A flying visit to Seville

We didn't quite get airborne, but I did my best to get some air when I fell off the segway.  It sounded like a bit of fun and I thought it would be relaxing and easier on the feet than the walking tour.  The first was certainly true.  It took us some time to find the meeting point - in the end, we had to ring the guide and he came and fetched us.   Little did we know that we would soon be driving/riding(?) through these narrow streets with a lovely couple from India and our guide.  She fell off first - just a small spill.  Not to be outdone, I soon went flying and scraped my elbow and knee. 

The thing is, you don't think you're going that fast and you don't realize the speed is limited to 12 kph. The segway tips right backwards to slow you down and, thinking you're going to fall off, you panic and fall off.  So, I became his flower number one and had to follow right behind him. 

You see a lot more from the segway, especially once the limit is increased to 20 kph - but you don't see inside anything.  This meant that the highlights for me were the Plaza España into which we took the segways via the ramps, the parks which also had the advantage of being cool, and the narrow narrow streets of the old town where we only just managed to squeeze through.  We went along the river, which is navigable and has yachts sailing in it, the bull fighting ring, the gold tower, the palace, the cathedral a number of times, a nice quite grove hidden from most tourists where we learnt that bitter oranges have one small and one big leaf (possibly he made that up) and the mostly bitter oranges in Seville are sent off to Britain for marmalade, and probably some other stuff I've forgotten.

Lunch, shopping (I bought scarves), and on the bus home for a nap and dolling ourselves up for a night at the flamenco.  We went to Casa de la Memoria because it has a great reputation.  It was nothing like I expected.  The theatre is tiny and you have to queue early to get a good seat (we had a drink first and do had ok seats).  First, a guitarist and a singer appear for the first number.  The guitarist was brilliant.  I'm sure the singer was too, but as mum said, it sounded like he was gargling some of the time.  At one point mum sneezed and he said the Spanish equivalent of bless you, so I like him just for that.

There were two dancers - a man and a woman who performed separately - well kinda.  All four are on stage moat of the time. but it's just one big jam session which the audience are voyeurs to.  The dancer seems to be in charge, with the guitar and vocalists taking their lead with a lot of interaction between all four.  The woman was fantastic, and I was expecting her to be the highlight with the man as an after thought.  But he was pretty damn good too.

We had dinner at the flamenco restaurant - tapas and red wine.  The wine was chilled which gives it a different flavour and is not my preferred way to drink red.  The tapas we amazing.  Four sorts, all on toast: steak and cheese, ham and something, and I can't remember the others but they were great.  Ham here is usually a prosciutto  like meat and is so much better than ham as we know it.

We strolled to San Francisco square, which is nothing like mum remembers from Rick Stein, and had a nice dessert and an awful Pina colada (aptly described by Janice as tasting like face cream).