Category Archives: photos

magical mystery tour

06 Thursday Jul 2006

Posted by in food & drink, holidays, photos, sevilla, trips

≈ 15 Comments

As mentioned earlier and elsewhere, our friend Craig (aka zoomer on h2g2) has been visiting this past week – and we’ve been having a wonderful time. And we almost went to Gibraltar too! (see M&S especially the original post and comment 24).

Anyhoodle, once we ended up with Plan E , I decided to make it a bit special and so, although Craig knew we’d be spending the night in Bolonia, we simply gave him directions as he drove along so he seldom knew what our actual destinations were going to be . . . a magical mystery tour! f_magic.gif

It was basically a tour of Los Pueblos Blancos and La Costa de la Luz

We started off in Arcos de la Frontera and then ended up in my favourite beach village Conil and had lunch in a chiringuito on the beach. Later we followed a small coastal road to Trafalgar and Los Caños de Meca and then spent the night in Bolonia

I’ve lived in Spain for 14 years now and have never had better chiperones a la plancha like the ones at my favourite restaurant in Bolonia.

Next morning after seeing the Roman ruins we went off to Tarifa for a bit of shopping, then zipped right past the-place-that-shall-not-be-mentioned though we did stop in a very pretty village called San Roque for a much needed beer break, which boasted a wonderful view of you-know-what.

Then we headed north to Ronda , had a fabulous lunch there, saw the amazing gorge, visited Spain’s oldest bullring and then after a short stop-off in Grazalema we passed through a few more white villages before finally getting home around 10pm . . . very tired but very very happy.

And so here are some photos I took of the magical mystery tour

Should be more added as soon as Craig gets his pics organized.

Isn’t it fabulous when friends visit and you get to be ‘on holiday’ with them? 🙂

serigraph serendipity

01 Saturday Jul 2006

Posted by in art, food & drink, friends, photos, sevilla

≈ 9 Comments

It was a magical evening.

Our friend Craig (aka zoomer) from Vancouver is visiting and we are having the loveliest time. Far too much eating and drinking going on, but what the hell – one week is one week. We are also going to Gibraltar on Monday, which for Craig will fulfill a long time desire and which will allow me to pick up some knickers at Marks & Spencer. 🙂

Last night we went out to the oldest bar in Sevilla, which dates back to 1670. On the way we passed a very small but well-lit workshop and I wondered aloud what it might be. Nog thought it might be a butcher’s, Craig thought he saw some sort of pastry rolling machine, but we only caught a glimpse of it as we walked past and then went on talking about other things.

And then we had a wonderful time at El Rinconcillo. Fabulous tapas, good beer and wine, wonderful ‘ambientation’ … so it was quite some time before we decided to lurch home again. And we saw that the workshop was still open even though it was almost midnight. But this time when we walked past my curiousity got the better of me and I popped my head inside the open door and said – ‘hey, what are you guys doing here?’. And the younger of the two men looked up from his work, smiled and said – ‘we’re here having fun.’ And then he invited us in to have a look around.

Turned out he was running a printing press and he showed us a small sepia print of one of his drawings ‘hot off the press’. It was gorgeous. And then he showed us more of his work and Craig decided to buy one of his smaller prints, signed and numbered – the small pic shown here (a view of the Giralda from my street!) – as a gift to take home to his daughter.

His website Norler is still ‘under construction’ but the catalogue bit is working.

Apparently Norberto also sells his art in the street but somehow, coming across him by chance as we did, hard at work in his studio on a hot summer Friday night, made the experience feel a bit magical and serendipitous.

A few days later we found Norberto at his usual spot next to the cathedral. You can click on the pictures to see a larger image.

norberto1.jpg norberto2.jpg norberto3.jpg

gatitos, etc …

26 Monday Jun 2006

Posted by in animals & pets, photos

≈ 19 Comments

gatitos-en-la-cama-1-1.jpg

Just possibly derailed one of Ivan’s posts by going off on a tangent about cats. So welcome to gatitos, etc… a place to talk about all animals who enrich our lives. In mine they happen to be those three, though the middle one, Lua, has now passed on. Notice total-bitch-from-hell look on Lua’s face – click on pic for better view 😉 . Oh man, do I ever miss that look … and her. Even almost two years later.

The other two gorgeous boys are Sunny (Lua’s son, on the left, who is actually a dog) and little street urchin rescue cat Azar, who is really some strange other-wordly being that is mostly cat but often rather spooky in how much he behaves like a very wonky human. He also has a wicked sense of humour. In case you are interested, here is how they got their names: Cat Names

And for more photos of this bunch (and some other people’s felines) you can check out: Cat Pics

Must do something about rearranging that album one day . . .

corpus cristi

15 Thursday Jun 2006

Posted by in culture, holidays, photos, religion, sevilla

≈ 11 Comments

corpus-cristi-2006-002.jpg

Today is a public holiday in Sevilla, one of the few places in Spain that celebrates Corpus Cristi. And as usual the Sevillanos do it up big time. Arches are built in the town hall square, altars are constructed, balconies and shop windows are decorated (there’s even a competion for this) and the night before the procession route is strewn with sprigs of rosemary and rose petals.

All for one rather boring procession that lasts about an hour.

However, what is lovely is to get up early and walk the route before the procession starts. The rosemary is still fresh on the ground, there aren’t many people about and you can see all the displays and decorations before going for a fab brekky once the procession has started and the crowds have moved from the bars to the streets.

We got out a bit late this morning and the procession had already started, but we got ahead of it and managed to take some photos, which you can see below. The window display ones are a bit wonky because of the reflections – and you can usually make out Nog and me as ghostly shadows in amongst the holy relics, loaves of bread and bunches of grapes. I just wish there was a way to transport the gorgeous fragrance of freshly crushed rosemary in the cool morning air . . .

Corpus Cristi photos