Day: October 13, 2015

Wynette: This evening, we had intended to eat at a place near our apartment named “OK Tapas”.  When we got there they were closed and this sign was on the door: “Today Tuesday the 13th. Closed. Personal rest. Excuse the bother.” (In Spanish, they use the verb molestar to mean to bother. Molestar has not taken on the connotation that molest has taken on in English.) So, we had to make other plans. Decided to go to a roast chicken take-out we’d spotted earlier in the day. But that place didn’t (re-)open until 7:30 pm so we had an hour to kill. Decided to take a walk in the nearby park. They have many of these lovely trees in the park.

Charlie: There are three main mobile phone companies serving Spain: Orange, Vodafone and Movistar. We have unlocked phones (more on that later) and just get Spanish SIMs for them. Previously we have gotten Vodafone: one month, 200 MS, 1.2 GB data, 100 minutes for 15 euros or about $17. We thought we found a better deal with Movistar, about the same thing for 12 euros plus international calling. The woman at the Movistar store has not heard of this even though it is on their website, a similar one had a 30 euro initial charge. At a second Movistar store they said they couldn’t sell it to us.

Back to Vodafone.

A long wait. We talked to a local guy who spoke excellent English. He told us some nice little towns to go see on the south coast and what wines to get.

15 euros even, no other charges. My google nexus 6 worked fine. Wynette has an LG G3 from T-mobile which we unlocked last year and used with a Spanish SIM with no trouble. This time it didn’t work, the phone seemed to be locked again. As far as we can tell, it relocked itself, not sure how. We went home and did a chat with t-mobile. I had to dredge up two old, almost forgotten PINs but we convinced them to re-un-lock it. I just got the email about, tomorrow when we are fresh.

Charlie: We are in a neighborhood called “Los Remedios” which our taxi driver said was very nice, safe and interesting but not too expensive. It has a great feel. Block after block of 5-8 story apartment buildings but the ground floor is always businesses. Cafe/bars on every block. Our supermarket to 100 feet away. Lots of people on the streets (except on national holidays). No tourists because there are no tourist attractions. It is exactly what we were looking for.

The supermarket is very nice. In general things are kind of like they were in the US 30-50 years ago. Lots of employees in the markets. A meat person, a cheese person, a fruit person. We got 250 grams of cheese from from a big wheel and the cheese clerk cut off the waxy edges and sliced it. The bread and butter were great. They still have peaches and they were as good as we have ever had. There is a fruit and vegetable stand on the way to the supermarket (that is about 50 feet away from our door) with lovely stuff.

Everyone has been very friendly. Wynette has been talking in Spanish and when she asks a question in slow, careful Spanish everyone is confident of her ability to understand a rapid-fire Spanish reply. Sometimes she gets most of it.

We had a little rough spot getting phones, see the next post.

We walked around a lot today. We found the main shopping street nearby, pedestrians only. We got a roast chicken for dinner at a shop on the street and some empanadas and soups (beet and zucchini). All quite good.

 

Charlie (plus above photo posted by Wynette): We took the fast AVE train from Madrid to Sevilla. It averaged about 200 kph, got as high as 250 kpm (150 mph). Looking out it didn’t seem that fast. It was very smooth at that speed. Quite a whoosh when you passed the train going the other way, they have 20 or more each way every day.

Sevilla train station had a taxi line line of about 150 people. Not as slow as you would suspect since 2-4 people get into each taxi. Our taxi driver said it was because of the holiday. She was very nice and told us places to go and places to eat. Wynette did pretty well conversing with her.

Our AirBnB host was waiting outside when we arrived. The apartment (see previous post) was exactly as expected and as shown in the pictures. Of course, they always show up bigger in the photos. But it is a good size and we are very happy with it. It is fun looking around and seeing what is there. Yes, we found the hand blender. The ironing board was hidden behind a chest.

Couldn’t get phone SIMs or groceries because of the national holiday on Monday, October 12. (Hispanic Day — the day Christopher Columbus set foot in the Americas.) Express store was open, we made an omelette.

We each got 1/2 to 2 hours of sleep on the plane, it is hard to tell. After that much sleep in about 30 hours we went to bed. We each woke from 12-2 am Spain time but got back to sleep and slept until 8. Hopefully tonight will be close to normal.

Charlie: We got a good flight this time, only 2.5 hours layover in Dallas, pretty good legroom on AA, we had maybe 4 inches clearance between knees and seat back, about 22 hours from our door in Albuquerque to our door in Sevilla.

DFW has a yoga studio, actually just a carpeted area off the transition from D to B with a screen in front of it. No one there. DFW-D has two walk-through art works. DFW terminal D has a walking course with signs of art by locals and how many steps to the next sign, each way. I walked over an hour of our layover.

Three years ago we flew into Madrid and there was a national general strike. By luck we got from the airport to the train station. Normally busy Atocha train station was empty. Strange.

This year we arrived on a national holiday of some sort, a bank holiday. But most things were running normally. Grocery store in Sevilla was closed during the usual 5:30 pm to 9 pm open hours.