On Saturday we walked around the medina which means old city. I went photo crazy which also drove Jeff crazy.
These arches are the way into the medina. There are five of them, each one interesting and photo worthy.
Inside it was very narrow streets with lots of people and stores selling all kinds of things. The above is a type of soap you bring to the hammas which is like a traditional spa.
We were a bit overwhelmed so we stopped for a cup of mint tea at a famous Cafe where the Rolling Stones and writers and poets hung out.
So many doors…
After the tea we needed more of a break so went to a quieter part of the Medina.
We had lunch and then walked out of the medina to a park.
We said goodbye to Rolf and Samuel and got boarded the ferry for Tangier Morocco. The ocean was really rough so I had to clutch anything I could to stay upright. I couldn’t look out the windows so did not see us pass by Gibraltar.
Thank God for sea bands. Without them I would have been really seasick. With them I was too ill to stand but not too sick for a selfie. It was only one hour. Crazy to think you can get from Europe to Africa in an hour.
We took a taxi to our airbnb. It’s in a big modern apartment building, but does have some interesting Moroccan touches like the curtains and sofa.
This chandelier is pretty amazing. There are also two tangines in the kitchen. Tangines are clay pots that they cook Moroccan stews in. We have one in our Seattle storage locker.
This one was high up on a shelf and too heavy for me to try to get down. Jeff had to do some last minute work. I felt that asking him to stop in order for me to take a better photo of the tagine was ill advised.
And there was this smaller one to photograph.
We were both worn out after a week of sightseeing so we took the day as a rest day. I mostly napped, read, and did laundry.
You can drink the water here, but they did leave us some bottled water. I assume it’s water. It tasted like water. Hard to tell though with the label.
Same thing with the kleenex. There is a lot of Fench here. Jeff has been learning French on Duo lingo which is good because after years of French in school and a summer spent in France in high school, I remember nothing.
The are two things we always do when we get to a new country. Number one -nap. Number two – figure out how to order food in.
This was chicken, cous cous and vegetables. It wasn’t as delicious as we hoped but it was easy, inexpensive and healthy.
We started our day at the market which was the cleanest market I’ve ever been to.
Even the fish heads were stylish.
Next up was churros.
The churro maker was super psyched for me to take photos of the process. I could do an entire post on his process. Including the free sample.
It was good we were full of fried dough before the sherry tasting. The walk to the bodega helped us work off the calories.
This was going into the tasting.
Our tour was in Spanish although our guide was able to explain in English when I got lost.
There was a complicated explanation in how they move the sherry from the top to the middle to the bottom barrels.
And then we started the tasting and tapas.
We were a bit loopy after.
After a siesta we made dinner. In Panama this was our favorite thing to do together, cook. Also drink, dance, and sing.
Rolf and I prepared the first course.
Jeff and Samuel made the 2nd course.
And then we had a cheese tasting.
Samuel has been making a parmesan like cheese in Venezuela. He makes it with fresh milk from cows that eat on his farm in Mérida Venezuela and cave ages it for 6 months at his mountain home.
It is amazing. I could have eaten the entire block. His Instagram site is @qyagrumo
Here is Samuel’s explanation of his cheese.
For me, YAGRUMO: The soul of the Italian Alps born in the Venezuelan Andes. A guard cheese, matured at 2,400 meters high, where the cold of the mountain and the weather dictate its character. 100% Bio, without chemicals, only milk, height and patience. Much more than a parmesan: it is the ultimate expression of our soil.
We had not seen Rolf and Samuel since they left Panama in 2023. Rolf is German but had retired in Spain. Samuel is Venezuelan so splits his time between Spain and Venezuela.
They met us in Sevilla and we met up in the Plaza de España.
There was a lot of catching up to do so we started in a horse and buggy ride.
Perfect way to see the centro.
Next up was tapas, and door photos.
After a quick nap and hair change we met up with them for a Flamenco show.
I didnt take too many photos because I was so caught up in the show. It was truly amazing.
Then we went out for more tapas. At the end of dinner they gave us orange wine in test tubes. We also met the nice woman in the photo. Her and her husband were Sevilla snowbirds which sounded like a brilliant life plan.
The night ended with more wine and singing. We all drank the wine but only Samuel sang.
We spent three months in Sevilla back in 2005. It’s always been one of our favorite cities, so we were really curious to see if it’s changed a lot.
One new thing in the last 20 years, are the high speed trains. It only took two hours to get there from Madrid.
The city is still beautiful.
This is the Marriott were staying in. We are a little out of the main part of town in a tradition residencial neighborhood.
It was a little too traditional at 5:30 on a Saturday. We didn’t eat lunch on the train so were starving. There were all these cute restaurants. But they all stopped serving food from 5:00 to 8:00.
This was us amused after the first two restaurants said no. After all the restaurants said no without exception I was no longer amused. The only places serving food were tourist restaurants in the center of town 30 minutes by Uber. Or Burger King. I’ll admit, my Whopper was delicious.
After I was no longer hangry, we went to our old neighborhood. It was a little hard to find but after consulting pictures, we took 20 years ago and Jeff’s excellent memory for street names we found our old apartment.
It is the dark orange building. There was no graffiti on the garage back then.
We tried to recreate this photo of Jeff in front of the front door.
Older but looking less confused. I think back then Jeff didnt realize I was going to take a photo of every door I saw. It was a new obsession back then. Now he’s used to it.
While we were walking around there was a crowd outside this little building. It had always been closed 20 years ago, but I had loved the tiles on either side of the for. I’m not sure if it was because it’s Lent or what but the door was open. Inside, were two statues that looked like the tiles. It was like a holy statue storage locker.
We also went into a church where you can go behind the altar and touch the foot of the “Señor de Sevilla” statue. There was a really long line so only I went. Jeff waited in front. If you zoom in you can see me on the left touching the foot.
At this point my phone battery died which was probably a good thing or I would have used up all my phone storage with door photos.
Jeff and I are on vacation. Even though we’ve been to Madrid before and even lived in Spain, it’s been a long time since we’ve been here.
We are like country bumkins. I refused to go into the Cathedral because there was a line.
I didn’t understand why there were so many groups of people clustered together until I remembered…tour groups
The metro was confusing. Had to pull out an old fashioned map. We took it from the airport to our hotel. I thought it was odd the guy next to me was fiddling with the zipper on my bag until I realized. Oh he’s trying to rob me.
He couldn’t get it opened and now we zipper locks. And I’m aware of my surroundings again.
I had forgotten what good cheese, olives and Spanish tortilla, taste like. I was the crazy lady taking way too much at the breaking buffet.
Still took a lot of photos of doors.
We forgot it can get below 95 degrees. It was 49 degrees but was freezing to us.
As my mom always said, “If it’s cold enough for your robes, chain and helmet it’s cold enough to wear a shirt.” Jeff is pretty sure this guy is the first evidence of capri pants.
Jeff insisted we were in Plaza Mayor in this photo. I disagreed. Jeff had AI settle it.
This is my told you so face.
We chose to go to a smaller art museum instead of the bigger Prado. Jeff got in trouble for getting too close to this statue.
I can within seconds of mistaking this thing for a bench and sitting on it.
Even though it was the smaller museum, our interest in art ran out before the museum did.
Still getting over jet lag so may have to eat “early” at 8:30 vs the Spanish dinner time of 10pm.
