Spain - Sevilla - Moving On

Wednesday, March 1st, and we are saddened to be leaving Toledo. It was a magical experience for us, but we also know that there is so much more ahead. We were checked out of the hotel by 8:30, and taxiid to the train station in no time. I love the taxis here. They all seem pretty much brand new, they're always well-kept and clean. Even though they look small from the outside, they are actually quite well appointed on the interior, with very comfortable cushy, contoured seats, and plenty of legroom. This particular one was a Peugot. At the train station, the clerk behind the counter was a friendly man and was happy to help us arrange our entire trip today, which was a short jaunt back up to Madrid, an hour layover, and then a 2 1/2 hour trek south to Sevilla, through Cordoba. Thankfully, we had already reserved a hotel room there. Once on the train, I really had just enough time to turn on the computer, look up our reservation, write down the address and confirmation number, turn it off and pack it away. Once in Madrid, my stomach was growling again. That's another thing. Fat people seemingly don't exist here, or at least, not anywhere near the scale of what we are accustomed to seeing in the U.S. Scale, as in multitude, and as in magnitude. And now I know why. Or, at least my stomach knows why, because I'm constantly freakn starving. The portions are small, and everything is served with nothing. I mean, nothing, as in that is what comes with your food. Nothing. For example, at the train station, I got una bocadilla de pollo, which is a chicken sandwich. Amazingly, it actually came with a decent portion of papas fritas, or as we call them, french fries. But, the deal is that there is nothing on the sandwich except bread. No lettuce, no tomato, no onion, no mayonaisse, no mustard, no special sauce, no pickle. Nothing. That's what I mean. In fact, I could hardly believe my taste buds when I actually tasted a hint of salt on the fried potatoes, and I think that they actually snuck in a dash of pepper on the wafer thin slice of chicken that made up the lonely insides of my sandwich. No wonder I am starving all the time. Also, there is nothing to put on top of, inside, along with your food. I miss mustard. Even just a small dollup would be nice. No mustard here. Nonetheless, I have been happy with our food. No bad experiences, no stomach issues, and everything has been good and tastey enough, minimalistically. Just not enough to keep my stomach from growling long.It is so nice to finally be all caught up with my blogging. We are still playing catch-up with the website though, and that has been a constant source of frustration. We want so badly to be able to keep the website updated on a daily basis, but that has proved impossible. Hopefully, this next hotel will have wi-fi. If not, we'll be seeking out an Internet cafe this afternoon. We have dedicated today to getting all caught up with blogs, the website, and email corresondance so that tomorrow, we can enjoy Sevilla without reservation.Right now, we are on the train to Sevilla, and we only have about another 20 minutes to go. I'd like to take some time to peck away at some random thoughts. To this point, my blogging has been a dry recollection of what we've done. Although, it is very important to me, and to Vee, to have a log of what we've done, it is at least equally important to have a record of how we felt, and what we thought. So, with this bit of time on the rails, I'll try to let a few things out.Do I miss anything yet? Not really. It was not even all that challenging to pack everything into one bag(actually, Vee took care of that, and only made me believe it was easy), and I thought for sure that there would be something I forgot to bring, or never thought to bring, and would be at a loss without it. But that has not been the case thus far. It is actually so nice knowing that everything you have, is all in one place, either on your back, or being pulled behind. Of course, at the same time, with everything in one bag, it can be nerve-wracking to think that if it were stolen, everything would be gone. Our first few days were a consious exercise in not getting anything stolen or lost. It reminds me of Seinfeld in one of his stand-up routines where he talks about scuba-diving, and how all you can think about underwater is "Don't die", "Don't die", "Don't die". For us, it was "Don't lose it."I do miss my acoustic guitar. It is very nice, at home, when inspired, to just pick it up and play. Months back, I looked into buying one of those travelling guitars. I quickly let go of that idea as the more I read, the more I realized the sound would not be fulfilling, it would probably break, and it would definitely be a pain to have to carry around. It was the right decision, without a doubt. But I still miss playing. Especially here in the birthplace of the guitar, Spain.--*!##!*--Okay, back again. Since my last bit of writing, yesterday on the train as were were pulling into Sevilla, we've had a few things to report on. Have I said how much I love the train? I do. of course, this is only Spain so far, but man o man, I love these trains. Okay, that said, the train stations are quite nice too, not just to look at (especially the jungle inside the Madrid Atoche station), architecturally, but they are also just easily laid out and simple to navigate. And clean. And neat. There was no line for a taxi, and there was a line of taxis, so we were off to the hotel immediately upon our stepping outside the station. Traffic was horrendous, but it was becuase of some road construction that had apparently chopped off access to part of a main street for crossing town. We zipped through the narrow corridors pulled right up to the front of the Hotel Cervantes, which happened to be a Best Western property. On the way to the hotel, I could not get a flavor for the city. On the surface, it seemed un-amazing, somewhat ordinary. Of course, that's not fair, since we just came from Toledo, which was everything but ordinary. So we get all checked in, found our room, let ourselves in, and then encountered our first little mystery, the electricity. It wouldn't work. We couldn't get any lights in the room, or bathroom to turn on, and certainly not the tv. Vee called the front desk, and the truth was revealed. The electricity was fine. We just weren't allowing it to work. We learned that our room key also acted as a sort of switch, where in order for the electricity to work, our room key has to be inserted.--*!##!*--