Were back in Spain, and this country continues to impress.  This part of our journey takes us to Seville and Barcelona, with a day at sea between the two stops.

Where are my dragons?

Seville was a big change in what we’ve experienced in Spain thus far.  Unlike the verdant hills of Bilbao, Seville’s landscape is fairly arid and not as pretty.  I’ve seen pictures of the Seville countryside taken in the early spring and summer, and the rolling green hills are quite lovely, but at this time of year, the vegetation that was once green is pretty much dead and brown. As you get closer to the city’s core, the landscape changes and becomes more sub-tropical, creating a beautiful downtown area.  But enough talk about trees and stuff, let’s talk about Game of Thrones!

Our tour took us to the royal palace, Alcázar de Sevilla, where the Water Gardens of Dorne were filmed for season 5 of G.O.T.  It was absolutely beautiful!  The intricate details and vibrant colors of the palace were brilliant; it was hard to fathom how long it would take to construct something so elaborate.

The theme song for Game of Thrones naturally got stuck in my head as we walked around the gardens.  It was hard to shake, especially since people were humming it as they wandered the grounds.  It definitely got me thinking about the show, and I started imagining that I was Cersei Lannister, plotting peoples’ demise as I navigated through the sea of slow-moving tourists.  My attention was especially focused on people with those ridiculous selfie sticks, my feelings for which have been described in one of my Iceland posts.

If you have no idea what I’ve been talking about, you need to subscribe to HBO and get caught up with GOT!

Try the shark.  Am I having a flashback?

I always like to try local cuisine when I’m traveling.  As we were driving to the city, I asked the tour guide for suggestions on what to eat.  One of the local dishes she mentioned was marinated and battered dogfish, which is a small shark that’s found in the local waters.  We also have dogfish in Seattle, and my brother-in-law, CJ, actually caught one on a fishing excursion when he and my sister, Kim, were visiting us a couple of summers ago.  Since they immediately released the dogfish that CJ caught, I had no idea that people ate them.  I wasn’t sure what to expect; I hoped that it was nothing like the fermented shark I ate in Iceland.

After touring the city, Larry, Gail, Kevin and I sat down at one of the many cute little restaurants in the shopping area that surrounds the palace.  As I looked at the menu, several delicious-looking dishes caught my eye, but when I saw that dogfish was included on the menu, my choice was made.  Everyone at the table was leery of that dish, but I tried to encourage everyone to try something they may not be able to get elsewhere.

Gail and Kevin decided to share an entree, and played it safe with a chicken paella, but ventured out a little bit by getting an order of a local melon wrapped in ham, which turned out to be absolutely delicious.  Larry really pushed his boundaries, and out of the long list of local dishes, he decided on something truly unique.  He ordered a hamburger.  Really, Larry?

So how was the shark?  It was fantastic!  I was thrilled that I ordered it, and plan on looking for it on Seattle menus.

Barcelona. Why are we only here one day?

I love Barcelona!  We definitely plan on going back to visit more sites and take advantage of the wonderful shopping.  We were a little nervous about going to this city because of the current political issues the region is dealing with, but we experienced no problems. We had a whirlwind tour, with a main stop at the amazing church, Sagrada Familia, followed by a stop at a re-creation of a traditional Spanish village where we had lunch.

Lunch was amazing!  We were told that it was a typical Spanish lunch, starting with a gorgeous tuna salad (don’t think of the tuna mixed with mayonnaise kind, but rather a nice salad with chunks of tuna on top), followed by a plate of different types of meat and sausages with potatoes and grilled peppers, and finishing with a delectable crème brûlée.  Not all the meat on the plate was immediately identifiable, and our waiter was no help, but that didn’t stop me from eating every bite. Larry was a little hesitant to try things he was unsure about, especially this one small, thin, dry sausage that he thought looked a little dubious. It probably didn’t help that I told him it was a duck penis, not that I know what one of those look like.  The multiple glasses of wine I had probably contributed to my choice of animal and anatomical part to attribute this little sausage to.  It was wonderful, regardless of what it was. Larry left his on the plate. His loss.

Those sure are some bright underwear!  Oh…wait a minute…

I managed to catch up on laundry on our day at sea.  Each floor has two laundry rooms that provide washers, dryers, detergent, an iron and ironing board, and a TV and chairs if you’re someone who likes to sit there and wait for your clothes to cycle through.  As I walked into the room, I saw that someone had folded some clothes and placed them on the little table attached to the wall next to the washers.  Clothes someone left in the dryer, I assumed.  As I took a closer look at the pile, a bright pink, blue and white leopard print caught my attention.  They were my underwear.

I’m typically fairly conservative with my underwear color choices, if you must know, but I happened to find these underwear massively discounted (if you saw the pattern, you would know why), and I couldn’t pass up the deal.  Of course these had to be the one pair that somehow got left in the dryer when I had done laundry the previous week.  Let me say that again…the previous week.  Those dumb underwear sat on that table for 7 days. Who knows how many people saw them.  And since it’s not hard to figure out to whom on the floor these bright britches belong, I snatched them up, trying not to think about the jokes made at my expense.