I’m trying an experiment with this post. Rather than waiting for the end of a day or two to write things up, I am doing this one as I have time. I will add to it for the next day or so.
Sunday morning in Seville we waited for the promised weather improvement but gave up and went out anyhow. We took an indirect route (but we weren’t lost, no matter what Patricia may have thought) to the cathedral square from our apartment. I was just exploring. We ate breakfast at Restaurante Gusto where we have eaten several times before. The interior has changed a great deal since our last visit but the food is still good. Patricia likes, of all things, the full British breakfast they serve. I used to get café Americano there but a week in Jerez has helped my tastes “evolve” so I am now drinking café con leche or café solo—but only in Spain. We had a good meal and good service given how busy the place is. It is directly across the street from the Seville Cathedral so it gets a lot of traffic.
We have tickets for a (commercial) flamenco performance tonight in the Plaza de Santa Cruz so we decided we would find our way over during the day so we could make the trip easily in the dark.
It is a good thing we made the effort. Santa Cruz, as much as any neighborhood we have visited, is a real labyrinth. Streets go every which way and are renamed block by block. In fact, the concept of a “block” may not even exist. My GPS was pretty useless because the streets are so narrow that the phone could not get a good fix on our location.
But we did find the Plaza de Santa Cruz eventually and we will be able to get back and forth tonight with no difficulty. The plaza is a small place which gets its name from a church and synagogue which once stood there. The church was demolished in 1810 by the French. On the way to the plaza we (Patricia) found plenty of stores to look at later.
The center of the plaza is a nice little garden. In the center of the garden is an interesting work of art. It is a wrought iron sculpture called the Cruz de Cerrajeria (Cross of the Locksmith). It was originally at the intersection of Calle Sierpes and Calle Rioja. Calle Sierpes is very close to our apartment and an important shopping street. Well, not important to me. “Sierpes” is “snakes” in English and if you look at the picture you will see a snake at each corner.
It is 2:00 in the afternoon and it still isn’t bright and warm outside. We live in hope…
Sunday, Part 2
We did see improvement in the weather this afternoon. It didn’t get sunny, but the rain became scattered and it warmed up a little. We went for a walk in the area around our apartment. We stayed close to here the last two times we visited, so we are comfortable. The first thing we did was to make sure our favorite gelato store was still in business. It is. Then we looked for a yarn store for Patricia. She is nearly done with her current knitting project and will need supplies soon. Because it is Sunday afternoon, most stores were closed, of course.
After a short period of re-familiarization, we bought some gelato and sat on the church steps in Plaza del Salvador to watch people. It was a busy place even with the iffy weather. There were lots of kids, lots of pigeons, and lots of kids chasing pigeons. We had a good time.
Sunday, Part 3
The weather improved even a little more before we set out for Los Gallos in Santa Cruz. It is a 6 or 7 minute walk—now that we know the way. We arrived about 25 minutes before the show and sat in the first row. I realized after the show started that the first row may have been a little bit too close when I found myself hanging on to the beer bottle on our little table because I was concerned that the bailaora’s bata de cola (flamenco dress with a tail) kept coming dangerously close. We saw a good show even though we were looking up most of the time. All of the performers were good and the 90 minutes went by quickly. We saw a good variety of guitarra, cante, and baile as well as some palmas I could actually follow.
The walk home only had one short detour that added only a minute to the journey. Now we are in for the night even though it is only 10:30. We had a very nice day in Seville. Tomorrow we go on a tour to Carmona.
Pictures on the Seville pictures page.