On the water

A packed day today ... I was exhausted by the end of it. Aldara had given us a handy tip to avoid queuing at the cathedral: go to the church del Divino Salvador nearby and buy a combined ticket. So after the usual Seville breakfast of cafe con leche and tomato on toast, that's what we did. The church is one of those baroque monstrosities dripping with ornate gold decoration, cherubs, angels and the like, so it only detained us for five minutes before we strode boldly past the long line of people waiting to buy tickets at the cathedral.

The cathedral is vast; again the decoration isn't entirely to my taste but you can see the tomb of Christopher Columbus and also climb up the Giralda for a view over the city.

From here we wandered through Santa Cruz and had a few tapas in a packed bar. Leaving here, we stumbled across a private home open to the public, the Casa de Salinas, and on an impulse joined the guided tour which was about to start. A beautiful typical Sevillan house, with Mozarabic internal courtyards, fine 16th-century tiles, and a heavily restored Roman mosaic.Then to the Plaza de España which we have managed never to see in our previous visits. True to his word, S rowed me round it in a boat. We also encountered some flamenco musicians.

A very long walk home from here after we failed to understand the tram system (descending swiftly after we realised we should have bought tickets on the platform) and couldn't find the right bus. I had to lie down for half an  hour when we got back.

Later, wine on the roof terrace again. Tapas at Al-aljibe on the Alameda, a smart tapas bar which was one of Aldara's recommendations. They were pleasant enough but not exceptional. Replete, we walked from there to the Naima jazz bar. The quartet here consisted of two young men who can't have been more than twenty, and a couple of guys old enough to be their dads. Maybe they were. They played brilliantly anyway; it was amusing to see all of them defer to the young lead guitarist, who had composed many of the pieces. From time to time he and the equally young drummer went off on a rowdy tangent and the oldies just had to step back and let them get on with it.  At one point a member of the audience who "just happened to have a trumpet" joined in for a lengthy and breathtaking improvisation. Very enjoyable.  Home not long after midnight.

Flickr photos right from here.