Seville, with Kids, on a Budget

From the cave, we took buses to Seville, with a stop in Granada just to sleep for a few hours.

It was my undying wish for a hot shower and to wash the fleas off the clothes in our duffel, but alas. The cheapest Airbnb we could find in Seville did not have that squeaky clean feel I was so desperate for. Despite the animal dander still clinging to my clothes, I refused to get into the moldy shower stall.

Grubby accommodations aside, the city of Seville has wonderful history, mind-blowing baroque architecture and the perfect Spanish Old Town. We nearly got lost in the higgledy piggledy cobblestone streets on our first day.

You absolutely could spend days, not to mention a bunch of money, touring historic buildings, museums and shops, but you may not be surprised to learn that my most favorite things to do in Seville were 100% free.

TO DO: Plaza de Espana y Parque de Maria Luisa

My #1 must-see in Seville was the Plaza de Espana. A street performer was making a million shining bubbles for kids to run through and it gave the place a magical feel. With arched bridges over the little mote, bright and intricately painted tiles adorning the spires, it was a romantic's dream come true. We even photobombed a couple getting their engagement shots taken.



You can wander through the pillars and arches, go upstairs for a nice view of the park or hire a boat to motor you around the moat, but that last one sounded silly to me. We enjoyed the water and the fountains by walking around, and didn't spend a centimo.

The Plaza is set at the north corner of the Parque de Maria Luisa, which was my second favorite thing. Stroll through the hedges, marvel at the architecture of the surrounding buildings, let your kid play on the playground. We could have spent all day meandering through the grounds.

Between the Plaza de Espana and the Real Alcazar is a little park where they had a fair of sorts set up. Carnival rides, bumper cars, a ferris wheel and an ice rink, plus churro and other food vendor stalls. We spotted it at dusk, because of the lights, and it definitely looked more charming at dusk than in the daytime, when we had time to get back and explore it. But we spent too much money to let Babs ride some rides anyway, because she's a good kid and deserves to be scared on a rollercoaster.

La Catedral de Sevilla

One of the big attractions in Seville is the Cathedral. The third largest church in the world and the largest gothic church in the world, it covers 23,500 square meters (253,000 square feet). Christopher Columbus is entombed there.

It started out as a mosque, built in 1184, but was consecrated a Cathedral in 1248 and had Gothic and baroque additions throughout the centuries.

We managed to time our visit to Seville on the worst possible day, the days leading up to Christmas. The tourists were so thick you could almost crowd-surf down the street. The line for the church went halfway down the block.

Luckily, after passing through Seville to Jerez, then Arcos, we decided to return to the city for a few nights on our way up to Madrid. Early January was a much calmer time, though the tourists never really stop flowing through the city.

Inside is cavernous, with stained glass, pillars and arches, alcoves of 15th-century artwork and shrines. There are slivers of time when you can climb the tower for free, but we paid the 9 euros/adult to spend an hour gawking at the cavernous cathedral, the ornate organ, the shrines, the tomb of Christopher Columbus, and climb the bell tower, La Giralda.

The view of the church spires from the tower is like something out of Beauty and the Beast.

Our Airbnb on our second run-through of Seville was a mere block from the Cathedral, tucked in charming Old Town right off a lovely square of orange trees, next to the Spanish turron (fudge) and sweets shop, Sabor, where much of the time they have baskets of samples and offer free tastes.

Comer: La Brunilda

We ate at plenty of bad restaurants. We were charged inordinate amount for tiny tapas plates, like they were almost daring us to complain. But I can recommend La Brunilda. It's tucked off the main drag and there was an actual line outside waiting for it to open. Everything was amazing, though a little pricey for our vagabonding standards. But totally worth it.

Shower Thoughts:

During our first pass through Seville, the square in front of the cathedral and in the Plaza de Espana were lined with horse-drawn carriages pulling tourists on sightseeing tours around the city for entirely too much money. Babs liked seeing horses up close.

But then we saw a horse slip on the stones and fall hard on her knees with a disconcerting clatter and it made me sad. We had just finished reading Black Beauty (for the second time), and I wondered how happy those cab horses really were. I wondered if they were being cruelly exploited to serve tourism and I wondered if we weren't an unwitting part of it. We want to travel too, to see these wonders dropped all over the globe, to experience different cultures, to learn their history.

