Seville

We arrived into Seville at 9pm and went straight to a tapas bar.

Damo got the usual suspects of jamon, croquete, chorizo and oxtail stew (for something different). Mick had usual suspects of bread, water and clear soup (for something different). After dinner drinks were had at a fancy hotel overlooking the cathedral (apparently the largest gothic cathedral in the world).

The following morning we had an orientation walk of the city followed by our visit to inside the cathedral and then the Réal Alcazar (a palace that is still used by the royal family). The rooms we saw definitely are not still used by the royal family as we simply saw empty room after empty room. The only thing that was different about each room was the mosaic tiles. The most memorable moment of the palace visit was when Mick and Damo were discussing the mosaic tiles in one of the rooms when Mick turned to Damo and said (in all seriousness) "its got a definite Spanish influence..." 

Afternoon tea/dinner was tapas (where Mick could finally eat) at a small bar that was populated with the family or relatives of the proprietor.  It wasn't the greatest, but it definitely beat bread and water!

The tour group then went to a Flamenco performance. The male dancer looked very much like the scary "child collector" from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang with extremely long and greasy hair that kept getting stuck to his face as he spun around. Being all in Spanish, we had to make up own story line for the songs. In the first song the female singer was highly emotional and very upset. Mick called this song "I stepped in dog poo" (the inspiration for this made up title came from the time Mick stepped dog poo in Lisbon, he felt her pain).

In the second song the only word we understood was Antonio, so Damo called this song "Antonio, Antonio, please buy me some new shoes." In the third song, the dancer was brushing her foot to the ground like a bull. We gathered that Antonio could not afford the shoes, so the dancer was showing the singer how too clean her shoes and save them from rubbish bin.

All jokes aside it was a very emotional and powerful performance, and we were surprised took find  from Delia that the 2 singers, guitarist and 2 dandancersd out likely never met before and that flamenco performances are often improvised with people who have never met before

We celebrated the fact that Mick could now eat by having the first churros for the trip. They were nice but not as good as churros back home! Seville is a place we will definitely return to (even with their sub par churros)