Sevilla and Jerez De La Frontera

Sevilla is a national treasure. And boy, it sure is a beautiful city, can really make a boy feel lonesome. Fruit heavy orange trees line every picture perfect street, permeating the cool breeze with a luscious citrus scent. At night coach lights cast warm yellow light down on to sidewalk cafe tables, and the clip-clop of horse shoes echo down the narrow cobble-stone lanes. Boy, a fella can feel real lonesome. Forget the romance, lets see some facts:
Sevilla is considered to be Europe's second oldest city.
In the sixteenth century (thanks to a monopoly over the incoming wealth of the 'new world')  Sevilla was the world's centre of commerce.
........... I forget the rest......
oh yeah, Sevilla is a very green city - parks absolutely everywhere - over 6 million trees.
ok im bored.

This is more like it. Flamenco in Jerez De La Frontera. Meet Manuela, on the right. When she hit the stage we had absolutely no idea what was coming. We were just sitting in a small bar room, sipping questionable wine, and thinking "oh yeah, bit of clapping, bit of foot tapping, bit of singing....." THEN BAM she flew across the stage in a flurry of colour and fabric and her leg came up and she span around and WHAK her 'tachuela' came down on the floor with enough force to split the world in half. The whole audience involuntarily recoiled about two metres. Blow the toupee right of your nog! Christ these girls have some power. Actually, I think right now Manuela is my favourite person in the whole world. Once she warmed up she gave us a hell of a show - controlled calm juxtaposed against controlled fury - a real treat. Actually, at some points it it occurred to me that it was not dissimilar to a martial arts demonstration - like watching crouching tiger hidden dragon. Although in this picture they are smiling, typically they are not - they look real pissed. I swear Manuela could of stared down the entire front row of the All Blacks, then made Mike Tyson polish her tachuelas. Sigh.......