you and I was happy to see an email from you when we got back.  Perhaps you had a 6th sense about it.

Between all of the walking and errands and ate the day before and the walking and adventure to Utrera on Saturday, we came home in the late afternoon and only Scott had the energy to go back out.  Poor Scott.  We hunkered down for the night with a kid movie (played by putting it in my laptop and connecting my laptop to the tv).  And while most of us watched the movie, Rosa enjoyed skyping with Lily and Chloe.

While Utrera is a cute town, I'm glad that we've ended up in central Sevilla.  I like being in cities, or near them, and all of the people moving and bustling around here.  And I really like our apartment location in that we're a few blocks away from the hustle and bustle, yet close enough to access it easily and quickly.