Sevilla- La cuidad hermosa

Hey everybody!

We took the AVE (ah-vay) high speed train down to Seville.

We met our new guide,Ruth and walked through the town. It was much like I remembered it from my family's trip in 1999.
Mom, I know I saw some of the same places.
.
The first day(June 20) we went to a small tapas cellar called Bodegas Morales.
The menus were written in chalk on huge cisterns and we sat around a long wooden table, eating tapas like Boquerones en vinagre (marinated sardines) and drinking wine
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After that we went to tour the Alcazar, a 10th century palace built by the Moors. We toured through the long, cool halls marveling at the carved stone and the mix of Moorish Muslim symbols alongside Catholic christian symbols. It was a welcome break from the unrelenting sun outside.

June 21st we went to Sherry Bodegas!

Sherry is a type of fortified Spanish wine from the south in the province of Andalucia. It is grown in chalky white soil called albariza.
The trips were really planned nicely. Our first stop was a rather large, well-known sherry house called Gonzalez-Byass(bee-azz). They make "Tio Pepe" Fino sherry. It is a world famous dry white wine with about 13 percent alcohol. The entrance is pretty impressive: flags waving, flowers, fountains and a large and obvious ticket booth.

We rode a small "Disney-esque"train, which Jason would have loved, around from building to building. Our guide was very nice and we walked in awe through cavernous buildings where Sherry sat aging in dark and mysterious oak barrels. There is a reason that they call them Sherry Cathedrals. Very impressive.

We had a tasting of 4 different styles of Sherry. As you can see Chef Encabo enjoyed it. It was nice and I finally purchased a bottle of 100 year old Pedro Ximenez Sherry(sweet and dark and unbelievably smooth). I am now lugging it around Spain until I can get some time to mail it back to the US.

We then proceeded to a much smaller, more personal experience at Lustau (loost-ow). They only do tours by appointment. Our guide was the hilarious Almudena. She showed through all the buildings, explaining how they use different varieties of grapes and the differences in the quality of the products and cracking jokes. Apparently she can´t believe that she has a job where she gets paid to drink. Wow!

At one point we were in a dark, cool bodega (meaning cellar) staring up at wine barrels stacked to the ceiling. Almudena walked over to two large doors and swung them open. A shock-wave of tart vinegar smacked us in the face. It smelled fantastic. Apparently they make Sherry vinegar too.

We were led into a large tasting room with several round barrels up-ended in the center. She walked us through a delicious sherry tasting and then they brought on
the Tapas! We had these melt-in-your-mouth croquetas (kro-kay-tahs)- little fritters with ham and cheese in them. We also had marinated shark. We ate and chatted-ate and laughed-ate and drank.

At the end as we were leaving, the head of the entire bodega, who makes all the decisions on when to harvest the grapes and how to mix the wines, came in. We got to ask questions.

When we got back to our hotel in Sevilla we had 2 hours before we had to be back down in the lobby. I took a shower and collapsed for an hour.

At 8pm we Chef Encabo led us through the twisting backstreets, dodging car and vespas like a professional. (I don´t know how many times I had to jump up onto the narrow sidewalks to avoid a speeding motor scooter-they put posts all along the sidewalks because people used to just park on the sidewalks).


We went to a flamenco dance house called Casa de La Memoria. The show hadn´t started yet so we bought our tickets and waited in line. I asked the clerk where the "aseos" or bathrooms were and he directed me through the doors. I entered a beautiful courtyard, with a sky-light ceiling, and one wall completely covered with foilage. The ceiling was three floors up.
It was quiet and in the center, surrounded by folding chairs in several rows, was a small wooden stage. Birds flew in and out. Golden lanterns and a bowl of floating flowers lay on the floor.
I almost forgot about the bathroom....almost.


The show itself was everything that Flamenco should be. Intimate. Full of lament.
We had a singer with curly dark hair around his shoulders and big expressive eyes, a golden-haired guitar player whose fingers just flew across the strings, and a woman who danced dramatically. She was really something. Her name was La Chochi.

After the performance everyone split up to go out for tapas. I went with Chef and Jean Morris to a place in a small floodlit plaza, about a block from the cathedral. We sat for several hours, chatting while Chef picked out our wine and the tapas flowed. I tried Cod Cheeks in salsa verde but didn´t like the texture. We did have some incredible little lamb chops, grilled. Okay so our eyes were a little bigger than our stomachs. Ahhh!

It is interesting to watch people a they stroll by. Mind you this was around 11pm to 1 am. We saw all sorts of Spaniards: ancient couples holding hands, 4 year olds kicking soccor balls with their father up the alley, and a huge troupe of formally dressed teens who were coming from their high school graduation on their way to dance at a disco(Chef talked to them). This really is the best place for people watching.

Leslie