Nuestro “Hogar”

Being back in Sevilla after the holidays was lovely. Wandering familiar streets and ordering my regular breakfast made Sevilla feel almost like home. So, when Charlene and Tommy (my in-laws) came to Sevilla for a few days, I especially enjoyed revisiting those Sevilliano spots that I love.

Sevilla is a wondrously accessible and charming European city; the perfect place for Charlene and Tommy to begin their first visit to the continent. We saw the main attractions here of course – the cathedral, barrio Santa Cruz, Triana bridge, castle, Plaza Nueva, Plaza de España, the park, etc. With each visitor to Sevilla, we visit many of these spots and I always notice something I’ve never noticed before. I’m starting to learn more about who lived in the castle years ago, how they built the cathedral (the architect wanted to build a cathedral that would make future generations ask “Were they crazy?”) and on which back streets there is a cozy cafe hidden away.

At Plaza de España; looks like they recovered from jetlag in record time!

Charlene and Tommy enjoyed the tapas and wine culture as much as Brad and I do. We shared lots of cheese, ham, calamares (fried calamari), ox, shrimp and flan. Yum! We also breakfasted at a little neighborhood French bar, lunched at an Irish pub and thoroughly enjoyed some Spanish chocolate and churros.

Brad and I used Charlene and Tommy’s visit as an excuse to see (for the first time) the Countess of Lebrija’s house and the Plaza de Toros (bullring). In the early 1900s, the Countess of Lebrija bought a bunch of Roman mosaics and artifacts from Itálica (ancient Roman city just miles from Sevilla) and installed them in her sumptuous home. These items from ancient Rome were just a foretaste of things to come.

The Plaza de Toros was super fun. Bullfighting season is only April to October, but we got to tour the ring, the stables and the museum at this famous bullring. One item of note in the museum was the head of Islero’s mother. Oh, you don’t know Islero? He was the bull that killed the most famous matador in Spain, Manolete, in 1947. Islero’s mom was killed after Manolete’s death, “so that she would not give birth to any more killers.”

Plaza de Toros, Sevilla

To round out Charlene and Tommy’s ultra-Andalucian visit, we attended a fantastic flamenco show at a famous venue in Santa Cruz (neighborhood in Sevilla). A singer, guitarist and bailadora (dancer) performed. When you’ve eaten fried fish, gazed at Moorish architecture, seen a flamenco show, toured a famous bullring and laughed with the locals, you know you’ve been to southern Spain.

But the Bentons had much more to see on their European vacation! We had plane tickets to fly from Madrid, across the sparkling Mediterranean, to Italy . . .