Seville was a tourist hub on par with Granada, understandably so, given the beauty and the incredible history there. And I felt the same way about it as the Alhambra. Too many souvenir shops, too much comfort, too many American accents.

In any case, it was beautiful and we enjoyed our days in Seville. I'm glad we were able to hit it a second time and visit the Cathedral, which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

From Seville, we were headed to Jerez, where we would meet up with a friend from Colorado and spend Christmas.

Get Free Lodging Internationally: House and Pet Sitting

When in need of a pet-sitter in the past, we've used Mindmyhouse.com with great success (this post), but as potential home- and pet-sitters, we went with TrustedHouseSitters.com, for the sheer volume of available pet sits. The fee is a bit steep at $120/year, but having scored 17 nights of free lodging so far, it's already paid for itself.

This article has a good breakdown of the different house-sitting websites out there and even some coupon codes for discounts. On TrustedHouseSitters, you can sign up for a Home Sitter or Homeowner membership separately, or combine the two for an extra fee.

The competition can be stiff, so make sure your profile is as complete as possible to make homeowners feel comfortable with you. We even added a video to introduce ourselves. I applied for 7 house sits, each of which had up to 10 other applicants. We were chosen for two sits, would have gotten three but the travel dates didn't end up working out.

Our first house sit was located in the tiny (pop. 1200) cave town of Galera.

We got some lovely mountain scenery on our walks with the dogs. Galera doesn't have much to distinguish itself, other than the Tutugi and Castellon Alto sites, where artifacts (and even 3000+ year old mummified human remains) from ancient settlements were found. The Galera museum houses the mummy and you can visit for 2,50 euro.

There's a little copse of English and English-speakers in Galera. Our Scottish neighbor acted as our homeowner's assist, bringing us pellets for the stove and other supplies. He has three dogs of his own and would sometimes join us on walks. In fact, the whole neighborhood was littered with cats, dogs and at least one chicken that we could see.

The cave in which we resided was small but cozy. It had all the modern amenities you'd expect, just carved out of the side of a mountain instead of built with bricks or wood.

Lucky for me, Mr. Go is an early riser, and so was tasked with feeding Meg, the 13-year-old dachshund. Each morning he did acrobatics in his efforts to clean up her overnight accidents before she stepped in them as she tried to remind him from under his feet that she was hungry, while also feeding her quickly to quiet her frantic whines before she woke Babs. For as slow as she moved the rest of the day, for 10 minutes around feeding times, she was as sprightly as a pup.

After everyone had breakfast, we took our morning stroll with the three other dogs (Meg took a nap after the morning excitement), and sometimes the cats tagged along too. Of the remaining three dogs, Bobblehead had hydrocephalus and was unable to walk on her own, Benji probably had fleas and Pippin was a bully with an underbite. (She was our favorite, though.)

We love dogs of all shapes, sizes and special needs. And these dogs were quirky and charming and we will talk fondly of them for a long time. But between poor old Meg's incontinence and handling Bobblehead, who inevitably lies in a little bit of pee until I can get her puppy pads changed and bathe her, I had a hard time getting myself to feel clean, and that wore on me by the end of the week.

Bob's hydrocephalus also means she needs you to hold her head into her bowls to eat and drink, and needs to be carried in a sling for walks, which we never begrudged. (The sling was pretty fun.) But I did learn through experience to put a puppy pad in the sling for when she needs to wee during a walk.

The two cats were self-sufficient in the way cats are. One was MIA for the first 36 hours we were there. I haven't cared for a cat in my adult life, and had to remember to clear all the food off the counter if the cats were in the house, lest someone help themselves.

The homeowner was super nice (she even gave us a lift from the next town over) and really appreciated the daily updates I sent her, complete with pictures of her menagerie. She left a box of Christmas decorations out for Babs to put up around the cave, which helped us to feel festive on our unorthodox holiday.

