new year- Larry visits Sevilla

So on the night before we start our "guest season" it was dreary, drizzly, and damp so we strayed nearby for dinner. Dinner the night before we start having our spring 2025 guests.  Larry arrives tomorrow midday. So a quick meal at Brunilda around the corner (sort of.) Chose our favorites because we could. Rained a bit before and then again, just as we were almost back to Edificio Buenaventura (the name over our door.) However we made it into the courtyard 99% dry. We think this will be the last of the "bad" weather.   Meanwhile, we are planning for time away. From this point, I expect the "season" will be zooming by and we'll be ready for our own vacay in Càdiz, Barcelona, & A Coruña in April.

Larry arrived at noon today. After our Monday sessions with Leslie we went for a light lunch at MING: soup and two shared dishes. Our 9 pm dinner at El Traga found us all grateful that they forgot to deliver one more course we ordered. We were more than full with the arroz, the tostas of tuna tartar and the

tartar de alisto with gazpacho sauce. Plenty of food! #demaciado

so I saw a headline - just as we are about to go to Santa Cruz de Tenerife... "The streets of Santa Cruz de Tenerife came alive with colour, light, and excitement last night as the traditional Three Kings Parade took place in the heart of the city. Over 250,000 people, according to municipal estimates, gathered to witness this grand celebration, which took its theme from beloved children's tales and delivered a night to remember." 

I am soooo thrilled we didn't decide to head there until Wednesday!  The crowd numbers for Three Kings parades are all astounding to me. Here and around Spain and now I see you cannot escape it in Santa Cruz de Tenerife either. 

However despite my Grinch-like attitude. There are two things that I find lovely about this event. It's focused on the smaller kids who are still so full of joy about the "magic" kings and the gifts they deliver (a kind of Spanish Santa Claus) and it is truly wonderful to see how families here focus on including all generations in their activities. For the last two years I have watched generations of families out on Sunday afternoons with teenagers holding grandma's hand as they walk through the plazas and parks. And little kids are entertained by their older sibling. Usually no more than two kids as Spain's birth rate is low. It's really nice.

Last dinner for Larry in Sevilla for this visit.  Friendly service and good food and company is a formula for a good meal. We were disappointed they were out of the boquerones, special of the day but since we didn't arrive until 9:50 we were forgiving. I think both my choices were terrific: the orzo salad and the salmon tartare. Larry had tosta tuna tartar and meatballs. Phil had the foie delicias to start and the pluma Iberico for a main. We skipped postres and headed home.

This next photo is not altered in any way. I took it on our walk home from dinner last night. There are thousands of orange trees lining the streets and plazas of Sevilla. They are just starting to drop their fruit. Since the fruit is not edible as fruit itself the overly ripe oranges are gathered by a recycling service and some are used in various products. (Marmalade and liqueur flavoring).

"Sevilla has a scheme to use the methane produced as the fruit ferments to generate clean electricity.  The initial scheme launched by Emasesa, the municipal water company, uses tonnes of fruit to generate clean energy to run one of the city’s water purification plants. The oranges go into an existing facility that already generates electricity from organic matter. As the oranges ferment, the methane captured is used to drive the generator." Pretty cool.

Tonight the three of us are off to Tenerife. Jeremy will meet us there in a few days and we'll spend some time exploring a new part of our adopted country. So more to follow.