Metro Man

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Charlie: I took the Sevilla Metro to catch the fast train to Madrid to meet Pat. First time on it. Just starting, only one line.

Note how it is designed like the trams in airports. The fixed doors at the station don’t open until the train is stopped. Much safer.

Misting You

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Charlie: You have probably seen city parks with water spouts for children to play in on summer days. This might be hard to see but it is the same thing but fine mist comes out of the spouts. Mist can be nicely cooling on a hot day. They use them a lot in Phoenix. So I guess this is for the adults, and the kids.

Sevilla, and all of Europe, had a very hot summer this year.

Seville Oranges

Oranges on the street

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.

Little girl kicking green orange with red boots.
Little girl kicking green orange with red boots.

Extra Virgin Street Names

Red flag is our place.
Red flag is our place.
  • 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.

Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Olive oil at the Corte Ingles supermercado. (This isn't all of it.)
Olive oil at El Corte Inglés supermercado. This isn’t all of it. (It’s possible there are other kinds of oil here but I’m sure most of it is olive oil.)
More olive oil at the Corte Ingles -- the higher priced brands.
More olive oil at El Corte Inglés — the higher priced brands.

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.

What we bought.
What we bought.

Sunday in the Park with Wynette

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.

Trampoline in the Park

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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.