The owner had warned us to be vigilant for fleas and on our last few days in the cave, flea bites started showing up on Babs' arms. The homeowner had another week out of town, so we were to hand off the cave and crew to the next home sitter and give her all the complex instructions. However, she was late and we had to split to catch our bus, so the owner's sister stepped in to meet the next gal, though I did give her a call after we were settled in Seville to give her a few key pointers (mainly, to put a pad in the sling).

The seven days we spent in The Cave were challenging in some ways and undoubtedly memorable. Each dog was lovable and I appreciated them all. We had missed snuggling with warm, furry pups. Though I tease that our own is a nuisance, it made me miss my Flotsam.

After the house sit has been completed, you have to request a review from the homeowner via TrustedHouseSitters.com. The homeowner also has to request a review from the sitter, which is a flaw in my opinion. It allows both sides to potentially hide bad experiences from prospective house-sits.

But we got a stellar 5-star review to add to our profile. Here's hoping it will inspire confidence in homeowners to choose us for future house sits wherever in the world we go.

Granada, Spain

Granada was one of the major landmarks of our journey. Friends who'd visited the previous year said it was a must-see, and every Spaniard we told we were heading Granada-direction kissed their fingertips and said, "Bueno."

For the first two days, we stayed 2km south of the city center. We walked around, played on parks and ate good food. We were in the neighborhood called Zaidin and it was a clean, nice area, and walking up into the city was easy.

Then we moved for the next 4 nights up smack dab in city center, just across the river from the Alhambra.

The Alhambra is the major draw of Granada.

The fortress was built in the 9th century, but King Fancy Pants Muhammad Ibn al-Ahmar fixed it up to his standards and moved his residence there in the year of our lord 1238. The Kings of the Nazari dynasty continued adding to the compound until 1492, when Ferdinand and Isabella, Christian monarchs of Spain, conquered the Alhambra and transformation of the palace for the Christian Kings began.

You could spend all day wandering the grounds of the Alhambra, Alcazar, Generalife and the gardens. (Bring snacks or you'll be eating out of vending machines.) We didn't even get over to the Generalife, and we spent several hours there. If you want entrance into the Nasrid Palaces (the truly spectacular architecture-- like lace carved into stone), you pay 14 euro per ticket and you have a specific time of entrance.

Book online ahead of time if you're visiting on the weekend or during peak tourist months. For us, on a weekday in early December, we were fine buying our tickets on site.

Note: it takes about 15 minutes to walk to the palaces from the main entrance, so keep that in mind when booking.

We walked up to the Alhambra via the path that starts at Cuesta del Rey Chico, just on the other side of the river from our Airbnb and highly recommend it for its quiet charm. The other walk up to the site, via Cuesta de Gomerez, is more populated, though it takes you through the Puerta de Granada and along a lane populated by shops and old buildings, which is cool too.

The history of the entire central Granada area is gorgeous. Tiny cobblestone lanes where cars share space with the dominant pedestrian traffic, looming churches and incredible architecture. Perhaps unfortunately, that history is what makes the area a bustling tourist destination. We heard more tourists speaking English here than anywhere else we've traveled. The narrow lanes were clustered with tour groups and lost tourists clutching their maps, cameras and cellphones.

Our Airbnb listing led me to believe we were staying in a room in a cute couple's home, but alas, it was a hostal. The building was lovely, a historic building actually protected by law from renovations. Our private space was a room, most of which was taken up by the double bed. The bathroom and kitchenette were shared spaces, accessed across the open-air patio (a bit of a chilly dozen steps in December).

The view of the Alhambra from our window was lovely, though:

Then my poor daughter had a UTI. She had a fever and had to pee every 15 minutes. Every time her fever went down we thought we were in the clear and drug her out for a day of walking around, enjoying the history. By the afternoon, she'd be glassy-eyed and sleeping on her dad's shoulder.

We plied her with orange juice (cranberries have no special powers against UTIs) and any liquids we could get her to drink to flush the bacteria out. Liquid Tylenol to keep her fever down (in Spain acetamenophine is called paracetamol) and in three or four days she was alright.

While we appreciated the history of the Alhambra, our favorite things to do in Granada were a bit more humble. There's an archaeological museum (free), on Carrera del Darro that doesn't show up on Google Maps, but it was pleasant and interesting.

