a year gone by

Last year we arrived on December 26 (2023) for the beginning of our lives as residents in Spain. We weren't done with all our paperwork, but the biggest hurdle was behind us- our initial visa for entry....  We arrived in time to see how things were decorated for the holidays - and we had a one week rental in Santa Cruz before we moved to our two month place on January 1st... on Calle Monsalves near the art museum.

We learned of the New Year's Eve tradition of eating twelve grapes one for each month of the new year to create good luck...

We went to Cadiz with Lee our first houseguest- 

Nick arrived and then Larry arrived and then Megan & Christian arrived -  Larry stayed on and we went to Cordoba for the day to see the Mesquite/Cathedral.

After Larry, we had many guests - first  Mike, then Jean, then my brother and his family, then Claus & Evi. We moved out of our holiday rental and into our apartment at the end of February  - here is the intersection closest to where we live  - at Carlos Canal and Calle Bilbao 

 

We began exploring our new area of the city and found a new place for coffee- LOL

some of the exploring led to discoveries of new places nearby - like the Cabildo (below)

After two and a half weeks in the new apartment we went off to Valencia for a month.  While we were there, we went to Madrid to visit Megan & Christian and Oscar. One day we went to Segovia and saw the aqueduct and castle...

We loved exploring Valencia and had many many meals that included the famous local dish: paella...

We also went to the Bioparc and the City of arts & Sciences.  Angela & Lee came for a long weekend to visit... and we enjoyed living by the Mercado Central for a month!

 

We returned to Sevilla in later April and came back to our new apartment for the remainder of our time here in the spring. We found a surprise as they had hung sun shades all over town for the hot weather...

And our local park (Plaza Nueva) had come back into full greenery with the plane trees coming  back and the orange trees budding with the next crop of oranges...

We got a chance to see what the late late sunsets looked like when out to dine- the photo below was taken at nearly ten o'clock at night and the sky was just turning dark from the deep blue of the violet hour.

 

Our last guests for the spring, John & Stephanie, arrived in May.  We started the next step in our residency process by applying for the empadronamiento. 

We left Sevilla arriving in Chicago May 28.  We spent our summer traveling and seeing friends. I returned to Sevilla October 17- after four and a half months away- having missed our beautiful city.  I returned to our wonderful building and unpacked a lot of household items that I brought from Chicago, where we have been overloaded since closing up the Florida home.  The sun shades were still up on Carlos Canal  (our nearest intersection)  and it felt like coming HOME.

I made a quick trip to Portugal and when I returned, Oscar came to stay for eight days as our first guest of the new season.  Phil arrived three days before Oscar left so they did get to spend a bit of time together. Oscar was here until the 2nd of November. 

The following week we had two, more or less surprise visits. Friend Lori and her husband David came for coffee. They were just embarked upon a ocean cruise around Africa, before heading home to Sydney Australia.  The next day, Christian came for merienda because he had gig for two or three nights here in town, with a band he sometimes joins.   That led us into the guests on the regular calendar- starting with Jenny in mid November for five days - overlapped by a non-guest but foodie friend Frank who ended up being here November 15 to the 22nd. By December we had a five day visit from Mike followed immediately by a visit from Lee who was here December 8-13.  On the 13th, we all went to Madrid to visit with Megan & Christian and Oscar. We returned to Sevilla on the 16th. Lee stayed a couple of more days and then headed home to Chicago.  

We had a quiet holiday and marked our one year anniversary of living in Spain with dinner at AMARA.  Larry arrives the first week of 2025 and after a couple of days here, we three head off to Tenerife, and then meet up with Jeremy.   We return by the 22nd - with no one in tow...LOL

Then our houseguest season hits full swing starting February 1st. In February March, & April, we have 10 confirmed guests (some for multiple rounds) and 2 more unconfirmed - to date. We also have three more in country trips planned between February and May.... so I doubt Year Two will be any less busy than Year One.