Every August Sevilla turns into a ghost town.
I kind of like it. But I think I’d like it even better if I had air-conditioning.
ghost town
04 Friday Aug 2006
Posted in life stuff, sevilla
Category Archives: sevilla
way too hot!
15 Saturday Jul 2006
Posted in sevilla
It really is.
For the past few days the ‘official temperature’ here has been 40-42ºC. Of course that is the official temperature at the airport taken around 1pm. In reality, in the centre of Sevilla mid-late afternoon you can add at least five more degrees to that . . . which is way too hot!
Nog and I live in a top-floor apartment in the very centre of Seville that has lots of balconies but no air-conditioning. We’ve got plenty of electric fans, but frankly, at these temperatures sitting in front of a fan kind of feels like sitting in front of a hair blow-dryer turned up to HIGH – not exactly refreshing but still better than nothing.
I mean, if you do anything even remotely strenuous or energetic – like breathe or stand up – the sweat starts pouring off in buckets. We’re getting through an amazing amount of cold mineral water – about 6 litres a day between the two of us.
And all practical stuff that needs doing – like shopping or running errands – has to be done first thing in the morning, at least before noon. At which point we hit the nearest bar for a very cold beer and a couple of glasses of cold water chasers.
But I’m not complaining (much…) because in winter our apartment – no central heating and huge draughty balcony window/doors – is soooooo cold that we have to wear three layers and hug our portable electric radiator when sitting in our living room. And getting up in the morning in winter is actually painful – we take turns getting up to put on the kettle for coffee and turn on the bathroom heater so we can shower without shivering to death.
I get on better with the summer heat and Nog deals much better with the winter cold. But even I have to acknowledge when it gets so HOT that I go totally floppy. Still, I do prefer Da HEAT. I dunno, it makes you have to just open up and accept it somehow … in a very relaxed and laid back manner, hardly wearing any clothes at all, which is lovely.
So, how’s the weather where you are?
magical mystery tour
06 Thursday Jul 2006
Posted in food & drink, holidays, photos, sevilla, trips
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! 
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 in art, food & drink, friends, photos, sevilla
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.
M & S
21 Wednesday Jun 2006
Posted in retail therapy, sevilla
🙂 Yay! This was such good news to read this morning in the ol’ Grauniad – apparently Marks & Spencer is planning to open 150 new stores overseas. Oh please please please let one of them be in Sevilla!
Here’s the article I read: Marks & Spencer
Since they closed the M&S in Sevilla back in 2001 I’ve had no decent place to buy underwear, socks, tights, cotton t-shirts, natural fibre sweaters, mince pies at Christmas time and . . . oh just all sorts of simple basic things, you know?
There is an M&S in Gibraltar, about a 2 1/2 hour drive from here, and I almost got there once My Almost Trip To Gibraltar . But since I didn’t I then had to get my friend Karl in England to send me M&S knickers by post – I was a desperate woman. And now it looks like those dark desperate days may finally be drawing to a close . . .
casa azahar 