By the Granada Cathedral is the Centro de Arte de Jose Guerrero, a modern art exhibit that is also free and a lovely stop for warming up on chilly December days and taking a break from the bustling traffic.

The UTI, the cramped conditions in the surprise hostal and the commercialized feel of the main city areas (and the horrific 6E haircut I got at the hairdressing school) dampened our stay in Granada somewhat. But we had an excellent time and it was undoubtedly spectacular. Though by the end of our six nights in and around the city, we were excited for our next destination: the 1,200-person town of Galera, pet-sitting in a cave-dwelling.

More on THAT adventure in the next post. Hasta luego.

Guadix Caves & Traveling by Alsa Bus in Spain

After Baza, we took an Alsa bus 40 minutes down the road to Guadix. (Gwah-deeks)

A village of 19,000 people rather inland, without much to distinguish itself other than the picturesque views and historic cave dwellings in the hills, they don't see many foreign tourists. All the tourism that goes through Guadix is other Spaniards. It's a nice little village, clean and friendly-feeling. Though it was here we began to suspect that the 'beer + free tapa' thing doesn't apply to annoying tourists who ask a lot of questions.

It was a quiet, warm walk up the hill to the cave neighborhood. The cave museum we flagged cost 2,50/person so we declined to enter and went to plan B: just walk around. Up the hill across the street from a souvenir shop, the proprietor told us her husband ran a free cave tour so we poked our heads in for about 30 seconds. Turns out there's not much to see in a cave house. It's about what you would expect. They paint the rough-hewn stone walls white so it feels less like a cave. We were about to go spend a week pet sitting in a cave, anyway (more on THAT adventure in another post) so we didn't linger.

There are several viewpoints constructed, but we just walked up on top of the roof of one of the caves and took a panorama.

The view was spectacular. The historical landmarks were beautiful. But two nights in Guadix was the perfect amount of time to explore what the little city has to offer.

From Guadix, we took another Alsa bus.

An Aside RE: Alsa

We've been taking public transportation around Spain for 1.5 months and managed to avoid renting a car (after the first hike from Madrid to Albir on our first day). The benefits of this are plentiful. It's cheaper (though if you can drive a stick, doyouspain.com might work for you), less hassle re: parking and reading road signs, plus Mr. Go gets to enjoy the scenery or read a book instead of white-knuckle the wheel.

Plus, not having a car forces us to walk or figure out the transportation system. Sometimes it's a challenge, but challenges are good for you! If we had a car, we would undoubtedly find excuses to use it, both incurring gas costs and robbing our bodies of exercise.

But for journeys too long to walk, there has been one clear hero in Spain these past weeks: Alsa.

Renfe runs trains between major cities, but Alsa has always been cheaper. They've had routes running wherever we wanted to go, even tiny little cave towns, for dirt cheap. Kids under 3 are free and kids 4-13ish (I think?) are half price.

Only one driver gave me a hard time about my (very reasonably sized) backpack, trying to make me put it in the luggage compartment under the bus. The rest have been apathetically indifferent.

Don't buy tickets online and incur a processing fee. Just go to the station just before your bus arrives and buy a ticket. Never has a bus been full (yet). I've been told you can also buy tickets from the driver, if the town doesn't have an Alsa station or point of sale. We've seen people buying tickets from the driver, but tbh I have no idea if it works all the time.

At least one Alsa bus I've ridden had a bathroom (though idk, it was labeled 'WC', but we didn't look inside). The time we needed a bathroom, on a 3-hour direct bus from Granada to Seville, the spot in the back where the WC was on the other bus was simply a locked door, so *shrug emoji*


Anyway, we took an Alsa bus to Granada; more on that in the next post!

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Three Days in Baza, Spain

Before you get it into your head that it's pronounced Buhzah, it's actually Bah-tha.

We arrived in Baza on a bank holiday. They seem to have a lot of those around here, and sometimes even Spaniards are surprised by them.

Our Airbnb was 2km north of the city, so we grabbed some groceries at the only 'grocery store' that was open on a holiday, an alimentación (aka a 'chino', as the Spanish call them). Most alimentacións stock the bare-bones essentials and candy, but this one even had 'fresh' vegetables, though it was a sad collage of cabbage, onions, carrots and potatoes.

