near the hotel in seville

the main drag near my hotel in seville was called hercules street...

or the spanish equivalent of hercules street.

in the distance behind the two columns you can see our local tapas bar... 

las dos columnas

as you can see, i was giving my fisheye lens a bit of a day out

and trying out a new pose

a little dog approached me

i greeted him with "buenos dias señor perrito"

he didn't reply

there was some nice work on the walls nearby

this character was quite a common find on the city centre walls too

i'm not sure if it's a dog or a bear. maybe it's a panda ?

anyway, it was on a wall here...

"lost child street"

xmas day in regent's park

remember the rubbish photo i took of me feeding chocolate to a squirrel

on xmas day in regent's park ?

luckily jess got a better shot so here's 2011's first photo of my favourite subject...

i'm the one on the left.

xmas in seville

xmas in seville observations...

i like that the best shop in seville is english

even though it's maybe the equivalent of say john lewis or debenhams.

lots of banners of this little baby everywhere in seville.

also lots of 'belen's

a belen is a nativity scene and it seemed that every church, shop and public space had 

it's own belen. the people of seville would queue up to have a look at the belens.

even though they were pretty similar, the different belens were really attracting big

crowds. some places even charged to see them !

here's a video of a belen in seville which i just found on youtube...

my favourite belen was in a military surplus shop window

magic darts !







isn't it great ?

nice that the lads laid their weapons down for a moment or two.

i'm definitely making a belen at whitfield towers next year. possibly using
my collection of kicks.







the baby seemed to be getting good treatment in seville.
which is more than you can say for father christmas...

this charred head of santa claus was proudly displayed on the front door
of a house just around the corner from my hotel. hmmm...

delayed trip to seville

as you may know. the whitfield xmas trip to seville was cancelled by

british airways, who joined the apple i-pad on my enemies of carlotta list.

in a shock move ryanair came up trumps and a few days later than planned

we were all packed and waiting in the lobby for sick-cabs to take us to stanstead.

we decided to travel light and bought matching muji carry-on cases.

( a special prize will go to whoever identifies which case is mine and gives the

correct reasoning )

i tried for an upgrade on ryanair but they weren't having any of it and put me above 

the wing as usual. ah well, it made for an interesting shot as seville came into view.

at our hotel during check-in, i noted the receptionist's nails... very nice indeed.

he was a very helpful bloke too, and recommended a nearby tapas joint to us.

what ?

chocolate y churros

on new year's day just before heading to the airport

we tucked into chocolate y churros at valor

our waitress looked like susan sarandon... but i didn't get a photo of her.

i did take a photo of my second coffee of 2011 though...

it was ok-ish, but i would have to say that coffee in spain is not great.

first coffee of the year

my first coffee of the year was in one of only two places on san eloy which were

open on new year's day.

it wasn't great but it hit the spot.

gracias.

feliz dos mil once

feliz dos mil once ( as they say in seville )

on new year's eve, the custom in spain is to eat 12 grapes during the final 12 seconds

of the year. you are supposed to make a wish as you eat each grape. 

it's a big thing in spain, for instance the tv presenters who are hosting the new year

programmes eat 12 grapes live on air. the shops also stock up on grapes.

the corner shop near my hotel sold small tins of 12 grapes especially for the occasion.

happy new year everybody !