Saturday Shopping....

It was grey, misting rain, and a bit foggy when we headed out to the market this morning...

You can barely see the top of this building that's under construction.

 One of my favorite blogs is The Caretaker Chronicles.  Although Bob isn't living in Austria at this time, I always think of him when I see these giant cranes on construction sites.  Seems they are a common sight the world round these days.  This building under construction is by far the tallest building in Sevilla.  It will house both apartments and offices when finished.

In the distance is the bridge we'll cross to get to the Supermercado (supermarket).  There are lots of punters in the river this morning.  

 The mist is heavy enough that it cast a dreary look to the river.

In an earlier blog I wrote that parking spaces are at a premium here. 

 Look how close this car is parked to the curb.  Actually, the street is so narrow that there is barely a place to park at all.  There isn't even an inch to spare between the car and that post!

The street appears deserted.... 

There are usually a lot of people walking, but what I find so interesting is that there are beautiful courtyards and plazas behind those doors...

Beautiful wrought iron work...

 From the street it looks like this...

But behind those iron bars...

 Is this lovely courtyard.  There are several apartments that share this area..  and it's secure... behind a locked gate.

 Another gate that opens into a courtyard.

This area is more visible...

 Here's Bill...  standing in front of the gate..

And beyond the gate... 

Another beautiful garden ....  apartment entrances line the sides.

These "secret" entrances are all along the streets.  Today, as we were walking, we saw an open garage door.  The outside was quite plain...  even a bit shabby looking.  But the door was open and we could see a man polishing his Rolls Royce.

As we were walking home we stopped to watch the fire department in action.

 Not a fire...  but they were using the cherry-picker to clean the debris from the top of that church.  We're told that storks build nests on top of buildings...  and the next year build another nest on top of that, and so on...  eventually the debris needs removed.

What was interesting was that the man operating this piece of equipment had no idea what he was doing.  He had that bucket all over the place before another man got in and took over.  Bill, being an equipment operator was no doubt itching to take over and do it right.

The other day we saw the guy on the left...  I didn't know what he was doing...  prancing around in his Tinkerbell outfit and offering something to cars stopped at the traffic light.

Today we saw him again.  We were a bit of a distance away from him and I did a double take... Bill, is that a nun in a mini-skirt?  We started laughing...  the guy (at first I wasn't sure) laughed and posed for me.  He's a bit of an entrepreneur...  he's trying to sell stuff to those drivers who are stopped at the light.  He's carrying those 6 pack crackers (you know... peanut butter type) in that basket he's carrying (see on the left).  You can be sure I'll look for him in the future...  wonder what he'll be dressed as next time?

You've all heard of and seen the Smart Car...

Have you seen the Smart Bike?

It's one of those electric/pedal kind of bikes.  

In case you can't read the picture on the right, that bike cost around 2,300 euros...  around $3,000 American.

We always look in the store windows when we wander the streets...  would hate to miss a bargain like that!

 We love walking to the market... so much to see...

I love seeing the local people.

This lady is so typical of what we see on Saturday morning...

folks going home...  loaded down with the purchases from the market.

That guy on the left is not a local...  

Yeah... that's Bill, loaded down with our market purchases.

I'd love to share the olives with you that we bought today.....

Oh... so tasty!

That's All For Today!