Morocco and other places: Malaga and Sevilla

It's later still on Tuesday afternoon 3rd June and I'm on a roll.
I am a blogger possessed and will continue until the need to eat tapas and drink beer overcomes me.
It may occur soon.

.....back to the blog

Today (Tuesday 2nd) we have decided to go to Seville (locally known as Sevilla) by train.
It's a €60 round trip by RENFE train. We were advised to catch a train as the roads there are narrow and parking is difficult.
The Málaga-María Zambrano railway station is only 15 minutes walk so we jumped at the train option.
The trains here are easy to use and the stations are quite accommodating.

We arrived at Sevilla two comfortable hours later and armed with our Google maps and recently downloaded reviews of the city walked towards Las Setas.

This is the article that made me want to go there -
1. Las Setas
Go to the top of Las Setas (the mushrooms), and then complain about it with locals.
Officially known as the Metropol Parasol, the German-designed wood building-thingy near La Encarnación Square may look cool if you’re a foreigner, but that’s because you’re wrong.
Make no mistake, to sevillanos the aptly-nicknamed Mushrooms are an eyesore.
Skulk around the bottom taking arty-looking photos for your Instagram feed, and then head to the top and enjoy a beer while overlooking the city.
If you’re looking for spectacular city views, this is one of the best things to do in Seville.

With a write up like that, how could you not want to go there?

We understood why reviewers had suggested not taking a car there.
Some of the footpaths make the one in Firenze look like motorways!
One of the footpaths was one, yes ONE, shoe wide.
We were discovering this as a bloody Prius taxi came up behind us in stealth (aka electric) mode.
The driver was very polite but these silent cars are dangerous!
Dangerous to the point of needing to be banned, I would suggest.

This is very very wide, in the old part old Sevilla

The structure is made of wood.

As remarkable as that is it has failed to impress the locals, who hate it.

We got to the wooden mushrooms and decided that instead of spending €3 on going to the top of one of the mushrooms we should spend it on food and drink. Which we did.
Andalusian oxtail stew, olives, not enough bread, too much beer and just enough sangria and chocolate and churros made up lunch.

Obviously the churros and chocolate were Tiz's.

The beer belonged to her travelling companion

Her travelling companion did not receive churros with his beverage

and chose to use his index finger as a substitute.

The "too much beer" was obviously an over indulgence of mine and it was the reason we didn't cover as much of Sevilla as we may have.
The fact that is was very hot didn't help either.

We went to the river to get some respite from the heat and thankfully, like all good European cities, they had a boat tour of the Guadalquiver River.
It took about an hour and we learnt everything we ever wanted to know about the Expo they had there in 1992.
We also learnt everything we didn't need to know about the 1992 Expo.
It gave me the impression that not much had happened before the Expo and very little has happened since.

The cool breeze off the water as we motor-boated along was welcome and made the commentary bearable.

The heat had really got to me and I was all for just heading back to the air-conditioned comfort of the train station, which we did.

We arrived with ~40 minutes to spare and thought we would treat ourselves to a slushie.
Tiz chose piña (pineapple) and I chose fresa (strawberry).
The slushies were delivered with a smile but I should have realised that all was not quite right.
Should slushies glow an iridescent hue of the fruit they are supposed to contain?
I think these things may have have had nuclear waste in them.
We were dry and thirsty enough to overlook a small amount of depleted uranium in our drinks as long as the thirst was quenched.
I took a sip and shuddered.
Tiz took a sip and froze.
These things defied any law of physics or cooking that states that there is only a certain amount of sugar that can be made soluble in a container of about 150ml.
My teeth ached looking at it.

Tiz was still frozen.
She gets "brain freeze", which I don't suffer from nor understand but accept.
She looked like she had complete body freeze.
I mean like Walt Disney body freeze.
No movement from our Tiz.
She eventually made a sound and said "Not only cannot I drink something this cold it's too sweet!"
This girl is the mistress of understatement, if nothing else.

Too sweet doesn't even begin to describe it.
It's a bit like saying that the Carolina Reaper chili pepper is a little spicy.

We bought a bottle of water and kept diluting it until it was drinkable.

The train trip the Malaga was an exercise in trying to take a good picture from a moving train.
Some successes, load of failures.

Wow this area has a load of olive trees! No wonder they make sop much oil!

We got back a couple of hours before dinner and a little before the supermarket nearby closed.
Beers.Tick. Water. Tick Crema De Arroz Con Leche. Nada. Much sadness.

We drank our fluids and started out to look for a place to eat.
I remembered an interesting looking place not far from our hotel and suggested we try it.
When we got there there didn't seem to be any tourists among the local so it seemed like the right choice.
It is called La Taberna del Pintxos, which is odd because the tasty morsels known as pintxos from the north are almost exclusively called tapas here in the south.
Beyond that I have little else to offer, by way of explanation, other than to say "It's a Spanish thang!"
Now, I could go on about the food but I will offer some pictures that will explain my thoughts far better than words.