Rota Adventurers
The day in Rota was pretty chill. We didn’t venture out much other than onto the sun deck. Brian found the washing machine, tripped a circuit breaker and got the boys showered. Minor setbacks, minor accomplishments and minor Adventures today for our recuperating boys.
Seville Adventurers
Tiffany, Tracy and Suaram’s first outing of the day was to the Palacio de las Dueñas. This is a 15th century structure and still home to the Duke of Alba. It was the birthplace of the famous Spanish poet Antonio Muchado and the site of Amerigo Vespucci’s wedding in the 16th century.
The is one of the major historic homes in Seville due to it’s architecture and artistic heritage. The style is Renaissance, Gothic and Moorish but they combine in a way that we thought pleasing. It has large interior courtyards with a wide variety of plants which this time of year are fragrant and flowering.
We listened to the 45 minute audio tour and had mixed reviews. The parts that were focused on the house and what we were seeing were very interesting. The parts describing all the people who’d owned, renovated, been born at or visited the Palace went on a bit longer than we preferred. We enjoyed it overall and Suaram dubbed it “less boring than she’d expected”. It was a glimpse of (wealthy, minor royal) life in Seville that somehow felt more ‘alive’ than most historic places.
On our way to our next activity we again passed ‘The Mushrooms of Seville’ and decided to explore it further. We’d read that you could walk around on top of the structure so we decided to check it out. The views of Seville were wonderful on this Spring day and the design of the walkway was interesting – still out of place with the old neighborhood – but interesting.
Our last adventure of the day was to enjoy a traditional Flamenco dance performance at the Casa de Memoria cultural center. The show lasted about an hour with four performers and it was outstanding.
It was first practiced in the late 18th century. This art form originated in southwestern Spain so it was a great experience to see it performed in its ‘hometown’. We couldn’t take photos or videos until the end but we very much enjoyed the show as a fitting end to our time in Seville.
5 Adventures Together 