more of life

 Yes it has been raining- four storms in 12 days JANA, KONRAD, LAURENCE and now MARTINHO!

We are building Arks here.  The people are "enraged" per the headlines about the weather. Flooding. Landslides. People evacuated from villages at risk. It's been literally weeks of these rains. We had one nice (partial day) Saturday afternoon and evening. Tonight (Monday) it was raining again. The past week or so we have had thunder with the rain (a first for us in the two plus years we've been here.) We decided to go close by and for familiar food. Our friends Helena & Lope introduced us to a nearby burger place that we liked. In Andalucia (maybe all of Spain) most meat is served rare. I do not like burgers that bleed on the plate so I was thrilled to find a place where smash burgers were an option. Tonight we also tried the rings and found them to be good (not brilliant but good). Less than five minutes walk from our building, it was perfect for a crappy weather evening.

Later in the week - we went out to La Brunilda.  A miracle!!  No rain all evening! Had favorites to share, and then Phil had the duck confit. The season of the scent of orange blossoms is upon us. Trees along our route home were especially fragrant tonight. 

Then the next night it was "IFFY" on the rain and turned cold so we went for hot soup at MING 2 

Then we had to rearrange a number of reservations due to the choice of MING last night.  We ended up canceling Desacato for tonight and scheduling it for Sunday lunch. Tonight we substituted Hyiyoki for Desacato... I know- poor us LOL - AND we got there and back without getting rained on! It just started to sprinkle as we walked through the front door into the courtyard.

tomorrow morning Megan & Christian arrive! YAY! stay tuned - 

OLD FRIENDS

 After far too long without all of us seeing each other,  Mac Sarin and Niti Sarin arrived today (after two days in transit from India) in Sevilla for a reunion, of sorts, with the four of us and Claus & Evi Denk who will arrive from Germany tomorrow.  We four had dinner at Acento and along with fabulous service had several excellent dishes. I always love their burrata salad and the slow cooked beef rib. We also had tuna tataki and the cantabrian anchoas. The secret iberico was well received too. #goodfriends.

Claus & Evi arrived around 1:15 from Cordoba, and Macv & Niti came over and we all went to Terraviva for the prix fixe lunch (menu del dia).  We returned to our place and had some good conversation.  We all met up for a cab to go to a flamenco show in Santa Cruz. It was much better than the one we went to with Angela two years ago. Los Gallos was the name of this place and it was excellent.

We walked home through Santa Cruz to the restaurant- 

Then on Saturday morning they all went to the Alcazar and we met later for lunch at d'Italy. 

A long walk along the river for Claus, Evi & Phil before dinner - when Mac & Niti went to the cathedral. Dinner was at Manolo Mayo  and afterward we went to MITO to introduce everyone to Helena.  Then we went back to Mac & Niti's hotel room where the guys had cognac for 
old time's sake"  We had a final farewell photo on the steps at the Mercer.

dinner photos-

Everyone left on Sunday morning and by the end of the day the bed linens had been laundered, the beds remade and the towels laundered and replaced on the shelves in the guest bath... awaiting the next guests- Megan & Christian at the end of the week! More fun to come. After getting the guest room prepared we went out to buy wine at the shop around the corner... gotta lay in some supplies LOL.

We ate at home tonight after so many meals out.... the week is fairly quiet (fingers crossed) so we should be able to catch up on email and the other day to day things we do....