Month: October 2015

Charlie and Wynette: You have probably heard of Seville oranges, notoriously sour. They are the essential ingredient in the marmalade that is popular in England.  (In 1995, when Wynette traveled to England, her friend Deborah asked her to bring back, in addition to PG Tips tea and McVitie’s wheat meal biscuits, “thick cut marmalade made from Seville oranges, has to be Seville oranges.”) Curiously it is very hard to find Seville orange marmalade in Seville. We finally found some, yesterday, in the fancy department store (El Corte Inglés) supermarket, but the marmalade was imported. (We noticed McVitie’s were available in El Corte Inglés as well. We’re sure they also had PG Tips.)

In the Rick Steves guide book for Spain, he says: “Orange trees abound — because they never lose their leaves, they provide constant shade. But forget about eating the oranges. They are bitter and used only to make vitamins, perfume, cat food and that marmalade you can’t avoid in British B&Bs.”

There certainly are orange trees everywhere plus the fruit on the ground. We brought two oranges back today and tasted them. Yep, very sour. Almost like a lemon. Twice now we’ve seen young children (both boys and girls) kicking the oranges like they are a soccer ball. These kids are pretty good at soccer.

• Two blocks north of us: Calle Virgen de Luján
• Four blocks north: Calle Virgen de Loretto
• One block south of us: Calle Virgen de la Antigua
• Two blocks south of us: Calle Virgen de la Cinta
• One block west of us: Calle Virgen de Aquilla
• Two blocks west of us: Calle Virgen de la Oliva
• Two blocks east of us: Calle Virgen del Valle
• Three blocks east of us: Calle Virgen de Araceli
• Five blocks east of us: Calle Virgen de Guaditoca
• Six blocks east of us: Call Virgen de Robleto
• Five blocks northwest of us: Calle Virgen de Aguas Santas
• Five blocks north of us: Calle Virgen de Africa
• Five blocks north of us: Calle Virgen de la Victoria
• A few more blocks north: Calle Virgen del Monte
• Another block north: Calle Virgen de Fatima
• Another block: Calle Virgen del Buen Aire
• Another block: Calle Virgen de Belén
• Four blocks west: Calle Santa Fe (for a change)

When I tell Wynette “it’s up on that Virgen street”, it doesn’t help much.

Wynette: The Spanish, like the Italians, are serious about their olive oil. There were dozens (hundreds?) of choices for olive oil at El Corte Inglés. We have read that Spain and Italy import their low-quality olive oil to the US because “Americans cannot tell the difference.”  So, we bought one of the more expensive brands to see if we could tell the difference. The oil we got does taste good but, to be honest, it doesn’t seem a whole lot different than what we buy back home at Costco. I guess we have something to learn about olive oil.

Charlie: Apologies to Stephen Sondheim.

The Spanish are more into keeping the Sabbath than the US. The grocery stores are closed, many bars are closed, the other bars close at 5 pm.

So we went for a walk in the famous Parque de Maria Luisa. Whoops, that was closed, too, chains on the gates.

But the park next door was open and it had a big outdoor market which specialized in international food and lots of other typical open-air market merchandise. Wynette looked around, I went over to the Universidad de Sevilla, also closed and locked up, but I walked around the fence.

It was supposed to rain all day. It rained a lot the night before and in the morning but the afternoon was fairly nice, a few sprinkles.

Closed on Sunday but it looks like you get in a harness and jump on the tilted trampoline and into the air sideways. Looks like fun.

Correction: Wynette pointed out that they probably just tipped the trampolines up to store them. I think she is right, my assumption was not correct. But you still bounce on the trampolines in a harness. And I still like my idea, a new way to jump on trampolines. I might patent it.

Charlie: I saw this in Maria Luisa park on Friday. Looks like a small group 4-5 people. We are thinking of taking it. We took the one in Washington, DC, and loved it.

In the left distance you can see the horse-drawn carriages that abound in the park.

Charlie: They are all over, almost every block. They have a wide assortment of things you can’t get other places, a bit like a Woolworth’s or five and dime in days of old.

Wynette: When I was growing up in Tatum, New Mexico, we used the term “variety store”. We call them “China stores” here in Spain because we’ve heard locals refer to them that way and they are always run by people that look like they are probably Chinese. These stores really do have a little bit of everything. And they are open on Sundays. At least some of them are. They are usually small with crowded narrow aisles. The proprietors are usually grumpy. I think it is because they are so far away from home and they are homesick. Going east from our apartment there is a China store near every corner on the next 3 blocks.  The third one is our favorite. It isn’t quite so crowded, it is nicely organized, and the proprietor is friendly and doesn’t seem so unhappy. (It is the one shown in the photos with this post.)

Charlie: In Sevilla they have large trash containers on the street for everyone to use. Some for trash, some for recycling. You can only put things in the trash ones from 8 pm to 11:30 pm at night. Presumably they empty them overnight. I took ours out last night and Wynette took some photos of me from the balcony. Then Google photos combined some of them so I appear three times in the same photo. (This photo was taken about 11:00 pm. Note how well-lit the street is.  Good thing we have good shades over the bedroom window.)

Charlie and Wynette: The grocery stores have a limited selection of coffee and we haven’t found any other stores that sell coffee. The available coffee is a fairly dark roast, we like lighter roasts in the Italian espresso style.

At the Triana Market we bought some fresh pasta and wonderful pesto from an Italian guy. We asked him where he bought coffee to make at home and he said he brings it from Italy because he cannot find good coffee in Spain. He said, with a smile, that “Spain is not a coffee culture”.

We know there is good coffee here because we’ve had it in the bars. But we are having a hard time finding coffee we like to make in our apartment kitchen. Wynette enrolled for Spanish classes to start next week. There is a little coffee bar at the school. After Wynette enrolled yesterday we ordered a cup of coffee. It was by far the best coffee we have had in Spain and as good as anything we’ve ever had in Italy. Guess Wynette is going to have to have a chat with that barrista.

Charlie: We saw this walking along the riverfront in Sevilla. I suppose the water recirculates and the rust builds up. I wonder how long it takes to turn this orangy? Here is a closer view, very pretty.