Patio

The weather forecast was once more dismal for today, so we thought we’d better go out while it was still fine. We walked over the bridge to Triana, and after a wander round the streets, shopped for a picnic in the covered market. As we left I commented that given how many tourists there are in Seville, it was surprising that the market is still mostly a traditional market. Sure, there are a handful of tourist-oriented stalls, but most are still straight food shopping. Back on the other side of the river we realised why. Seeing another structure that was clearly a market, we stopped to investigate, and it had been transformed into one of those slick modern street food places. Good to have the choice.

Plan A had been to go to a park for our picnic. But it was so chilly and dismal that we chose plan B. A perk of our expensive room is that we have access to a patio, separate from the main reception area, where we can avail ourselves of a permanent buffet of snacks (fruit, charcuterie, cake, drinks). So we took our picnic down there and supplemented it with the buffet. Our part of the hotel is very quiet and we had it to ourselves (blip). The hotel had also figured out it was S’s birthday, so later more complimentary macarons and cake were delivered to the room (no cava this time though).

After lunch we decided to take the advice of the concierge for a rainy day, and visit the Casa Pilatos. It was a long walk to get there, and when we arrived there was a stationary queue snaking across the square outside. After we’d watched it not moving for a while, S went to enquire, and learned that they let 100 people in on the hour every hour. There were already at least 100 people in the queue … we abandoned that plan. The concierge had also recommended the Hospital de la Caridad so we went via there on the way back. It was definitely not worth the 10 euros each that we paid. The street of shoe shops was more interesting than that (extra).

This is the third time we’ve visited Seville, and we still haven’t been to a flamenco show so this had to be rectified. After a bit of research, we went for the easy option: the Tablao El Arenal just a couple of minutes’ walk from the hotel, where there are two shows a day, every day. Yes, it is completely tourist oriented, and I was a bit dubious at first, but it turned out to be a good show in the end, and we enjoyed it. I think the best part was the male dancer and two singers dancing to music made with only voices, hands, and feet — no guitarist. The two female dancers were very good too.

The whole thing was a very slick operation — we just paid for the show and a drink, but they’d served dinner to around 60 people before the show. Dinner was cleared away and it started on the dot of 9:30, and finished at exactly 10:30 to the minute. The price for the show and dinner is 79 euros … they must be raking it in.