Day 2 in Seville began with a great breakfast buffet in our hotel. We needed a lot of sustenance for our day!
Our first stop of the day was the Triana district (http://www.andalucia.com/cities/seville/triana.htm) for pottery. To our trusty tram we walked, a couple of stops later we hopped on a bus that took us to the heart of Triana. We wandered streets for a while looking at residences and wondering where the pottery shops were. (TripAdvisor had led us a bit astray here.) We finally found some shops and ended up at Triana Ceramics. They had LOTS of different styles and colors to choose from, so we bought a set of 4 small dinner plates, salad plates, and cereal bowls. Of course, we had to have the obligatory set of 2 coffee mugs. We had them ship back everything except the mugs to sister Pam’s house in Phoenix. Coffee tastes so much better in a pretty mug!
After the pottery shop, we walked around some more looking for the Mariner’s Museum, but never found it. No cheese for us in that particular maze... Since we were both in some pain yesterday evening, We took more breaks today. Our hope was that it we'd be able to make it through a full day of sightseeing. We walked across the Isabella II Bridge and along the Canal del Afonso XIII past the Museo Taurino (Bullfighting Museum; http://www.andalucia.com/cities/seville/bullring.htm) to the Torre del Oro (Tower of Gold; http://www.andalucia.com/cities/seville/torredeloro.htm). The Tower is aptly named for amount of gold that passed through Seville from the New World. We toured the Naval Museum in the Torre before heading over to the plaza near the Seville Cathedral for lunch ... and rest! (Kent checked the maps afterwards and discovered that we walked about 2¼ miles through Triana and the rest. No wonder we needed a rest!) We stopped at a tapas bar for lunch to sample some of the famed Seville cuisine. We thoroughly enjoyed tapas of stewed pork (YUM!), chicken, and paella (Spain’s national seafood rice dish), washed down with small glasses of beer.
We went to the Seville Cathedral after lunch. Since there is a lot to tell about the Cathedral, it has its own blog entry. It will be next.
After the Cathedral, we dashed back to the hotel to change for the show at the Flamenco Museum (http://www.flamencotickets.com/museo-del-baile-flamenco-seville). As expected on a Friday night, every seat was taken, but it was still a cozy setting with about 80 seats. We were enthralled through the hour-long performance in which each of the four performers (female dancer, male dancer, guitarist, and singer) was highlighted. The dancers each had incredible energy and passion – whenever we thought they were done ... and exhausted ... they somehow put another energetic flourish across the floor. After it was all done, we ate an early dinner (for Spain – it was only 8:30 pm!) in a nearby bar. We had tapas again for dinner: pork loin, cheese, and chicken. A pleasant surprise was the wine at the flamenco show and with dinner. Both were VERY tasty, light, and crisp. And not nearly enough...
Unfortunately, photography at the Flamenco show was limited to no flash. So, no pictures. Sorry!
