Dinner?

From Madrid, we headed south in our rental car. It was fun to see a different part of the city besides just city center and as you might expect, most big cities look very similar. Once we got on the highway, we could have been driving anywhere. We originally contacted our couchsurfing hosts, Carmen and Juanma, to request they host us in Madrid. Carmen responded that they'd be glad to host us, but since the days we requested were in the middle of their Easter holiday, they and some friends would be at Carmen's family's county home just outside of Sevilla. She asked if we wanted to join them there. We said, why not? She gave us great directions - good thing because Jill (our GPS) doesn't always like these Spanish country roads. Carmen, Juanma and their friends, Luis and Esther with their two boys, Pablo and Marco, were so friendly and welcoming. Juanma was the only one of the four who didn't speak much English, but with his few words of English, our fewer words of Spanish and a lot of fun pantomiming, we communicated just fine. The country home has been in Carmen's family for just one generation and it's more of a hacienda. Stables, a guest house and a courtyard with a fountain, which wasn't filled at this chilly time of year. Everything was a bit run down, you could tell it wasn't always inhabited, and there was a chill dampness, but our room was comfortable and came with extra blankets and the sound of chatter and laughter warmed things right up. Carmen's father owns the olive tree grove that surrounds the house and there were acres of olive trees, planted in such straight rows. He bottles and sells the olive oil and we got to try it at dinner that night.

About 8:30 pm, we went to the nearby village to see two centuries-old churches where they were preparing for their Semana Santa (Easter celebration) procession that weekend.

Then we stopped at a bar of an old family friend. After a couple drinks, the owner of the bar who was a painter and sculptor as well, offered to show us his studio. So, off we trekked down the winding village streets of rough cobblestone, to his studio several minutes away. It was cold and Val and I were (again) underdressed for the temperature. Burrrrr! After admiring his work and the obvious passion he has for it - we couldn't understand the words, but we could see the animation on his face as he was describing each piece - we were just about to start back to the bar when we heard the rain start to fall. Oh no! And me without my plastic bag for my shoe. We hightailed it back to the bar, but the damage had been done. Now, cold AND wet, I thought ooh, wouldn't it be great to go somewhere warm for dinner - it was now past 10:00. But, wait, there was one more bar Carmen wanted us to see. It was an old, neighborhood bar with two tables, one taken by some gentlemen who may have been there for a few hours already. One of the gentlemen, it turned out, was a guitar player and singer and treated us to some wonderful old Spanish songs as well as some current commercial jingles and sometimes both during the same song! It was fun to hear his music, but I was getting seriously hungry and still cold and wet.

Carmen, Val, one of the patrons, me, Ester, Luis, and the owner of the bar.

Another goofy hat photo.

It was after midnight, when it was decided that we'd go home and barbeque for dinner. Once we got back to the house, Carmen and Juanma made pretty quick work of the BBQ (Val said it was the BEST BBQ he ever had) and we ate dinner about 1:30. In the morning. That was a first for me - or at least a first since my college days. I finally threw in the towel at 2:00. Val hung in there til about 2:30. The next morning when we got up to go for our run, we looked at each other and said, "fun, but we're getting too old for this!" We were scheduled to leave that day for a four-day stop in the mountains outside of Malaga, but before we left we spent the day with Carmen, Juanma and friends touring Sevilla.

Just one of our several stops for refreshments and beverages. 

Sevilla is a beautiful old city which also boasts a bullfighting ring and a second-level soccer club. Soccer is a big deal here. Each match seems as important as the Superbowl game does in the US. Thankfully, it was a warm, sunny day and I bet we walked at least five miles. We had parked our car in a lot a fair distance away from city center. Cars were parked a bit randomly, but most people were at least aware of giving the cars parked around them enough space to maneuver to get out. When we returned to our cars at the end of the day, we found cars parked in front of us, giving us no way to get out (Ours is the blue car in the photo below). What to do?? Not to worry - the drivers had thoughtfully left the cars in Neutral, so we just pushed them out of the way (in doing so, of course, moved them in front of other cars, but oh well), said good bye to everyone and set out for our next stop - a Spanish villa in the Andalucian countryside.