Seville Spain - how do we get there?

[Northbeach]

Update #2 on 11/04/2012

At Sevilla now and my son busy taking Flamenco Guitar and Spanish lessons.

It has been many years since I set foot in Europe. I was impressed with the Airport at Barcelona, wow! Never has clearing customs been easier or better thought through. The first impression made by the airport and customs could not have been better. Nothing like entering the U.S. where that same experience is dreadful (I am not an America hater, quite the contrary).

The airport has huge clean open terminals with lots of natural light, many retail establishments to spend your money at and numerous places to get something to eat or drink. World class place! No airport departure announcements, the flight information is posted on the reader boards around the terminal so it is up to the passengers to keep up which I thought was a nice imporvement.

I took a Vueling flight from Barsalona to Seville and did not introduce myself to the crew. But I did glance around the flight deck, immaculate. It was evident the flight crew took pride in their work and surroundings. The A319 (I think) was old but clean, the operation ran like a fine Swiss watch.

We ended up purchasing two last minute full fare walk up tickets to Seville (bumped in EWR & could not get to Madrid which was the original plan). The seating pitch was another story however, I though the seating was very cramped. I am 6 feet tall, not so tall really, and my knees were jammed into the seat in front of me. No conditioned air for the passengers while parked at the ramp, but temperature was acceptable even though the flight was quite full. Single engine taxi (fuel savings I imagine) 2nd engine started a few minutes before our departure from 25L (if I remember correctly). Our early departure leading to an early arrival at SVA. Other than the tight quarters the Vueling flight a very pleasent experience. However I would not want to spend more than 2 hours in that seat though. We did this flight immediately following a 7+ hour flight on United from Newark.

As far as the web based booking site is concerned (golearnto.com) the jury is still out. The idea is very good, but the support is lacking. No support over the weekend and limited hours. After they take the deposit they really want you to work directly with the porviders. However they suggets travelling on a Saturday and returning on a Saturday, but are not available to facilitate over those hours.

Trying to do this on a zed ticket we got bumped in Newark and set back 24 hours. Golearnto.com was unavailable, trying to communicate with the transportation, accomodation and school providers through the language barrier (most of them only speak Spanish) over the Easter National Holiday and the 9+6 hour time zone change(West & East coast of the USA) was problematic. Nobody to respond to an email message, nobody to call. So if a person was based in Europe and spoke Spanish none of the above would be any concern. However trying to use this service from the west coast of the United States was much more problematic.

The school itself in Seville, Taller Flamenco has been wonderful. My 16 year old is taking a weeks worth of intensive Flamenco guitar and Spanish lessons. Taller Flamenco of Sevilla Spain has met or exceeded every expectaion and hope I had for a fun, excellent and positive learning experience for my son. Prior to this trip the only Spanish I heard him speak was an occasional word or two, today surprisingly about 5% of what comes out of his mouth is Spanish. I have heard more Spanish out of this kid in the last 2 days than in the previous 2 years of taking Spanish classes at his public High School back in the USA. On the first day sitting around EWR all the kid talked about was video games, now itīs all about the music and Spanish. Vast imporvement may I say!