In the afternoons here, it’s really pretty mild. The temps rise above 16 and sitting outdoors is reliably comfy. 16 celcius. It’s taking a bit to make this adjustment from the F we’ve known and cursed all our lives. At 16C it’s a smidge over 60F. So we’re pretty cheery in all these afternoon settings, mingling with Spain or sitting for a daily cerveza in some out of the way place or another.

On Saturday last, we made a jaunt to the nearby Almodóvar del Río (no relation to the Pedro of Spanish film infamy). It’s a white village. (No, not racially speaking. We’re talking paint clolor. It’s a common thing in Andalusía, presumably to fend off the 40C or 45C degree heat here in summers.)

The big attraction here, the point from which one can capture birdseye shots of the village, is the Castillo de Almodóvar del Río, or castle. It’s a fascinating and superbly restored hill top fortress that originated in the 8th century Moorish era, was built up over centuries, then was rebuilt and restored with a small private fortune in the eary part of the 20th century.

Inside the castle it’s still Christmas, so there’s a tree here and some garland there. Donna’s found a pretty odd thing that I’ll call a Christmas troll. Or ent. Pick your magical realism.

All in all, I feel like the restoration of this place was just too damned good. It all felt a bit too polished. Heck, they rented the place out to HBO for a couple of Games of Thrones episodes, so you know it’s looking pretty slick.

Nevertheless, the 30-minute drive and 18,50 € investment was a fine way to spend a couple of hours. For the afternoon cerveza we ended up sitting outdoors near a park in the western part of town. While in the sun it was glorious. When the shadows inevitably arrived we were chilly, paid the bill and went home.

A couple of days later, with another yen to just look around, we drove about 45 minutes southwest to the town of Écija, in neighboring Sevilla province. Another kinda random pick on the map; close, but far enough away to be a complete unknown at this stage.

In every direction out of Córdoba, the crop we see most, by far, is olives. Grove after grove of trees large and small. The trees bring olives to our table in the cafes when we order a rioja and copa de cerveza. They are frequently a complimentary treat with drinks. Not to mention olive oil, something we used to take for granted, but now understand comes from trees, not teetering wells across Texas.

We entered Écija on the edge of town, along a fairly large park.

We recognized that the good people of Êcija were probably gonna be pissed that we stole the souls of these churches with our phone cameras. So we sort of melted into the old town and its hive of small businesses and apartments. We’d take a chance that we could hole up for our afternoon cerveza before hightailing it out of town, so we stopped at this corner, circa 2021 on Google Maps.

Gallito 20, a cafe on the small side of small, with just 3 tables out front, beckoned us and we hazarded about 90 minutes watching passerbys, mostly the occasional Êjician who seemed quite unaware of our mobile phone sacrilege earlier that afternoon.

Having escaped the wrath of Êcija’s populace in the old city, we grabbed some more photos on the way out of town.

OK, this post is supposed to be an update, so I’ll fill you all in on the big workstreams we need to accomplish.

• Get a car – Yesterday we went to Flexicar to test drive a ’23 Opel Corsa. We were sufficiently impressed to put some money down for the Coche de Ocasión (used car) as the official transport vehicle of los dos. Fingers crossed we make it through the byzantine Spanish processes inherent in used car sales.

• Get an apartment – We’ve been looking on and off via the big real estate search site in Spain, Idealísta, but it’s sort of hard to get in touch with the proprietors. They don’t respond to the “send us a message” chat facility, which leaves calling them on the phone. If Spanish is difficult for a complete newb while talking in person, it’s damned near impossible to communicate on the phone. At least in person I can smile and offer a charming shoulder shrug when I have no idea what they’re rattling off at 500 kmh. This linguistic disarming tactic simply isn’t possible over the phone. So we’re noodling on a strategy and looking at the real estate firms who offer apartments, so I can meet with someone in person with my Spanish-like-a two-year-old’s gibbersih accompanied by frequent charming shrugs when I don’t understand. More later on this…

• Get our TIEs. The tarjeta de identidad de extranjero, or TIE, is like an ID card from the DMV on steroids. It’s a picture ID card but carries with it one’s official identifying number as a legal alien, the TIE number. (Clever, eh?) But it signifies actual legitimate residency in Spain in a way the visa can’t. To get the TIE you have to carefully prepare your forms, manufacture yet more suitable passport-size photos, in triplicate, then make your appointment with the national police who fingerprint you, then interview you, then… I dunno what’s going to transpire from there. I just know that if you somehow get through the process they make you an ID card which you then have to have yet another appointment to pick up in person. Fingers and toes crossed on this one. No idea how this will go or when we will be granted the ID cards on steroids.

• Learn Spanish. OK, we’ve kept ourselves busy with the aforementioned and all the afternoon cervezas, so this one is not going as quickly as hoped. But it’s 2025 now, and I do solemnly resolve to study Spanish daily! So that one day soon I will be able to speak Spanish like a 3 or 4-year old. That would be fantastico!

Hasta pronto from los dos!