Seville

Yesterday we got up early for our trip to Seville, a city rich in history and art. Unfortunately the weather forecast was right and we spent most of the day under showers, and it was a pity not being able to enjoy the city in its full splendour under the sunshine.

We went straight to the Plaza de Toros de la Real Maestranza (the bullring), where we had a tour with a guide who introduced us to the history of bullfigthing and the different roles of those involved in this ancient tradition.

We continued with lunch in the Santa Cruz neighbourhood, right next to the Cathedral, which was our first visit of the day. We climbed the Giralda, the tower of the cathedral which was part of the original mosque upon which the Christian temple was built. That was very common in this area, with many churches built upon mosques, which were also built upon Roman temples, and so on.

The Cathedral is a magnificent building, majestic and filled to the brim with works of art. For some of our students it was the first time inside such a building, and you could tell by their faces.

After the Cathedral we went to the adjacent Reales Alcázares, but unfortunately King Juan Carlos had decided to pay the city a visit and was staying there, which meant that the monument was closed for visitors. Instead we had a hot chocolate to warm us up and give us energy to wander around the Santa Cruz area, where some shops proved to be too tempting, so we came back with a few more bags than we had at the beginning of the day.

We had dinner at a cosy restaurant with a menu consisting of traditional dishes: plates of iberian ham and cheese, scrambled eggs with mushrooms, iberian ham and prawns, and flamenquines (deep fried ham rolls with meat and cheese covered in bread crumbs) with fried potatoes and roasted peppers, as well as spanish omelette with cumin sauce for our vegetarians. Just across the road we got ice-cream, and we ate them on the way to the flamenco show at the Tablao Los Gallos, one of the oldest flamenco shows in Spain. The performance was very powerful and moving, with both male and female cantaores (flamenco singers) and female bailaoras (dancers).

We got back to Marbella at 1 am, so we went straight to bed, and this morning we had breakfast and took the students to the language school for their last morning of lessons. Afterwards we will go to Málaga. I will post information about this tonight.