Valencia, Spain?

[Normspics]

Was In Seville earlier this year and thought it great, only 2 hours drive to the Algarve in Portugal. I did think Seville was stock photo worthy, food was great and not too expensive.

[Ed Rooney]

Thanks, Norman -- you're right about Spain. (Montreal, where I am, is pretty nice too. )  Nazare is just north of Lisbon. 

[george]

Hi Edo, I thought you wanted a city ? I don't think Nazare will be enough for you. It is absolutely rammed with tourists in summer too  Having said that the transport links from larger towns and cities are normally very good and inexpensive anywhere in Portugal, if you chose Nazare and wanted to get around. From me I can get a bus south to Lisbon every hour and takes 50 mins. (Really should go more often haha). I am a little further down the coast, below Peniche. You have my email if you want more info on this area. Jenny

[Martin P Wilson]

9 hours ago, Normspics said:

Was In Seville earlier this year and thought it great, only 2 hours drive to the Algarve in Portugal. I did think Seville was stock photo worthy, food was great and not too expensive.

 

Our daughter lived in Sevilla for several years. Loved it, but eventually found it a bit quiet for a single woman in her mid-late 20s even though she is fluent enough in Spanish. It would suit me though! She used to hire a car and drive up to the big summer music festival in Lisbon each year, a city she loved and would be tempted by when she moves back to Europe.

[Normspics]

We are spending two months in The Algarve this winter (escaping the Canadian deep freeze),  and will be going back to Seville for a city break during that time. Car rental is cheap in Portugal we typically rent through a smaller local agency and get an older vehicle, lots to explore, we were in the Algarve in February and did drive to Sevilla.

 

Ed, I guess Barcelona is not on the list, we were there in December last year and it was pleasant weather just needed a fall jacket and sweater, again lots to photograph and a huge variety of food, one of the best vegan restaurants I have ever been to.

[Martin P Wilson]

2 hours ago, Normspics said:

We are spending two months in The Algarve this winter (escaping the Canadian deep freeze),  and will be going back to Seville for a city break during that time. Car rental is cheap in Portugal we typically rent through a smaller local agency and get an older vehicle, lots to explore, we were in the Algarve in February and did drive to Sevilla.

 

Ed, I guess Barcelona is not on the list, we were there in December last year and it was pleasant weather just needed a fall jacket and sweater, again lots to photograph and a huge variety of food, one of the best vegan restaurants I have ever been to.

 

Much as we love France, we usually spend 10+ weeks a year there, it is expensive and Bordeaux has seen a rise in living costs with the arrival of the TGV drawing Parisiens etc. The euro may be strong against the pound but euro prices are even high compared with Spain, Portugal etc. Not just me saying that, my (native) French teacher made the point unprompted that tourism in France is high despite being expensive; the high tourism is because it is on the way to other places from almost everywhere else in Europe: Spain, Italy. Portugal et al from NL, UK, BE, Scandinavia and beyond'; France counts through traffic (including trucks) as tourism apparently

 

Just for info.

 

[Ed Rooney]

Ah, Jenny -- was looking for your email yesterday.

 

A city, yes -- but really an urban community with a walk-around center. There are a lot of conflicting factors. Nazare is not likely (pop 15,000). Estepona is over 66,000. I've done the street view walk in both on Google Maps. I have a friend from my days as a Roman. She now lives in Tuscany, but is thinking of moving to Nazare. Why? Don't know, but I think she's mistaken. 

 

Norm, I don't have a drivers license anymore, and can't see trying to get one as a senior in another language. 

 

Now that the Irish passport is finally in the works, finding an actual rental apartment the size, location and price I want will be the challenge. I've not come across anything so far and I'm not sure where and how to look. 