Our Airbnb host was kind enough to give us a lift home for our first day. This Airbnb was a cortijo, basically a farmhouse, on 13 hectares (1 hectare = 2.5 acres) of olive and almond trees.

This English family's ranch included an 8-year-old daughter, chickens, a turkey, a duck, a donkey, three dogs, at least one cat that I could see, and also their friend's horse. It. Was. Amazing. Our apartment, adjoining their 200-year-old farmhouse, had a woodstove and that charming ranch house feel with its stucco walls and wood beam ceiling.

We sat on the patio in the sun and had coffee with our hosts in the morning, then after our excursions in the town, had a beer with them in the evenings before dinner.

On recommendation from our hosts, we went to restaurante Kaliskka, worth a 5-star Google review and a paragraph here. The menu del dia (13,50/person) included two plates for each of us, a drink and a dessert, and absolutely everything was good. Though they don't bake it themselves, they had gluten free bread to give us, and were kind enough to make one of my dishes with rice instead of noodles.

We didn't aggressively explore Baza, simply because hanging out at the cortijo was so much fun (Babs spent our last evening watching T.V. and playing Spanish twister in her new friend's room), but we did stumble upon a fiesta in the central plaza with dancing and free food.

The Wednesday market is held over by the old train station, and its many stalls offered candy, cheese, cured meats and lots of clothing, not that we bought anything. Baza was cute, it has some historic points of interest, like the Arabic baths, which we never did make it to, and of course all the churches and plazas. But you can get that history in many other little Spanish towns. No, the best part about Baza was our Airbnb experience on the cortijo because it was so different from anything we'd done up to that point.

Babs was not afraid of the horse, so much so that she didn't get out of its way and when it knocked her over got a bloody nose. Nose not broken, but now she snores, should I be worried?!

She was over the moon to have met a dog small enough that she could carry in her arms and toted this poor, patient dog around all over the place.

Since we toy with the idea of being ranchers ourselves, we were giddy to stay on a farm with an actual donkey and pick our hosts's brains. Mr. Go tried to go to work for them, but an ice storm had ravaged the olive trees weeks ago, and they'd decided to delay the harvest.

While walking the 2km into town, we saw the harvest of surrounding huertas (orchards) in progress. An 'ancient method' as described by our host: you beat the tree with a stick and the olives fall off.

Charming.

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Moana Kid's Bedtime Story

I get it. I know how to read my Blogger Stats. I'll blog about Spanish adventures for my mom to read, but for everyone else, here's another Bedtime Story to entertain the wee ones.

Don't forget, here's the Frozen, Beauty & the Beast, Cinderella, Little Mermaid, Mulan and Rapunzel stories too.

In the beginning, there was nothing but darkness. Then Te'Fiti, the mother island, brought life into the world using the magic of her heart. But after time, many sought to steal Te'Fiti's heart for themselves. The demi-God Maui finally succeeded, but was quickly struck from the sky by Te'ka, the lava monster. The heart of Te'Fiti was lost and a curse spread slowly across the ocean from island to island.

Many years later, a girl named Moana grew up on the island of Motunui. One day when she was very young, the ocean gave her a gift: a glowing green stone. Little Moana lost the stone, but her Gramma Tala kept it safe for her as Moana grew.

Moana's father, Chief Tui, taught Moana what would be expected of her as the village's new Chief: to respect their ancient traditions and most of all, do not go beyond the reef out into the open ocean. But the ocean seemed to call to Moana and she always wondered what was beyond the horizon.

One day, the curse of Te'Fiti finally reached Motunui, poisoning the coconut trees and driving the fish away. Moana felt sure the answer to their problem was beyond the reef, but her father still wouldn't let anyone leave the safety of the bay. Then, Gramma Tala showed Moana the cave where her ancestors had put away their boats. Their people had been voyagers! They'd stopped sailing long ago, to protect their people from the monsters that roamed the ocean in search of the lost heart of Te'Fiti.

Gramma Tala returned the heart of Te'Fiti to Moana and reminded her that the ocean chose her to find Maui and restore the heart to its rightful place.

