Sevilla!
3 days and 2 nights.
Arrived late in the afternoon, Tuesday. Outside the bus station where I arrived, it was 44 C! So I loaded on the pack and, with the help of the very good Let’s Go map, eventually found my way to the Hotel Athena. It was fairly centrally located…meaning that nearly everything was a long walk away! I left right away to find a good place to watch a Flamenco performance. Found a good one for €10 for the next night. Circled the cathedral at dark. The 3rd biggest in the world. I figured that since I’d seen the other two (in Rome and London) I’d settle for the outside view. It was nearly impossible to navigate the narrow streets at night, even with my newly acquired map. I’ve never seen such a labyrinth of streets since playing video games as a kid. Each turn offered up at least 5 options. Someone will say, go 1 block and turn left. Ok, so which of the 3 lefts did he mean? That’s what it’s like here. It felt pretty good to walk without the map in front of my face by the end, though, scoffing at the patent tourists who hadn’t figured it out yet.

Wed. was consumed with finding someone to give me a Flamenco guitat lesson in this, the Flamenco capital. So, in 115+ degree weather I lit out looking for a music store. One thing, no one here speaks English out of desire. They’d rather you struggle than demonstrate to you how much better their English is than your Spanish. That’s great, it makes learning the language that much easier. So, armed with fists full of sign language, I approached a music store…the guy there was very nice as he told me that two days of Flamenco lessons would be about as useful as wet socks and that no one would even waste the time to sit down in front of me. Then when he was done, he sent me another couple blocks away to the Flamenco Keller. Perfect. Went there. Scheduled a lesson for that night at 5:30 and again this morning at 9 am.

Both lessons went very well, even if the were taught 100% in Spanish. Lito was the instructor’s name and he couldn’t have been nicer. The first day - 1.5 hrs each - was spent focused on the Flamenco technique and the second morning on the progressions and various forms. Great overview, but at the and I can’t say I could play much of anything. The technique is so difficult and fast and there are new forms and permutations of chords that will take some practice to get used to. Time. Such a beautiful art. I fully recommend this to anyone with guitar aspirations or abilities.

  Me with Lito and our cutout dancer.

By wed night I had come down with a full-blown cold from all the A/C and no doubt all the cigarette smoke. Sneezes all night and no going out…
I wandered back to the hotel and stopped into a place for tapas. It was a packed spot that looked like a locals hang-out. I’ll post a picture of their address from their napkin, but this was the best food I’ve eaten in 10 years. Unbelievably good tapas. 13€ for a selection of 3 with an olive plate and a bread basket and 3 beers (sm). This is a have-to visit spot..right off the river, and just south of the cathedral.

Here’s the address.   …the BEST!!!

The Flamence show that night was in a small 10 m square room with pillars and ivy surrounding the room. It was a guitarist, a singer and a dancer. The guitar playing was amazing and the rhythm tapped out by the girl’s dancing feet was dizzying in it’s speed and complexity. She could get really quiet with the tapping but still maintain the furious tempo…must be extremely difficult.

Left Sevilla Thurs midday for Granada. Another bus ride…Lenny will be proud!

 Here’s what I look like, all loaded up and ready to go…