No calculations were necessary today, we’re finally on vacation.

After breakfast, we headed out to a coffee shop for some fuel – coffee and Bizcocho Limón (their standard lemon pound cake as it’s called in the US.) We were lucky to find a table outside that wasn’t surrounded by smokers, a genuine rarity here in Europe. The morning was cool by Sevilla standards, with a light breeze making it even more agradable. Once fortified, we took the long route to Corte Ingles, checking out whatever had changed since we were last here in 2019. Some old favorites were gone, replaced by new potentials (in particular a spate of gelato shops.)

Shopping at Corte Ingles was as always a wonderful adventure. Their tinned fish aisle alone makes me want to pack up and move here. Fully provisioned, we headed back home stopping along the way at one of those aforementioned new places for a jamon bocadillo, one of those sandwiches made with that wonderful acorn-fed pig-product. We settled in for a pleasant afternoon of Spanish television, snacks, and several hours spent on the phone with Comcast customer service as MLW’s phone email had stopped functioning on the trip over. The first two were great, the last one not so much.

We decided to try an ad-lib for dinner and wound our way to a little side street that purportedly had a restaurant that a one-time landlord had recommended. We found the street but weren’t sure about the restaurant, as there were two. We chose the more friendly looking of the two and were treated to a real surprise – an amazing meal of pork cheeks, fried Cod, Solomillo (pork loin in whisky sauce,) and a delightful salad of tomato slices, olive oil, chopped onions, and thick slabs of tuna. All accompanied by two of the most amazing wines. We’re finding that the 3€ house wines here are far better than any of the $25 per bottle Spanish wines we drink at home. Apparently, they don’t let the good stuff out of the country.

As we do on most evenings, we finish things up by sitting on some benches at the end of Avenida Constitución watching people go by. The perfect end to the perfect day. Tomorrow we start the tourism in earnest.

A random mix of photos from the day ->