Countdown to Leaving...

Our time here in Sevilla is drawing to a close, and we will soon be heading for Morocco (as my brother likes to say, “We’re like Webster’s Dictionary, we’re Morocco bound!”* And I still think that’s a really terrible joke, Carl). Looking back, I remember sitting in our flat in Dubrovnik a few months ago as Paula made arrangements for this upcoming Morocco trip. The description of our flat in Essaouira (a coastal city in Morocco) made me want to skip Spain and go there immediately. But I’m so glad we didn’t!

 *Actually, that’s a lyric from the title song to The Road to Morocco, a Bob Hope / Bing Crosby road movie from 1942. Kinda sorry I mentioned it now…

We’ve found Seville to be an amazing place, so much so that we’ve spent nearly our entire three-month European time in the city, with only a few side trips (Rome, Granada, Portugal). We’ve made some friends here, we’ve seen some incredible sights (and sites!), we’ve had some great experiences. Now the thought of leaving makes me sad.

A narrow shopping street near the Cathedral in the Barrio Santa Cruz

One of the many gorgeous churches in Seville

But life goes on, and we keep moving. Paula and I have been reading other people’s blogs for a change, and learning a few things about travel (!). We’re even finding some favorite bloggers. I have been inspired to upgrade our blog for the New Year, trying out a new look, and maybe exploring some different directions in style (we’ll see how that goes!).

And now we have a name for what we’re doing: slow travel. (Thanks and a tip of the blogger’s hat to Frank, over at www.bbqboy.net). Like us, Frank and Lissette are moving slowly, spending extended time in each location. Then there’s Angie and Ryan, an American couple running their tee shirt business from various places around the world, whom we met here in Seville.  You can get a bit of their style, and maybe pick up a tee shirt, here: www.jetsliketaxis.com (a friend suggested that they take jets like others use taxis).

 It makes me realize that what we’re doing is not unique. Certainly not common, but we’re hardly the first expats ever! Reminiscent of our time on the boat in Mexico, where we found a lively and helpful community of cruisers with a huge variety of stories, experiences, and backgrounds. (Of course, here in this inland city travelers are harder to identify; they’re not living on boats!)

I think to fully appreciate what we have done, what we’ve learned, how we have changed, will take time. We may be back home in California for months before we appreciate what these months mean to us. But for now, we’ll just keep putting one foot in front of the other and see where it leads.

 

Entrance to the Cathedral through the original mosque gate and courtyard

We’ve had some visitors! We were pleased to host them, as, for one thing, it makes us feel like we’re really established here in Seville. And of course showing visitors around helps us see the city with new eyes.

But mostly we were very, very pleased to see these friends again, people we met last spring while we were in Montpellier. It was also great for me to speak French again, after the frustrations of communication here in Spain (although, actually, we’ve always been able to get what we want here; the Sevillanos are used to tourists mangling their language!). But then I found myself speaking French to waiters and shop keepers here, and that didn’t work so well.

Thanks to Bernard, Claude, and Francoise, our friends from Montpellier. We had a great time during your visit!

Francoise, Bernard, and Claude. Oh, and Paula, too! In the Alcazar

And now we’ve just said good-by to our second set of visitors, this time from Oxford, England, whom we visited last summer. It’s a great time to get away from Great Britain and head south, what with the record cold snap that’s been covering Europe. But I know they really came to see us, and the weather is only incidental. So once more we’ve had a chance to show off “our” city, and re-experience this place though new eyes. And even though these folks have been coming to Spain for decades and speak good Spanish (better than ours, although that’s a pretty low bar), they are thrilled to explore this area, learning new things and reaffirming what they already know.

Hugh and Hoonie from cold Oxford, visiting the Plaza de Espana

Big News of the week (a few weeks ago, actually): I finally got my camera replaced. I had a highly compact Sony RX-100 that took really great photos – until I dropped it on our second week here in Seville. After weeks of emailing and visiting repair shops, I finally ordered a new one from Amazon Spain. Then came the long wait for it to arrive, extended even longer by the holidays.

And now I have a real camera again! While I’m impressed by some of the images I got with my iPhone 5, the Sony opens up some other photographic possibilities. Just the other day as we wandered through Seville, over some by-now very familiar ground, we ran into yet another surprise. There are quite a few street performers in Seville. We’ve met some great musicians, and some very clever and inventive performers of what may best be called “street performance”.

Here’s one I hadn’t seen before, the Slipping Waiter. Note this is a static display; this photo is NOT a high-speed capture!

The Slipping Waiter; show how much you appreciate the guy by dropping a few coins in the bucket

But best of all we found some very accomplished street dancers, and I managed to get some video with my new camera. While the video is not great, I do like the subject matter! And it’s fun to try the slow motion features of the Sony.

Click here for Street Performance video

We sent off the box today! Odd how good that made us feel.

Box? What box? The box that has all those things we’ll want to have some day, but don’t need now, and certainly don’t want to carry around. My boots, for example: great for the cobbled streets here, but maybe not so good in much warmer Morocco. Or our very warm coats, or the 19^th century tiles we bought. So we sent them to the US.

It was a long slog to the post office, carrying that box. Once there we found there’s a lot of paperwork involved in sending a box to the USA. But eventually it was done, and we walked out free, free of the box we had been thinking about and preparing for weeks. We felt about 200 kg lighter!

The sun was shining, the day was beautiful, the Seviallanos out, filling the streets. We took the long way home, passing a rather good brass band with a crowd of onlookers, finally stopping at a café for some refreshment. We sat in the plaza where children played and people strolled. It was a great finale (well, almost: still two days to go) to our stay in Seville.

One of our (many) favorite buildings in Seville; although this photo does not show its true magnificence

As we leave the city is gearing up for the two biggest events of the year: Semana Santa (Easter Holy Week) and Feria, the Spring Fair. And we're getting on a plane and flying away! We will be back, though. Seville has a firm hold on our hearts, and we will not be able to stay away!

Us, in the garden of the Alcazar - I guess we need a selfie stick (NOT!)

Next up: We'll be in Morocco!