We went up to Sevilla to visit friends and see some flamenco. We were fortunate enough to be able so stay at the house of our consuegros. English doesn't have a word for consuegros, but it is the parents in law of our daughter. Enrique and Maria, our consuegros normally live in Madrid, but have restored this beautiful 11th century home from a virtual ruin. The walls in places are almost 2 feet thick. It is an incredible luxury to be able to stay here. The guitar echoes up through the 3 story central patio with a sound that is delightful.
Here is the central patio on the ground floor.
And here it is looking the other way. You are looking at at a Roman column made by hand by some Roman 2000 years ago! These columns were left over when the dark ages fell and the Romans were evicted, but became a basic building material for the moors and later were used for all kinds of trivial purposes - like they would build them into the corner of a wall so that carriages wouldn't gouge up the plaster.
Up on the roof is the azotea, another patio with a view. In this case, you can see the Giralda peeking over the roof of the 11th century convent across the steet. We'll talk more about that in the next post.
Here is the first person I met when I first came to Spain a long time ago. His name is Antonio and he is with his wife, Mercedes. When I first met him, he was 16 years old and working in his father's bar. Now he is 41 and has his own bar. We've watched his children grow up.
And here are some more friends. On either side are Marianna and Federico, old friends from Santa Cruz. I have known Freddie for more than 40 years. In the middle is Lakshmi, a fabulous young dancer who will be appearing with me in the performance in Puertollano next month.
No comments:
Post a Comment