So, even though Gramma Tala was very sick, she encouraged Moana to take a boat from the cave and go in search of Maui.

Gramma Tala said, "Go. Find Maui. When you do, you grab him by the ear and say, 'I am Moana of Motunui, you will board my boat, sail across the sea and restore the heart of Te'Fiti.'"

Moana had no idea how to sail and, thanks to her surprise stowaway, the chicken HeiHei, she had some setbacks, including a violent storm that tipped her boat over. But the ocean helped guide her to the island where Maui had been stranded for the last 1000 years.

But Maui didn't want to help Moana. All he wanted to do was get his magic fishhook back from Tamatoa and go back to being awesome. He tricked Moana and locked her in a cave, then stole her boat! But Moana was clever. She escaped the cave and with the ocean's help, got back on her boat with Maui.

Just then, they were attacked by the Kakamora, vicious little pirates in coconut armor. They were after the heart of Te'Fiti! HeiHei swallowed the heart and the Kakamora grabbed the chicken. Maui pulled some tricky maneuvers with the boat to help them escape without the heart, but Moana went back for it. She batted the coconuts out of the way, grabbed the chicken, swung back onto her boat, then Maui sailed them to safety.

Maui and Moana struck a deal: she'd help him get his fishhook, then they'd restore the heart so he could be a hero again.

Tamatoa's lair was in Lalotai, the realm of monsters. Maui jumped down the tunnel, not expecting Moana to follow, but she did. They found Tamatoa, a giant crab covered in golden treasure, with Maui's fishhook on his back. Moana distracted the crab while Maui grabbed his hook. But after 1000 years without it, he'd forgotten how to use it, and Tamatoa almost defeated him. But Moana thought quickly and created a diversion using a barnacle covered in bio-luminescent algae to help them escape.

Back up on land, Maui thanked Moana for her help, but he was sure they'd never be able to defeat Te'Ka if he couldn't use his hook. Moana encouraged him to keep trying and eventually he got the hang of it again and was able to transform himself into anything he wanted.

Along their journey to Te'Fiti, Maui showed Moana the ancient art of wayfinding. He taught her, "It's knowing where you're going, by knowing where you've been."

When they reached Te'Fiti, Te'Ka emerged to block their path. Maui warned Moana to turn back, but Moana thought she could sail past the lava monster. But she wasn't fast enough. Maui used his hook to protect her from the monster's blow, which cracked it. One more hit and it would be gone forever. Maui was upset Moana hadn't listened to him and left.

Moana begged the ocean to choose someone else for this task. She thought she couldn't do it. But then she was visited by the spirit of her Gramma Tala, and Moana realized she had the courage to try again. She fixed up her boat and sailed back to Te'Fiti to face Te'Ka by herself.

Using the sailing tricks she'd learned from Maui, Moana was able to trick Te'Ka and sail past the barrier islands. But a flying lava ball knocked her boat over. Just as Te'Ka was about to smash Moana with a fiery fist, Maui flew in as a giant hawk and saved her!

"Maui, you came back!" Moana exclaimed. "But, your hook," she said uncertainly.

Along their journey together, Moana had taught Maui that what makes him special isn't what he has, but rather what's in his heart. So Maui shrugged, "Hook or no hook, I'm still Maui. I got your back, Chosen One. Go save the world."

He told her to return the heart to the spiral. As Maui battled Te'Ka to distract the monster from Moana, his hook shattered. Moana climbed the mountain, but once at the top, she found Te'Fiti was gone! But she noticed a spiral on the chest of Te'Ka and realized Te'Ka was Te'Fiti!

Moana said to the ocean, "Let her come to me." The ocean parted to allow the fiery lava monster to cross the distance to Moana. Moana sang a song about all that she'd learned about herself since she set out on her journey and reminded Te'Ka of who she really was.

"This is not who you are. You know who you are. Who you truly are." Te'Ka stopped fighting and allowed Moana to place the glowing green stone in the center of the spiral on her chest. The hard lava stone cracked and fell away, revealing the lush, green Goddess of Life underneath: Te'Fiti.

