Sevilla, Spain

We are back from our beautiful trip to Europe.  Sevilla, Spain was first on the itinerary. We had our own Spanish interpreter, daughter Annie.   This is the second time we have traveled to Spain, but it was way more fun this time!  We stayed for 7 days in Sevilla and our experience of the culture was much richer and deeper.  We were there a week before the Semana Santa festival, a holy week festival filled with religious spectacle and rich traditions.  It is a genuine tourist magnet.  We saw much of the preparation and I am including some of those in the posted photos.  We ate lots of delicious Spanish food, tapas in little cafes - tapas portions allow you to sample many dishes and we did, strudel de verduras, croquetas caseras, solomillo el whiskey (the flavor I keep trying to capture and  with enough olive oil and garlic I'm getting there), bueyala mostaza antiqua, literally translated beef with old mustard, yum!!  It was all exquisite.  We drank many cafe con leches at coffee houses that double as bars, we sampled vino de naranja and many Cruzcampos, beer in little glasses (just enough) and el invento con huevos y jamon at the market (see photo) an interesting combination that crowds line up for at the market.  

We took a tour with Paul McGrath, originally from Australia, living in Sevilla for the past eleven years.  He took us south to the Pueblos Blancos, the little mountain towns of Zahara de la Sierra, Grazelema, Prado del Rey and Benamahona.  Beautiful little, old towns set on mountain sides, mostly all white and one with the remains of a Moorish castle that has been actively preserved, much of the centuries old structure still in place, paths and walls of other structures of that time also preserved.  The mountains of Spain are spectacularly beautiful and wild.  Little roads take you up and around the rocky mountain countryside. The towns had remains of roads from the Middle Ages.  Awed us Americans.  The Spanish know the wealth of preserving this history.  We visited a family run winery and a family-owned olive oil factory still producing olive oil in small runs the old fashioned, time-honored way.


We took in Flamenco, heard and saw the bells of La Giralda Cathedral, climbed the pathway up to the bell tower to glimpse all of Sevilla from above, walked to the Plaza de Espana, lovely "new" (built in 1929 for the world expo) building and grounds and just got caught up in the spirited, social, loud Spanish culture!  I loved it!