Mike comes and goes

 So Mike came on Saturday evening on his way home from Athens - a quick trip for him both in the Greece part and the Spain part. He left early Tuesday so he could get back home and then to St. Louis for a gig on Wednesday night.  Mostly we just hung out because he was so tired from the travel halfway around the globe. He did get a haircut from the Barber of Seville while he was here and it looked good!

First night we went to Acento and then the second night to Justa Rufina and the third to Casa Puerta with a lunch at Placido y Grata. On Monday evening he went to a local pub to watch the "football" match between Arsenal (Mike's team) vs. Liverpool while we went to have coffee with Phil's Spanish teachers.

Then later we had our dinner and bid farewell until we see Mike next (his touring schedule has him in Ireland, Scotland, and Greece for most of the early part of the summer.... so it will be a while. 

So a quick two and a half days. But meanwhile we have news- because during this same time we were able to secure and apartment for us to live in here in Sevilla for the next three years. It was mentioned in a prior post - we will be living in the former convent on Calle Bilbao on the top floor. We have worked out the contract terms and it has been taken off the market and we will be moving to the new place in less than three weeks! YAY. we have rearranged the rest of the spring to be mostly in Sevilla - with a short trip to Madrid to see Megan, Christian and Oscar and then a brief visit from Angela & Lee in the four weeks we will be in Valencia (to escape Semana Santa here LOL.)

Then John & Stephanie are supposed to visit in mid May (now here in Sevilla at our new place) - so we will be busy until we head back to Chicago in time for a dinner at Hermosa!

more walking the hood

 Just a lot of photos of life here in Sevilla, especially around our neighborhood.

I am sure there are plenty more where these came from. so stay tuned.

wanted: good home for two older Americans residing in Spain

 so on we go- we have begun looking at long term rentals for a more permanent arrangement for living here- 

the first place we saw was a building I admired on February 23 of last year on my way to school one morning -  stopped to take a photo of it- 

We liked the apartment very much but it is unfurnished and we had one other to see that was furnished before we wanted to commit. Here is the floor plan of this one.  And an exterior shot with the apartment outlined.

on the other hand the one we saw next was fully furnished and had outdoor space - 

so we had decided on the second one despite it being more expensive, as it came fully kitted out for folks like us- 

sadly though after two plus days of messing around with them - their demands became too unreasonable to contemplate. We were looking for 14 months rental and they asked for first month plus a month security deposit and then two additional months security deposit on the furnishings and housewares.  We were fine with that but then they threw up another road block of - get this - you have to pay the full amount of the lease in advance,  Seriously? We balked and said we can provide evidence of excellent credit and assets to assure we are on the up and up and they said no. Pay up front....

so we went to our fall back, an apartment we loved as well, and asked if they could furnish the place.We will see how this one plays out.  we don't really need much but beds and living room furniture and dining room table and chairs - but we would prefer not to buy them and three or five years from now be stuck giving away more furniture like we did when we closed our Florida place.

so we will see...