Day 13 - Seville

Gelati: 0, Wine: 5 glasses, Tapas: 9

Spent the morning at the museum of Decorative Arts, dodging parties of school children.  Only half of it was open so I was let in for free.  I suspect it was also partly because the guard couldn't be bothered selling me a ticket. EU citizens get in for free, so the guards generally don't have to do anything.  The best bit was the recreation of the house and shop of a local dealer in lace and embroidery from the late 19th - early 20th century, although each room was set out separately, rather than altogether as one house.  It put me in mind of Denise's uncle's shop from 'The Paradise' but in better condition.

After this I spent some time sitting in the Maria Luisa park watching the people and buskers.  The buskers are very talented here.  The first I encountered looked like someone had left three elaborate carnivale masks on a table.  I was surprised as I expected they would get pinched.  When I went closer I found it was actually one person under a table with two heads on sticks on either side.  All three were made up as elaborate, multi-coloured birds which chirped and burbled and bounced as you got near.  The closer you got, the more excited the heads became.  When you put money in his tin they became really shrill as they were just beside themselves with excitement.  However, as you walked away he would shout 'Thank you' after you, in a very deep voice.  Very entertaining to watch him as well as the reactions of people passing by.

Another busker was a young man dressed all in black with a glass ball around the size of a grapefruit.  He danced, while rolling it around in his hands and along his arms.  He made it look like a soap bubble that was about to fly away.  Very graceful.

The last that was worthy of note was a man with two dummies of a couple dancing on his back.  His legs were the legs of the male half of the couple.  When he bent over his head plumped out the female half of the couple's bustle, while his arms made her legs.  He then danced the pair of them around.  Even though I saw him get set up it was easy to believe there were two people dancing.  Can't imagine what it does to his back to be folded over like that.  He must have super flexible hamstrings.

After lunch I went to the 16th century palazzo of a local countess who would have been called a raving loon, except she was very rich, so she is merely eccentric.  She was widowed young, had no children but had pots of money so she did whatever she liked.  She was a keen amateur archaeologist, but I suspect she would make a professional cry.  If she liked something, she brought it home.  She particularly liked Roman mosaics so she had them dug up and brought to her home to decorate the floors of her palazzo.  Where necessary she had the walls moved to fit.  She also had a couple of Roman columns, because what else does a good dining room need?

Every room on the ground floor was full of cabinets with various bits and bobs.  There was one full of bone items from time periods spanning three centuries - sewing needles, buttons, combs and the like.  Another was full of coins from all periods, but mainly Roman.  Others were full of pottery fragments.  She doesn't appear to had made any real attempt to catalogue it all.

Some rooms were tiled with painted tiles pulled out of buildings of various ages that she had bought so she could plunder them for the fittings.  Upstairs, each room had a different theme - e.g. the Japanese room with Japanese ceramics and painted screens.  In the Arabic room, which was used for smoking and drinking tea, she had furniture and tapestries from the region.  She also had the (priceless!) ceiling painted to match the colour scheme of the cushions.

The library was about the only room in the house she hadn't adjusted.  She just filled it with books.  About 6,000 the guide told me.  I was supposed to be impressed.  I didn't have the heart to tell her I have around 1,000 at my place and that's not counting the 600-odd on my Kindle.

Lunch was the menu of the day as usual at some random bar.  I had salmorejo again, but it wasn't as good as yesterday's version.  This one had chopped jamon on top but no trace of garlic so it was a bit bland.  Main was fillet of some animal.  Not beef but it didn't taste like pork either.  Veal perhaps.  It was served with a tasty gravy (whiskey-based if you believe the menu) and chips.  What did cheap restaurants do before potatoes were brought back from the New World?  I had the choice between coffee and dessert and opted for coffee.

Met up with my tapas tour guide, Shawn, this evening.  She is a Canadian who feel in love with all things Spanish (but not a Spaniard) about 20 years ago, moved here and has never left.  An American couple from San Francisco were also taking the tour.  Another single, a woman from Canada, was also meant to join us but never showed.  We waited 1/2 an hour but ended up leaving without her.

First stop was the back room of a bar down a side street so narrow I would never had found it on my own.  The room was decorated with enormous clay jars (they reached the ceiling and could probably fit 4 people inside them at their widest).  The bar used to make its own house wine and kept it in these jars until EU regulations put a stop to it.

I had been expecting we would have a dish or two to share at each bar but we had 4 at this one.  They were pieces of sheep's cheese, venison chorizo, the best quality jamon on toast and bacala also on toast with a dollop of salmorejo on top.  Shawn raved about the bacala but I'm afraid no matter how you prepare it, it is either fishy and salty or unsalty white mush.

Next stop was a more easy to find place, again mostly populated by locals.  Here we had "mains" - that is hot dishes.  They were chickpeas cooked with spinach and spices, three sorts of pork in a bun (pulled pork, black pudding and chorizo), stewed beef cheeks and bacala again, this time in batter and deep fried.  The pork in a bun was the standout here.

Our third and final stop was at a place that served a more modern style of food so we would get a broad range of items.  Here we each got to pick something from the menu, rather than Shawn doing the selecting.  The couple had squid ink spaghetti and crepes stuffed with rice and black pudding.  They offered to let me have a taste but I wasn't interested in either.  I had (3) prawns dipped in breadcrumbs and fried, which were tasty.  I was a bit disappointed in this stop as the food wasn't as interesting but all in all it was a very entertaining tour.  For the first time I got back to my hotel in the evening at a respectable hour (by Spanish standards) - just before midnight.

Off to Granada tomorrow.