Day 12 - Seville

Gelati: 0, Drink: 1 glass wine, 2 mojitos, Tapas: 3

Went to the flamenco museum this morning.  It is an "interactive" museum so lots of short films and computerised displays with touchscreens (I managed to crash one - sorry).  Flamenco dancing turns out to have more rules and require more skill and technique than I realised.  However, given I am flat out trying to identify a front turn from a back turn, never mind a broken turn, it all gets a bit repetitive.  I guess I'm just a philistine.  The part I liked the best was the collection of home videos they had of people of all ages, sizes and skill dancing at parties and weddings and such like.  They might not have had the technique of the professionals but they seemed to be having a lot more fun.

I spent the afternoon lolling in the Arab Baths and getting my feet massaged.  They were very fussy about keeping your feet clean.  On entry you were given blue plastic booties to put over your outdoor shoes.  Once you had changed you were required to wear fabric booties with a rubber sole at all times, even in the baths.  The bath themselves were totally enclosed.  I think it is a modern construction but it was set up to make you feel like it was an ancient underground bathing centre.  The walls were painted dark crimson with high, carved wooden ceilings.  Everywhere was lit by candles in metal lanterns with elaborate patterns carved into them.  There were two huge ones suspended over the main baths.  A lot of the candles could only be accessed by wading through the pools.  This is doable since it never got higher than waist height at the deepest point, but I do wonder how they keep the matches dry.

The main area was the tepidarium which was about the size of a 25m swimming pool and was warm but not hot.  You swam through another archway into a smaller room which contained two other pools - the caldarium and the frigidarium.  These were much smaller.  Only 6 people at a time.  The caldarium was hot.  You were only supposed to sit in it for 5 minutes and you wouldn't want to stay longer as you'd probably pass out.  After cooking yourself the idea was to plunge into the frigidarium which, as the name suggests, was very cold.  There was an ice machine in the wall next to it which kept up a steady flow of ice onto the edge of the pool (which explained the odd rattling noise you can hear at the entrance to the baths).  I did the whole process 3 times.

There was also a salt water pool, about the same size and temperature as the tepidarium.  I floated in that for a bit too.  You are amazingly buoyant in salt water.  In addition to all this there was a sauna and a jacuzzi which I didn't bother with.  There was also an area of heated stone platforms where you could lie about, where the air was scented with various aromas.   My time was up before I got a chance to try this.

The foot massage was inoffensive.  I should have learnt the Spanish for "firmer please".  I guess they are used to tourists who aren't used to massage so they err on the side of being too gentle rather than too firm.

My only complaint was we were all issued with one towel each and some sod pinched mine!  I'm guessing it was a woman who wanted an extra one for her hair.  I pinched someone else's but did it in a hurry and it turned out to be sopping wet.  This was a problem because we only got the one so at the end of the visit I had to "dry" myself off with this wet towel before getting dressed.

I lunched early today (1pm) and ended up with more choice than yesterday but I still need Sarah's help because, while my choice was cheaper, the food was still ordinary.  I started with salmorejo which was very good - plenty of garlic and tasty tomatoes.  Main was a whole fish than had been imperfectly filleted.  It was still full of bones and served on a cold plate.  By the time I had gotten all the bones out it was stone cold.  Dessert was rice pudding flavoured with lemon and cinnamon.  With the exception of the disappointing main, it wasn't bad, just not up to Sarah's standards.

For dinner I had a few tapas at a nearby bar (and a few mojitos).  I ordered off the English menu but the translations turned out to be quite loose.  I thought I was getting a mozzarella and tomato salad, chicken and ham croquettes, and eggplant stuffed with tomatoes.  What I got was mozzarella balls threaded on a skewer with cherry tomatoes, olives and basil - very tasty.  Next was chunks of chicken threaded on skewers with slices of ham and the whole topped with melted cheese - a bit cheesy.  The final dish was eggplants chopped up and stewed with onions, tomatoes and capsicum.  All was good, if a bit too much cheese on the second, just not what I was expecting.

Tomorrow night I got on my tapas tour.  Time to find out how the locals do it.