Jen and Rebecca See Seville (in a Single Day)

Since we’ve fully adapted to the part of the Spanish timetable that keeps us up late at night, but not the part that starts our day later (because we’re tourists who need to see it all!) we decided to give that part a try and have a more relaxed morning.  Plus we were staying in a very nice penthouse apartment with two floors so we thought we ought to enjoy it a bit.  Anna made us tea for a leisurely late morning on our terrace where we basked in the sun with the honking traffic noises of Seville below us.  Once we finally got moving for the day, we headed to the featured attraction in Seville, the cathedral, which is the third largest in the world after The Vatican (which Jen still hasn’t seen because Rebecca’s already been to Rome twice without her) and St. Paul’s in London.

We found the cathedral!  (Or at least we found the exit.)

After managing to find about 4 churches other than the third largest cathedral in the world, we finally navigated our way to the right one.  We followed Rick Steve’s walking tour of the vast interior, wowed by the high altar and Columbus’s tomb.  Because Rebecca enjoys climbing things (and only partially because heights freak Jen out) we headed up to the top of the bell tower for views of the city.  We think the Moorish ramps designed for horses to take someone to the top 5 times a day to call citizens to prayer were preferable to stairs to climb the 34 floors.  (Our calves have gotten some major workouts on all these inclines in Spain!)

View of cathedral from the bell tower.

We decided that we’d had our fill of Spanish castles for the trip, so we skipped the Alcazar and instead headed to the Plaza de Espana, built for the World’s Fair in the 1920s.  We did some more leisurely strolling before heading back into the city center to get lost only a few more times on our way to the Plaza de Encarnacion where we had a very late lunch and pondered the weird Parasole sculpture. Next we met our instructor for our scheduled flamenco lesson.

Plaza de Espana

Our instructor, Emilia, attempted to teach us the basics of the dance.  We did ok when it was just hands or just feet, but somehow, combining the two caused each of us to lose concentration and coordination.  We also learned how to adapt the dance moves to “happy” vs “sad” flamenco music.  Sadly for you readers but happy for us, there is no photographic evidence of the class.  You’ll just have to believe us. 

Fake flamenco dancers on the balcony

We enjoyed our complimentary glass of sangria before heading back out to the streets of Seville for a last vacation night.  We toured one last church, San Salvador, before settling in at a restaurant for a free flamenco show.  It was supposed to start at 9, but by 10, the band still wasn’t set up and we were hungry.  We hunted down one of the restaurants recommended by the owner of the previous night’s restaurant.  Rebecca and Jen agreed that it wasn’t as good as our first dinner in Seville, but it was still delicious.  Plus we were secretly pleased that we’d kept Anna up past her bedtime.

We found Jen and Anna's people!