 

Thank you all, Edo

[Normspics]

29 minutes ago, Martin P Wilson said:

 

Much as we love France, we usually spend 10+ weeks a year there, it is expensive and Bordeaux has seen a rise in living costs with the arrival of the TGV drawing Parisiens etc. The euro may be strong against the pound but euro prices are even high compared with Spain, Portugal etc. Not just me saying that, my (native) French teacher made the point unprompted that tourism in France is high despite being expensive; the high tourism is because it is on the way to other places from almost everywhere else in Europe: Spain, Italy. Portugal et al from NL, UK, BE, Scandinavia and beyond'; France counts through traffic (including trucks) as tourism apparently

 

Just for info.

 

 

Hi Martin, the reason for us spending time in southern Portugal is the accommodation prices, they are far cheaper than say Florida so while Portuguese groceries are similar prices to Canada the rents are lower for long term rentals and restaurant prices are far cheaper also, if you use Mom and Pop restaurants.

[John Mitchell]

For urban-oriented, non-travelling, editorial stock photographers, large multicultural cities are probably the best places to live.*

 

Unfortunately, they are also the most expensive places to live.

 

* KM is obviously a notable exception to this rule.

[Ed Rooney]

KM? Eh?

 

I'll post here again my list of the mix of things I'm looking for:  cost, cuisine, climate, culture, walkability and viable stock subjects. I do not expect perfection. 

[Betty LaRue]

No matter where you are, anyone can shoot table top, even if one is in a town of 10,000. As long as you can buy groceries or have a place to shop for subjects.  That would get very boring, but as a supplement to any other shooting, it would help.

[Ed Rooney]

Of the four categories of food subjects for stock -- people dining, supermarket shelves, market produce, and tabletop meals -- tabletop is not the best seller. Although I've not cooked since the fire on Mulberry Street, I do try to do captures when I eat out. In my collection you'll see meals in Mexico, NYC, and Montreal. I'm interested in cuisine on many levels. Also, you'll notice that stock subjects is the last thing on my list.

 

With tabletop I aim for the midpoint between studio perfect and street-like casual. Someone called it the Instagram look. If I manage to get to some port town in the Med, I see a lot of grilled fish in my future. 

 

My problem of not being able to upload anything to Alamy has taken the wind from my stock-shooting sails. 

 

 

[NYCat]

Is it impossible even if you go to someone else’s house?

 

Paulette

[Ed Rooney]

9 minutes ago, NYCat said:

Is it impossible even if you go to someone else’s house?

 

Paulette

 

I don't know about you, Paulette, but I don't like to cook in someone else's kitchen. There's always something you need and can't find. If I am in a long-term furnished rental, I'll be cooking again. 

 

I guess I'm about to appear defensive, but here's the way it is with me: I'm not an alcoholic, a drug user or a womanizer. I have no expensive hobbies. I have one thing that might be seen as a vice. I eat lunch out a lot. But I'm not looking for Michelin starred restaurants, just simple, good cooking, and as cheap as possible. I've functioned as a restaurant reviewer and food writer in the past.

 

And I don't eat dinner. That's right, I've done intermittent fasting for the past 4 or 5 years.

 

Not eating dinner saves a lot of calories . . . and a lot of money.  I will end here with a snap of one of my basic pasta creations. 

 

 

[NYCat]

Oh dear. I meant is it impossible to upload to Alamy on someone else's wifi.  I have always enjoyed looking at your home-cooked meals and have even thought of replicating them. Yum, yum.

 

Paulette

[Ed Rooney]

I'm sorry, Miss P -- I misunderstood? You were suggesting I go somewhere else to upload images. I've tried uploading here, in three cafes, and at the Apple Store without success. The Apple people tell me there's nothing wrong with my MacBook. Alamy says there nothing wrong on their end. There is certainly something wrong with the two ends meeting. 

 

. . . Seville has jumped to the head of my list!  For the moment.

[NYCat]

Your computer situation is certainly mysterious. I spent some time in Sevilla decades ago and I loved it. There used to be a restaurant called El Meson where a lot of the expats from England and the USA ate. The waiters would introduce me to people -- including the American bullfighter John Fulton Short and the photographer Robert Vavra. A lovely city.

