Puzzling parades

Seville tapas revisited
Weather: Warm with thunderstorms scattering parades

Limited ourselves to 2 bits of sightseeing based on their closing time in relation to the bus getting into Seville about 4.30 and the need for tapas by around 8.30pm (v early compared to locals).
Started off with a tour of the bullring.  It was interesting but a relief to get out.  Felt like I needed fresh air because I kept imagining the smell of blood.  I'm sure its a thrilling spectacle but can't get past the thought of the poor old bulls being taunted and bewildered before they die.  They lose every time.  Unlike the bullfighters who can earn upto €100,000 a fight.

Next up was the Museum of Fine Arts but I'm afraid we got more pleasure from the architecture of the building than from the pics.  There was very little info and none in English so we just enjoyed a bit of a cruise round with a couple of stops in the cool courtyards.

When we were looking for the Museum we spotted a group of young men in a park with what looked like towel rolls.  Centre of the city seemed stange place for a swim club to meet but it turned out that they were carrying rolls of padding to protect their heads and shoulders so they could carry what was obviously a very heavy religious ...can't think how to describe it but this is what it looked like..

There was a marching band behind this thing which was great except that the casque was obviously so heavy that every 50 meters they had to stop whilst a couple of the bearers swapped over and water was poured into little silver mugs held out by those still underneath.  Then with a big bang of the drum they were off again.  Friday night seemed to be the night for parades so we went from finding them intriguing to trying to find a street that wasn't full of them.  But we eventually found our favourite tapas bar just before the heavens opened and the paraders all scattered.  Glad we saw it but would have liked to know what it was about.  We even bought a little blue ribbon each from the flamenco girls but not sure what they were collecing for.