Apparently, “rain showers” in Seville has a different meaning than in Santa Fe. It is pouring and has been for several hours. We won’t be going out for a while.
That’s Ok, though. It allows me to get an early start on the report for Tuesday (the 7th) and today.
Yesterday was the warmest day we have seen yet in Spain. We probably did not even need coats while we walked around. And walk we did. According to the tracker I carry (when I remember), we covered more than 7.3 miles. That was a combination of refamiliarizing ourselves with this part of Seville and going on a “Secret Food Tour.” I am not sure if the food was secret or if the tour itself was secret. Perhaps both or perhaps neither.
We needed to do some grocery and supply shopping in the morning and we chose that need as an excuse to walk the streets we last visited 3 years ago. We have been to Seville several times and we were happy that we could still find our way around. Let me modify that a bit: I could still find my way around. Patricia is good at remembering stores once we get to them, while I remember how to navigate from place to place but pay almost no attention to the stores–except the ice cream stores.
The map below will show our path over the course of the day but you might think of it as being in three segments. In the morning we walked around with the ultimate goal of getting to a grocery store we know and in the afternoon we found our way to a place where we will see flamenco tonight and Friday and then explored the gardens adjacent to the Real Alcázar, which are quite extensive. On past visits, the entrances to the gardens always seemed closed but we had no trouble getting in this time. By the end of the walk we were ready for ice cream. Now that we are in a big city ice cream is about twice as expensive as in Jerez.
The third segment of our walking was in the evening and took us from the apartment to El Salvador Plaza and from there to several restaurants and shops on our food tour.
We had thought that we might find many businesses had closed during the pandemic and were pleased to see that most–but not all–of the places we knew were still open. We later learned from Elio, our tour guide, that the state helped old, established businesses survive the slow times caused by the pandemic. Businesses more than 100 years old and owned by families, as opposed to those owned by corporations, received the most support.
I was concerned that on a food tour I would find that I was not likely to want to taste any of the food, but our first stop at El Comercio Bar Café somewhat relieved my concern. As it happens, El Comercio was no secret to us. Patricia and I have eaten there a few times. I go primarily for their churros and chocolate, which are served all day. Many would agree that they make the best churros in Seville. The format of the tour was to go to a place and sample a food or foods for which that place is well known. The tour group hardly deserved the designation “group,” since it was just Patricia and me and the guide, Elio. However, that made for a really informative evening, even if I did not try all the food. Patricia tried everything except the beer.
We walked from El Salvador across the river to Triana and back, talking and stopping at interesting places.
Here is a list of the places and foods on the tour: Bar El Comercio (Churros con chocolate), Casa Morales (Montadito de pringá, Tortilla de patatas), Productos de la Sierra (Charcutería and Cheeses) , Las Golondrinas (Champiñones con alioli, Pinchito moruno, Chipirones a la plancha), and Casa Cuesta (Espinacas con garbanzos, Salmorejo, Carrillada al PX).
Nearly every one of the places had an interesting story associated with it and Elio told the stories well. The tour lasted about 3 hours and we got back to the hotel around 11 pm. We had hoped that while we were out we would be able to see the full moon, but the overcast which turned into rain overnight prevented that. My long string of getting a picture of the full moon each month has been broken.
We stayed in Wednesday morning because it continued to rain. Around noon the rain let up but we waited before going out in case it was just a trick. When we did go out the temperature was nice and there was scattered blue sky. We took a chance that the rain would not resume soon and walked to the Carmela restaurant, a place where we had a good dessert on a previous visit. This time we had several types of tapas. Most of them were good, but I could only choke down a single bite of the brie cheese and onion tapa.
We timed our meal well because as we got up, the sprinkles resumed and by the time we got back to the apartment it was raining again.
In the evening we had tickets for a flamenco performance at La Casa del Flamenco. The tickets said the show began at 7:00. But we went by the venue both yesterday and today, and the showbill outside said the show began at 7:30. I was willing to believe the time posted at the venue but by 6:40, Patricia insisted that we get there at 7:00 just in case. As usual, she was right. The show did begin at 7:00 and we got there with about 2 minutes to spare. We got 2 of the last 4 seats. The show was great and we enjoyed it. As an extra treat for us, one of the cantaores (singers) was Pepe de Pura, whom we just saw last week at a performance in Jerez.
Overall, we had a nice day, despite the rain.
I have added some Seville pictures to the pictures page.
Below is a map that shows where we walked on Tuesday.
Kate
9 Mar 2023Churros. Yum.