Friday, March 27

On Friday, I tried taking the kids back to the Plaza de Alfalfa to play at lunch only to find that the playground was surrounded by temporary wooden walls as the ciy prepares for Semana Santa. Semana Santa is a HUGE deal in Sevilla and throughout Spain.  It feels as if the entire city is preparing for a huge party.  The sidewalks have been washed (most dog poop is now gone) and the streets have been cleaned.  Some graffiti has been cleaned.  And now the barricades and stands and chairs are being put into place.  Plus, the city is being inundated with people.  It's quite festive already, and the processions don't even start until Sunday.

After lunch on Friday, Scott was able to join me for another date.  Work is starting to ramp up, so Scott was taking advantage of his time working from home to do more exploring with just the two of us.  The exploring started with dropping off my 2nd phone at the phone store where we bought it as I was still experiencing phone problems.  This made trip #4 for me to the phone store in 8 days.  I had to leave it for 24 hours for the staff to figure out what was wrong with it.  Thank goodness for the phone warranty.  Both Scott and I are getting our use of it.

From there, Scott and I wanted to just meander.  Here's a view from a main street showing the barricades and chairs ready to be set up.  Earlier in the day this section had been closed to traffic.  

In our wanderings on some of the pedestiran-only streets, we stumbled upon "Taste of America".  Of course we went in to check it out and found that Fruit Loops cost 9 euros (~$9.80).  Ouch!  Other items were similarly expensive.  Luckily if we need our American items fix, Scott can just pop into the store on the air base.  

Notice the royal red and gold banners along many of the balconies. We're seeing these throughout the city and we imagine they're up to show where people plan to view the Semana Santa processionals from their balconies.

More banners

Interesting wall decor - some sort of skinned fish or ray

We stopped for a drink and here's a view from our outdoor patio looking down the street.  There were ~7 restaurants that we could see from our seats plus all the vibrant buildind colors.  It was lovely.  The service was not.  We seem to either get great service or very slow service.  

Here's a view from our table looking the other direction up the street.

Another street, another cafe.

Another beautiful church

Check out the huge snake ring of churros outside this cafe.

 After our date, we met the kids at school and Scott took the boys home.  He had some more work to do, and then they went on a date to the train station and the McDonald's there while I accompanied Rosa to her first Spanish birthday party.

I wish I'd had my phone to take pictures of the party.  The party was for a classmate and she had invited all of the girls in the class (9 total including the birthday girl).  The birthday girl is a twin and her brother is in another class.  He'd also invited a number of friends.  And another 2nd grade boy also had a birthday that day.  So, it made for a 3-person birthday party.  The party was held at a restaurant that is owned by the other birthday boy's grandparents.  And the restaurant is out by the airport.  While it's closeby, it's not walking distance.  So, the party planners had reserved a private bus to take the children to the party.  Rosa walked with 4 other classmates (including the birthday girl) the 4 or so blocks to the big bus stop where she joined the rest of the partygoers on the bus.  The other classmates did a wonderful job of including Rosa and trying to speak some English with her.

Once at the party, there was a bounce area set up to provide 4 walls for a soccer area on the inside.  It was primarily the boys who played soccer (futbol) the whole time.  There was even a referee hired for the party to help with the games.  The girls bounced around on the edges of the bounce house, played hide and seek, played a game with boas, played catch, etc.  And then there were loads and loads of parents and grandparents and siblings.  As the party went on, the numbers kept on increasing.  Meanwhile, food after food after food was set out.  The first food included various donuts and muffins and flavored milk drinks and water.  Then the pizza came out.  And that was followed by another sweets course.  This was all before the 3 birthday cakes plus additional pastry cakes were passed out.  There seemed to be a ladies table and a mens table where people ate and drank coffee or water and just hung out.  The ladies were very welcoming to me.  And while I can understand more and more, I understand 1-on-1.  I can't yet follow conversations with multiple people in a loud setting.  Still, it was nice to sit and snack.  Oh yes, this was just merienda (afternoon snack) food.  This wasn't dinner.

Scott and the boys met us around 8 and we headed back to town.  We parked the car in the garage (level -1) and went straight out to dinner from there.  We figured that if we stopped in the apartment that we'd never get the kids to stay out late.

We found a restaurant, Taberna El Panduro, just a few blocks away on Calle Baños.  For me it was the best food, by far, that I've had since I've been here.

Here's what the menu looked like - a chalkboard with options.  This is in English, though still hard for us to know what to expect.  We ordered 4 or 5 items and were thrilled with our selections.

While we didn't think that any Semana Santa processionals started until Sunday, while we were at dinner, a small processional went by.  

Here ar e a nuber of people in the processional holding candles.  This processional didn't have a "paso" (float).  

The kids were all falling asleep in the restaurant.  We got home around 11pm and they all (and I) crashed.