A Day to Remember 10-29-25

But not wholly with fondness. It rained during the night and when I got up I wanted to get some more butter and jam for breakfast so I walked over to the little market close by but it was closed.  I came back empty handed and just a few moments later it started pouring rain.  Our goal today was to visit the art museum so we would be inside in case the rain fell all day long.  We left to a light rain but by the time we got to the bus stop a block away it was really coming down, by the time the bus came 5 minutes later we were both wet from the knees down. The ride was 5 minutes and if anything it was raining harder when we got off. So we quickly veered into El Corte Ingles, the big Spanish department store chain. It gave us a few minutes to drip off and get a half block closer to the museum.  

Arriving at the museum we had a line of 50-60 people ahead of us waiting in the rain to enter.  Luckily it went pretty quickly and the rain had relented to just gentle from torrential.  When we got to the ticket kiosk I gave them my credit card for tickets, they asked if I had cash and I said no, so they just gave me two tickets and waved us in.  We were pretty wet so we stowed our umbrellas and rain gear in a locker and went in.  The museum is a series of galleries surrounding several courtyards containing lovely trees and plants.  We came to the first courtyard before entering and it was coming down in torrents again.  So we didn’t linger and went into the first gallery.  Art history for Seville begins in the 1500’s (at least relative to western art as we know it) and was heavily influenced by the Flemish tradition of the Spanish Low Countries.

So the indigenous painters created work that looks Flemish in design and pallet. The paintings were religious in subject and accomplished if not masterful. However there was an El Greco portrait and two further portraits by Velasquez, so a couple masters were represented.  In the sculpture area however there were several very accomplished works by a Spanish master whose name I forgot to record.  They were done in terracotta and were very lively, especially a life sized one of St. Jerome, who seems to be well represented in Sevillian art.  We went through three rooms all the while hearing the rain and thunder outside.  At one point we were looking at the portrait by Velasquez (at the right) when we were startled by a simultaneous flash and bang, really close by.  I swear this is true both Deb and I saw sparks along the lower wall as it hit, each in a different place along the wall. We kind of laughed and said “that was close”.  

We left that gallery and were sitting in courtyard when the guards came through and were ushering all visitors out of the museum.  They closed it down because it was flooding in one area.  We walked towards the entrance, where all was chaos, and made our way to the locker where our coats and bags were stored.  As we got to an areas where the toilets were located the floor was covered in a half inch of water smelling of sewage, so we understood the haste to close things down.

It was still raining outside and the major street we had approached from was full of sitting cars with water up to their undercarriages so we had to take an uphill side street back towards where we might be able to get a bus or taxi back towards our apartment. However the street was basically a parking lot and we decided that walking back was preferable, besides we were already wet through and through.  As we turned up the street leading to our street Deb spotted a restaurant that was open and appeared to have tables available. We went in since it was right in the middle of the lunching period and requested a table.

They were very nice and seated us right away.  We ordered a plate of cheese and another of Iberico ham and a couple glasses of wine.  Then I ordered a brochette of pork for a main course.  We fully enjoyed eating and drying out a bit.  Then our server came through the room wheeling a cart with a large faience crock to another table and ladled out bowls of stew to those diners.  The people at the next table saw it and asked if they could have a bowl too.  Then a third table jumped in and got stew too.  As she returned towards the kitchen I asked what she was serving and when I saw it I ordered a bowl for us as well. It was nowhere on the menu, but I couldn’t resist the chance to try it.  It turned out to be a stew of black eyed peas, vegetables, and bits of ham (what else?).  Absolutely delicious, I could have made an entire meal just out of the stew. I don’t know why but we seem to be the most leisurely diners in Spain, we entered around 2 and didn’t get out until after 5. The only diners who were even close to us in duration were a quartet of men who were in for a feast, they started with beers and tapas, then main courses with a bottle of wine and a bottle of sherry followed by dessert and coffee with Cuba Libras or similar.  Thank goodness they still knew how to enjoy each others company.  Luckily it had finished raining by the time we were finished so we were able to sploosh home in wet shoes and start getting dried out.  

Sevilla and the rest of the province were inundated by over 4 1/2 inches of rain in just over 12 hours so there was serious flooding in the city and several of the surrounding towns including Cordoba.