 

Paulette

[John Mitchell]

21 minutes ago, Ed Rooney said:

I'm sorry, Miss P -- I misunderstood? You were suggesting I go somewhere else to upload images. I've tried uploading here, in three cafes, and at the Apple Store without success. The Apple people tell me there's nothing wrong with my MacBook. Alamy says there nothing wrong on their end. There is certainly something wrong with the two ends meeting. 

 

. . . Seville has jumped to the head of my list!  For the moment.

 

FTP didn't work either?

[Ed Rooney]

Three FTP's don't work.

 

But that's another post. Seville anyone?

 

[spacecadet]

Seville is pretty flat. Touristy, sure, but it's big enough so you can get out of their way.

There are cheap places to eat such as this

where they serve this

 in the shadow of this

and the apartments are round shady courtyards like this

[Ed Rooney]

22 minutes ago, NYCat said:

Your computer situation is certainly mysterious. I spent some time in Sevilla decades ago and I loved it. There used to be a restaurant called El Meson where a lot of the expats from England and the USA ate. The waiters would introduce me to people -- including the American bullfighter John Fulton Short and the photographer Robert Vavra. A lovely city.

 

Paulette

 

I've been to a lot of places in Spain, but not Seville. A good town for a haircut, they say. It look wonderful. And I do not need to be by the seaside: I can't swim, I don't want a tan, I don't own a swimsuit, and I'm afraid of the water. I would enjoy a cooling breeze, however. 

 

In spint of my love for bulls, I will be going to bullfights. 

[Ed Rooney]

Touristy, Mark? Have you ever been to Mulberry Street in NYC? That's 110% touristy.

 

Did you get an ID of whatever it was sitting on that slice of bread? 

[NYCat]

You will probably find apartments very similar to San Miguel (lots of tile) although I suspect new construction is not as charming and some of the charming areas will be expensive.

 

Paulette

[Martin P Wilson]

And if you are officially resident in Sevilla I believe you get free access to the Alcazar (and probably other perks), a beautiful quiet place to sit and read or meditate,  although I guess in peak tourist season it might get busy. Even then it is probably big enough to find a quiet corner of the gardens away from the palace.

 

At the start of her career our daughter found Sevilla affordable even as a lowly paid teacher of English as a Foreign Language on a term time only contract. It may not be on the coast but it is not far away by public transport for a change of scene. She did find February cold as the buildings are designed for summer heat not 5C winter temperatures, but we were there in early November and it was short sleeve weather, blue skies and comfortable mid 20C plus temperatures. My son and I spent a couple of hours sat in a square drinking cold Cruzcampo beers and talking while the women visited the underground Arabian Baths for a spa session. Loved the place!

 

 

That is a mid-October sky!

[Normspics]

I had two nights in Seville as a break from being in Albufeira, it was a two hour drive to Seville, we found many small restaurants with varied food, first night we got take out pizza slices but they were nothing like the North American variety, they looked fantastic and had great flavours so certainly gourmet type, restaurant was Buoni Forno di Pizza the slices were very reasonable. Haggen Daz coffee shop near the university had a breakfast special advertised which we had  was rustic bread  large slice toasted fresh puree tomato and olive oil on the side to drizzle, fresh squeed Seville oranges for juice and a cup of nice "American" coffee for 2.50 euros. I also like middle eastern food and found again outside the University a nice everyday unpretentious place called El Rincon de Beirut for lunch eat in or out on a street patio, great falafel at cheap prices 4 euro for a falafel wrap and 1.50 euro for a beer. We also like the department store El Corte Ingles which has many dining options and a traditional department store food grocery area like Harrods.

 

Just listed these for you Ed to give an idea how a smaller budget can go a long way in Sevilla for lunch or breakfast. Curious was that McDonalds and Burger King never opened before 10.00 am so no breakfast menu. I also had a local food which I don't know the name a potato patty in a burger bun.

 

The availability to take some coach tours quite cheaply over the winter months can get you a three day trip to Tangiers and Gibraltar which includes all transport and meals for 275 euros, we are taking this trip from Albufeira so we get Sevilla, Tangiers and Gibraltar return trip accommodation and most meals for 275 euros each.

 

So my vote for Sevilla Ed!