Shopping with Monty Python 11-7-25

We had nearly an out of body experience shopping today. Yesterday I bought my raincoat and in the process I signed up for a customer affinity card.  The way it works is that based on a purchase the card holder receives a 10% on the sale which can be used against the next purchase. However the next purchase has to take place within the next 5 days.  So since we had this credit from yesterday we decided to buy Deb some more socks.  So we picked them out and took them to the cash point and used the card to apply the credit.  It used all of the credit but 4 euros, however since we purchased the socks for 18 euros they added another 1.80 euros to the credits. So now we had 5.80 euros instead of 4.00, wrong direction!  We were going to use the credits to get lunch makings for the train trip and we found a jar of pork rillettes. That used up all the remaining credit but the purchase generated another credit for the following purchase.  So we racked our brains to see if we could find another purchase for .89 euros and drive our credit down to .09. But alas we failed and our brains hurt. Hilarious! 

Deb had run out of reading material and researched to find a place where we could buy English language books within a reasonable distance. It turned out that the only foreign language bookstore in Sevilla is practically across the street from El Corte Ingles. So we went over there and she found something to keep her busy for the train trip and part of Nice.  A Bernard Cornwell novel, “1391” he is the author of the series on the Napoleonic Wars featuring a fictional Richard Sharp, but all the actions are based on situations that really took place during that time period. I’m reading Suetonius’, “The Twelve Caesars” so I’ll be busy for a while yet.  

Following our little shopping foray we went back to the apartment and began our trip preparations.  We started a laundry load before we left, so we hung the clothes to begin drying.  We also started gathering our stuff together from around the apartment and putting things into our suitcases.  I had my new raincoat which wasn’t planned when we left but it was partially offset with my jettisoning of the ‘pretend’ raincoat.  Luckily Deb’s feet are so small that adding several pairs of socks won’t add too much to her load,

At that point it was after 2:00 so we headed over to get lunch.  Maestro Rufino has become pretty much our go-to restaurant and today was a perfect opportunity, the sun was out, it was cool, in short a great day to eat outside. When we arrived only one table was occupied, but a couple others had ‘reserved’ signs, however we were able to get a nice one without problem. We’re getting better at ordering and pacing the orders so that we don’t end up with everything on the table at once.  So we ordered tempura artichokes, and ham croquettes, followed by the ham paella.  Since the paella takes 20 minutes to prepare we were able to leisurely consume the first two tapas. Still it was a narrowly run thing.  This particular paella is our favorite of the trip, so we thoroughly enjoyed it, and scraped the pan clean.  And since tomorrow is out last day here, we made a reservation for lunch again tomorrow.  If I were to rate Sevilla gastronomically I’d say that with one small exception every place we ate was really enjoyable 

and it gave us a new and positive view of Spanish cooking.  The seafood was uniformly excellent, the croquettes and fritters were equally good; though was a lot of deep frying.  The Spaniards we interacted with were uniformly warm, welcoming, and invariably courteous in their reaction to our inadequate Spanish.  Most of the people had a pretty good grasp of English when we ran out of our abilities so the conversations were very satisfying.  The city seems particularly attractive to the French, as we heard many French speakers, and a fair sprinkling of Irish. We have one more full day and intend to fully enjoy ourselves.  Sevilla has been a wonderful experience and we would encourage anyone to visit, but not in summer.