Author: cpcrowley

Charlie: I saw this in Maria Luisa park on Friday. Looks like a small group 4-5 people. We are thinking of taking it. We took the one in Washington, DC, and loved it.

In the left distance you can see the horse-drawn carriages that abound in the park.

Charlie: They are all over, almost every block. They have a wide assortment of things you can’t get other places, a bit like a Woolworth’s or five and dime in days of old.

Wynette: When I was growing up in Tatum, New Mexico, we used the term “variety store”. We call them “China stores” here in Spain because we’ve heard locals refer to them that way and they are always run by people that look like they are probably Chinese. These stores really do have a little bit of everything. And they are open on Sundays. At least some of them are. They are usually small with crowded narrow aisles. The proprietors are usually grumpy. I think it is because they are so far away from home and they are homesick. Going east from our apartment there is a China store near every corner on the next 3 blocks.  The third one is our favorite. It isn’t quite so crowded, it is nicely organized, and the proprietor is friendly and doesn’t seem so unhappy. (It is the one shown in the photos with this post.)

Charlie: In Sevilla they have large trash containers on the street for everyone to use. Some for trash, some for recycling. You can only put things in the trash ones from 8 pm to 11:30 pm at night. Presumably they empty them overnight. I took ours out last night and Wynette took some photos of me from the balcony. Then Google photos combined some of them so I appear three times in the same photo. (This photo was taken about 11:00 pm. Note how well-lit the street is.  Good thing we have good shades over the bedroom window.)

Charlie and Wynette: The grocery stores have a limited selection of coffee and we haven’t found any other stores that sell coffee. The available coffee is a fairly dark roast, we like lighter roasts in the Italian espresso style.

At the Triana Market we bought some fresh pasta and wonderful pesto from an Italian guy. We asked him where he bought coffee to make at home and he said he brings it from Italy because he cannot find good coffee in Spain. He said, with a smile, that “Spain is not a coffee culture”.

We know there is good coffee here because we’ve had it in the bars. But we are having a hard time finding coffee we like to make in our apartment kitchen. Wynette enrolled for Spanish classes to start next week. There is a little coffee bar at the school. After Wynette enrolled yesterday we ordered a cup of coffee. It was by far the best coffee we have had in Spain and as good as anything we’ve ever had in Italy. Guess Wynette is going to have to have a chat with that barrista.

Charlie: We saw this walking along the riverfront in Sevilla. I suppose the water recirculates and the rust builds up. I wonder how long it takes to turn this orangy? Here is a closer view, very pretty.

Wynette: Thanks for your comments. We sure enjoy them. If you’ve tried to add a comment and were put off that you had to provide your name and email, don’t worry, your email won’t show up on the post. Also, I think (?) you can get by with just providing your first name or nickname. The first time you post a comment, it will have to be approved by us, but after that it won’t have to be approved.

You can click on any photo to see a larger and much higher resolution version. E.g., once you’ve made it bigger, try zooming in on the people in the photo below or in the vegetables in previous post.

Off the subject, but apologies for how slow the site is. We think it is because we have pretty minimal hosting service at Dreamhost.

Charlie (with photos added by Wynette): In 1969 Christy and I went to Europe and spent an hour at the bank, in the US, signing $10 travelers checks. We visited at least 10 countries, each for a different currency. We used the price of an ice cream cone as our unit of currency comparison.

On this trip Wynette and I are doing most of our buying with cash.

Nowadays it is so much easier, we just get cash out of machines. A few years ago each use of a cash machine involved a fee and a 2% (or more) conversion rate. Now most people get debit cards with no use or conversion fees. We have Capital One Bank cards but there are many others. Sometimes these cards pay the cash machine fees for you. I’m not sure what the business model is that allows profits there.

But banks crave profits so in the last few years when you get cash you are presented with a choice, either have the cash machine’s bank convert to dollars or do the transaction in euros and have your bank to the conversion. I did this yesterday and it said (some European full disclosure laws I assume) that it would convert at $1.19 per euro and my 200 euros would cost $238. I have been following the rates for months and know it should be less than $1.14. So I declined the conversion. Minutes later I check Capital One bank and it had charged me $228. I googled 100 euros and got $1.394 so this is an excellent rate. That extra $10 would have been a 4.4% fee, much larger than the old 2% fee.

You are presented with the decision standing at the machine on the street with bare-bones information and no way to know what choice might be better. Like they used to say, a banker can steal more money with a pen (update to computer) than a robber with a gun.

We have no-fee credit cards also. I used it for the train fare but I didn’t check the conversion rate. You often get the same choice, convert here to there, with credit cards. I rail agent didn’t offer a choice. I assume it went through in euros.

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.