Before we leave town

Our first Sevilla dinner outside in 2025. We went to Plaza Alfalfa to La Escalona (a regular choice for us). I missed the photo of the brioche but the rest is shown on the menus. My favorites tonight  were the tuna tataki and the empanadas.  And of course we stopped to say hi to Helena and have some MITO on the walk home. We love living in Sevilla.

I mentioned that the city is really in full blown preparations for Semana Santa. These are the stands they have set up for the processions in the Plaza San Francisco. They come through here exactly as I am facing, and head south to the Cathedral. Next, they will fill the stands with chairs. I would estimate that each of these boxes will have at least 6 chairs. To give you a sense of the VAST space allotted to Semana Santa viewing, this is just ONE plaza of viewing stands. I have zoomed in on the car at the end of this section. Right where the car is located they will veer to the right and join Avenida Constitution (also lined with similar boxes between this square and the Cathedral) My crowd hating claustrophobic tendencies flare up just looking at empty stands. This is why we leave for Semana Santa. And this yearr we will be in Barcelona with Todd & Evie and then A Coruña for the remaining time of Holy Week (Palm Sunday to Easter Monday) 

Many upcoming posts on Barcelona  and A Coruña - so stay tuned...

more eating in Valencia

 So we have been trying to stay warm despite not having packed the right clothes for the 40* weather we have been having regularly here.  It has been unseasonably cold in Spain the last ten days. In part we think it may be due to a sandstorm in the Sahara that has covered all of Portugal and most of southern Spain. So we have been staying close to "home" - going to the market and eating everything but dinner at our apartment.

today's brunch at home:

Last night's dinner - really excellent place- 

The night before we had a good dinner at a bad restaurant. A brazilian Japanese fusion place with terrific creative dishes and nice staff but an abysmal restaurant administration. QR code menus with no open wi-fi connection and a surly "bouncer" out front who tried to stop us from going into the restaurant.  The staff were pleasant but most spoke only Spanish and the clientele were mostly English speaking.  We did better than most because we actually are fairly decent with restaurant Spanish.  

You will see in the photos - the food was very creative- but we won't be returning- the meal was good but it was way too expensive to not have equally good service.  Here is a telling story of the way the place was run.  We wanted to leave a 20 Euro tip for staff and because all we had was a 50 Euro note we asked for change at the bar, telling them why we wanted it, and were refused ("we are not allowed to make change.") So no tip for the poor employees.... Oh well...

 

sorry, no photo - the sandwich was tasty but very very very messy! 

Today we are trying a Greek place - so we'll let you know - the time changed overnight to daylight savings and we are off kilter as we had no reason to get up early. So the sun sets now at almost 9 PM. YAY! unfortunately that is not yet making it warmer here... And it has been even colder in Sevilla! Which is a shame given that literally thousands of people are outside for the processions for Semana Santa. Photos taken below by my intercambio Julia last year from her balcony during Semana Santa. 

It is a very big deal - very big-  videos taken by Julia and Pablo (her husband) 

So more to follow- at the end of this week we are headed to Madrid- 

more Valencia

The market was a bg draw to us - after our visit last year I looked for a rental nearby for the tie we would be in Valencia. It has turned out to be a good news bad news thing.  The place is swarming with tourists making it nearly impossible to just get a coffee and relax. But on the other hand it is centrally located and we are within walking distance of much of the city center. 

Here are 2 photo I took the other night on the way to dinner of the market at night...

and we passed a tattoo parlor with some great ads- 

Then we headed to a terrific marisqueria that we had gone to last year and loved- and we loved it again. 

and then- the next night we went to Llisa Negra - a Quique Dacosta (famous chef from the area) restaurant. It was fabulous- we had the tasting menu and loved it all but especially the caramelized ensaladilla rusa. 

The dish of the night below- 

and then weather finally warmed up and we got blue skies so I took a photo from the living room balcony of the street up to the market (the white building on the left with the three peaked roofs - two visible in the photo)

After I spent an hour at the banco Santander nearby, we shopped at the market and bought all kinds of goodies - strawberries so fragrant that we couldn't walk by them and ate them all in less than eight hours LOL Valencian oranges (unlike our Sevillano ones which are bitter and inedible, these are eating orange- big and juicy) Breads and Charcuterie and a couple of bocadillos for lunch. Some smoked salmon for Easter Sunday breakfast. Then because we had a larger mid day feast we went for pizza for dinner nearby.

one spicy sausage with mushrooms and onions and the other (above) with truffle paste... both were quite good. 

Phil tried the carpaccio starter and I had the veggie lasagna slice as a starter....

an excellent local wine (monastrell) 

Tonight - good Friday- we are scheduled for sushi... with a Brazilian twist. So we will see how that is. Next week we are headed to Madrid to visit Megan, Christian and Oscar. So more to follow.