Seville and still not feeling well

Seville and still not feeling well. 

     Saturday proved to be a very busy day.  I made it an early night on Friday night after having Tapas with Rich (the guide), Jim and Jane, a married couple from Jacksonville, Florida at one table. At another table was my buddy, Julia, and her husband, Dan (Chicago) along with Camille and Nancy. 

The Tapas were good again! Accept that I only had the stuffed avocado with yet more prawns. 

                                (No pictures of the food, but plenty of pics of where the Tapas come from. BTW, I had vegetarian--stuffed avocado). 

Sidenote:  How funny, I was just going to tell you about Jim and Jane while I am sitting in the dining room of the hotel having dinner (the tour was over yesterday) and who walks by but Jim and Jane.  Should I confess I am blogging about them?

Jim is now retired but worked in many well-known corporations and Jane (not sure what she did) but they raised three kids to adulthood. Jane and I colluded, betting that Tony would break out in an aria and which opera he was simulating.  I think she cheated because she would somehow speak to his ego and he would start singing.  It was a hoot when we bet Tony would stop on the Flamenco stage before reaching his seat to sing yet another aria. He did stop on the stage while all the patrons were seated and he was the last to arrive, but he only made some joke and walked on.  We laughed and still talk about Tony and his operas. 

                            (This is what I am talking about...Every chance he got, he broke out in song).  

    Like I said, it was an early night because I had a long tour planned in the afternoon the next day. And I had to get back to go with the group to a Flamenco show that evening. I got out of room about 10:30am ton Saturday to rush down and get coffee and something to eat before they closed.   I am not going to go into all the details of the tour, but I did like the guide--Yohanna.  I wasn’t sure I was going to make it all the way through--it was so hot and I kept coughing up a lung. That is embarrassing.  Who wants to be around that? The cough subsided and no one gave me the side-eye so I promised I would distance myself and not overdo it.  However, by distancing myself, I was sometimes left behind.  I had the earpiece that I could hear Yohanna unless I was too far away from the group.  I would need to walk around until she came into range to find the group. Okay, this only happened once and I almost panicked.   (The tour was of the Palace, gardens, and cathedral). Here are a few shots--

Yohanna said goodbye to us at the cathedral and sent us through the door. There were stairs and I followed the others, then there were more stairs. This was a strange way to leave the church.  After ramp number twenty, I figured out we were headed to the bell tower. I didn’t know if my lungs could hold out, but they did and after ramp 35 I was in a room where you could look out over the city of Seville. Was it worth it? I could have probably missed it and been okay. 

So, I have already mentioned Tony at the Flamenco show.  The Show itself was loud.  Lots of stomping.  It would have been good to have someone interpret the dance.  There Flamenco dancers were two women and one man (the matador).  The band consisted of one guitar player and the other two were male singers.  The singing was reminiscent of maybe North African chanting.  It was interesting but loud. I thought the Flamenco dancers were going to break the floor.  Sorry, we could not take pictures of the show.  (But I got better pictures of street acts I will show you).  

We came back to the hotel bar and toasted our last night with cava. 

(From left to right---very back row: Dan, Rich, Jim.  From l to r: Tony, Julia, Jane, Leslie, Polly, Andrew, Camille, ME, Nancy, Margaret and Barry (last two from San Anselmo, CA). 

I still have Sunday.  Maybe one more post in me.