License Plates

I find this topic endlessly interesting (the history, the materials, the geography, the politics), but I will limit the post to Spain. I can send you pictures from other countries if you send me a note.

standard car plate September 2000

standard car plate with an unofficial Catalunya sticker instead of España sticker

different Catalunya sticker

unofficial Basque sticker
learned about it on this site

different pattern with the B standing for Barcelona

even older without the EU sticker

specially-shaped plates for some cars

L for the province of Lleida

some cars have smaller plates on the front

the newer plates have a watermark (not sure of the real term)

I was so proud this day. I saw this plate and was able
to ask if the H indicated that this was an historic car.
They understood my question and I understood their answer!

Crosswalk

Time to paint new crosswalks in the neighborhood.

Can you see that the line for stopping is well beyond the stop sign?

There is still a line to stop at before the crosswalk.

This is a couple blocks away and what ours used to look like.

With all the parking on the street cars need to pull out in order to check traffic.

This graffiti will probably get painted over soon.

Paving paradise

Joni Mitchell sang about paving paradise and putting up a parking lot, which sounds terrible.  It turns out that not paving paradise and letting people park where they want is not great, either. I don't know why there seem to be so many more cars than available spots, but open space has become a parking lot around here.

I am guessing the dirt lot on the right used to be a field. 

This dirt lot is near a bike path and the curvy road on the right leads to horse
stables and a hiking trail. Some people park on the sidewalk when this lot is full.

This is near a business park and the trail to the left is for walking and cycling.
The dirt lot does not look so big, but people along the side of the path, too.

There is a parking lot at the top of this image, but the dirt lot is usually
overflowing with cars. We cycle through this lot to get to A.'s school.

On Saturday there were barriers to the lot.

The literal translation of the sign is, "No parking, work, trees."
The lot is closed Monday and Tuesday.

This is the ground view of the same parking lot. So many people park here that
the trees have been damaged and I am curious to see if they will be removed.

Touring Cars

My speaking partner asked if I had noticed that the police cars are SEAT (although now they are switching to Nissan, which may or may not controversial since SEAT is now owned by Volkswagen). I had not noticed, but I did start paying attention.

SEAT – an acronym from Sociedad Española de Automóviles de Turismo (Spanish Corporation of Touring Cars) and I was told each one is named after a place.

Alhambra is in Andalusia and the buildings and gardens 

in the area reflect the Moorish rule of 8-15th century.

Altea is part of the Costa Blanca, possibly the favorite beach area of Catalonia.

Arosa (usually Arousa when I look for it) is an island off northwest Spain.

Cordoba was an important Roman City is known for the mosque La Mezquita.

Leon is known for it churches, especially a Gothic cathedral with towers and flying buttresses.

 But then I came across Exeo, which broke the mold 

of places the company said it means, "to go beyond".

Parked right next to it was a SEAT Panda, which used to 

be made by Fiat but was made by Seat from 1980-1986.

As usual, what started with a casual comment turned into a project of looking at every car, researching places I now want to visit, and learning something along the way.

Not shown - Toledo and Marbella