24 Tuesday Oct 2017
Posted in food & drink, friends, gastronomy, sevilla, tapas, tapas bars
The last time I saw Jeremy @jeremyhead, Karen & Joe was almost exactly two years ago, when we met up for tapas and ended up on an impromptu Triana Tapas Tour. This time we managed to meet near the end of their week-long visit in Sevilla and had a lovely lunch at the recently renovated La Azotea Zaragoza. Good times.
23 Monday Oct 2017
Posted in friends, gastronomy, sevilla, sherry, tapas, tapas bars, twitter friends, wine
Ramón & Phoebe at La Abacería Antigua de San Lorenzo
Phoebe @plemess is yet another friend I met through Twitter, but indirectly, through – yep – another Twitter friend (and now her husband) Oli @CoteDuPy. We met in person in London (August 2015) when Phoebe very generously offered to host a rooftop dinner for me in her home. So when I heard she would be visiting Sevilla I was happy to play host one afternoon and introduce her to some of my favourite tapas bars (and tapas). Phoebe is also a sherry addict like me, so I made sure we went to places that have a nice range of sherries, but I hadn’t expected to find this year’s latest bottling (autumn 2017) of Solear manzanilla pasada by Bodegas Barbadillo at La Antigua Abacería de San Lorenzo. What an extra special treat that was.
fabulous sherry and tapas at Eslava
We finished up with a penúltima at La Tienda de Azotea, by which time Phoebe’s friend had arrived in town, so she went off to meet him and I made my way home. All in all, a lovely way to spend a Sunday afternoon. 
30 Wednesday Aug 2017
Posted in food & drink, friends, gastronomy, restaurants, sevilla, tapas, twitter, twitter friends
Another meeting with a Twitter pal. This one was a bit unusual as I have known Francisco (the guy with the beard) online for over five years. We have almost met up a couple of times, but somehow it never worked out. This time he invited me to a new restaurant/bar run by his friend & chef Marcos (left) called La Grulla, and we finally got to meet in person. The unusual thing about this is that Francisco lives in Sevilla, so meeting up shouldn’t have taken so long. Anyhow, I also got to meet two other foodie friends of his, Eduardo and Miguel, and we spent a pleasant afternoon “talking shop” and comparing notes about various bars and restaurants in town, while chef Marcos kept bringing us wonderful dishes to try and keeping our glasses full. Good times!
18 Friday Aug 2017
Posted in friends, sevilla, social media, travel, twitter, twitter friends
Peter & Robert at La Azotea
Met another Twitter pal yesterday! This is Robert Wright @GaoCho, who has actually been living in Sevilla for a year, but I only became aware of him when he sent me a private message last December about something he’d read about me. Then the other day he also commiserated with my “copycat tour company” issues and it was only then that I realized that he lives here (duh). So I said we should meet up for a beer some time and, as I already had a meeting planned at The Office (aka La Azotea Santa Cruz) we decided to meet up there. Spent a lovely couple of hours over a couple of beers and LOTS of chat. Turns out we know quite a few of the same people as both Robert and his husband are tour guides (Robert also writes guide books as well as his Endless Mile project). It was great to meet such a fun and interesting person – hope we can catch up again before long.
29 Monday May 2017
Posted in friends, gastronomy, sevilla, tapas, tapas tours, twitter, twitter friends
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I first met Martha @marthakimes when she joined one of my tapas tours as a solo traveller back in November 2014. She then came back on her own last November, which included a memorable evening out with Ania @ania_marchlik at La Azotea (I think that was the night I sold Ania my old iPhone…) and since then Martha decided that Sevilla is where she would like to live when she retires. To wit, this latest trip Martha dragged invited her husband Joe with her, hoping to get him to fall in love with her adopted city.
It’s quite impressive that Sevilla has won such an honour in Martha’s heart, since she has travelled pretty much everywhere, and has seen many amazing and beautiful places. And yet, this is where she wants to be. You can see how committed she is by the tattoo she had done between her last two visits.
NO8D0 … Sevilla’s official motto
Anyhow, Martha, Joe, Peter and I got together a few times during this visit, and we did our best to convince Joe that this is also where he wants to live when he retires. I hope we succeeded, because it would be great having M & J as neighbours.
casa azahar 