Te'Fiti scooped Moana and Maui up in her hand. Maui very humbly apologized for stealing her heart and Te'Fiti gifted him with a new hook. She gave Moana a boat to sail home on, then took her place as the mother mountain again.

Moana invited Maui to come back to Motunui with her.

"My people are going to need a master wayfinder," she said. Maui smiled at her and said, "They already have one." He showed her the new tattoo that appeared on his chest: of Moana and her boat! Moana gave him a big hug goodbye and he transformed into a giant hawk and flew away.

Moana sailed home to find her island bountiful again; the curse had been broken. Her parents were so happy to have her back again, and Moana taught her people all that she'd learned about wayfinding. They started voyaging across the sea again, to explore and find new islands. Moana got to sail the sea as she'd always dreamed, and she and her family were happy.

The End

Three Days in Murcia, Spain

Leaving Albir was a little nerve-wracking for me. We'd been there for a month, it was our home base and we were setting off to the mostly unknown; I had a few nights booked at Airbnbs and home sitting down the road, but the large holes in our schedule were giving me palpitations. But in a good way. It felt like we were finally getting into the real adventure.

From Albir, we took the tram to Alicante Luceros station. (Tramalicante.es you can find the timetables, it was super easy to use.) Then it was a short walk to the Alsa Bus Station, where we hopped a bus to Murcia. Renfe trains also run along the coast and between major cities, but tickets were more expensive and times were not ideal.

Murcia, though the 7th largest city in Spain by population with 436,000 people, still feels like a smallish city. It's completely walkable, even from an Airbnb 3km north of city center, where we stayed in a woman's apartment for three nights.

Our Airbnb host, Elena, was super sweet and inviting. She spoke very little English, but her partner, a Cuban named Fidel (who we did not know would also be living in the apartment), spoke a bit more English and we were able to communicate just fine.

Elena was immediately taken with Babs, holding her hand and pinching her cheeks like everyone here does. Babs in turn was fascinated by Elena's big golden lab Kiba, and her two cats, all of whom we also did not realize would be in the apartment with us. (Elena's son and his girlfriend were also there.) It was delightful. And $12/night.

Murcia was having its tree lighting ceremony and a big party at the Plaza Circular while we were there, and town was hopping. Murcia city center was charming, with all the history of its cobblestone Old Town, the Cathedral de Murcia and Santo Domingo. In the big plazas, tapas restaurants have chairs and tables set outside under canopies and people sit and drink beer and get free tapa plates.

The Museo de Bellas Artes de Murcia was one of the highlights, showcasing beautiful paintings dating back to the 16th century, and more modern exhibits. The Museo de Santa Clara, an old convent turned into a museum was nifty, and also free.

The last night of our stay, we took our hosts out for dinner at El Favorito, a gourmet burger joint just down the street. When they ask you how you want your burger cooked, what they're really asking is how bloody do you want it. My 'mediano' was almost cold in the middle it was so pink. But we'd been eating paella and seafood nonstop, so a burger really hit the spot. We went twice during our 3-day stay.

Speaking of restaurants, Emboka is north of the city and a bit pricey (by vagabonding standards--we spent $50some), but I'll be dreaming about the tuna tartar for months.

Down by the river, the Museo de la Ciencia y el Agua was only 1,50E/adult and 1E for Babs. Interactive, educational and they had a kid's water table and playroom. We drag that child all over creation, it was good to give her a few hours to just play. They had a temporary exhibit about Houdini, of all things.

We kept thinking we needed to seek out parks for her to play at, but around every other street corner there's a slide and a swingset, or a trampoline built into the ground. As well as these weird outdoor workout areas with little pedal bikes and chest presses.

On our way to the Alsa station to exit Murcia, we stopped at the Club, Museo y Meson Taurino, a restaurant/bar/bullfighting museum, which was free and actually very interesting. Despite finding it barbarically cruel and being wholeheartedly opposed to bullfighting, Spanish history is steeped in it, and seeing a real suit of lights was cool, from a seamstress' standpoint.

Murcia was only 40km or so from the beach, but many tourists pass it by in favor of the coast, or one of the larger or more famed cities. But we loved it, we wandered around looking at old buildings, ate great food, blundered our way through conversations and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.

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