Vespa & Sidecar

 It's been years since I've ridden a Lambretta, let alone seen one here in Seville. Vespas, however abound - but there aren't many like this blue one about. Just the suitcase on the luggage rack is worth a picture.

 From the age of the owner, it looks like he's had the combo from new. If you can zoom in on the number plate of the granddaddy, you'll see that it begins SE (province of Seville) followed by 6 digits. Looking at the "great grandson" Vespa next to it, we can see that it has four digits and 3 letters - in 2000 Spain started to register vehicles with 4 numbers and 3 letters, starting with 1111 AAA and progressing numerically and alphabetically. This was because by then the big provinces were running out of combinations and also because identifying the province of origin encouraged thefts from cars from other provinces or just bloody-minded vandalism. When I bought my last car from Barcelona with a "B" registration, I immediately re-registered it to avoid such annoyances.

In this second photo, it looks like its rider doesn't seem to be very happy! I can't imagine why not, riding such an impressive, pretty machine - a machine which was drawing admiring glances from all who saw it (look at the rider of the modern Vespa). Perhaps he'd rather have a Lambretta!