Port Aventura Amusement Park: Dragon Khan Attraction, Salou, Tarragona

The eight-inversion-ride roller coaster called Dragon Khan designed by Bolliger & Mabillard (B&M) is Port Aventura Amusement Park's major attraction. Although the Furious Baco, a recent addition, is following closely, the impressive mountain of steel and its red silhouette visible from miles away still draws thousands of visitors. When you talk about amusement parks in Spain (I don't know in Europe) it is common stuff to boast about how many times you rode on Dragon Khan as if that was some sort exploit, you know. My personal record, is three times. Of course I am getting too old for this. My stomach was OK this weekend when I last tried the famous attraction, but my cervical bones ached all along. Not because of the initial 148 ft lift hill or the following 118 ft tall vertical loop but because of the roller coaster elements coming next: the diving loop, zero-G roll, cobra roll, etc. I posted this image so you had an idea although you may find it repeated hundred of times on the web since it is the classic spot you stop to point and shoot. About the other attraction, Furious Bako, I have to say, it is not fit for cardiacs. The speed is so huge that your head shakes and you look like having an epilepsy spell. In this case you don't need any height to fall and gain acceleration, you are literally fired at an almost unbearable speed: Top speed: 84 mph in just 3.5 seconds, G-Force: 4.7 G's.

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Tibidabo Amusement Park: Hurricane Thrill

Hurricane attraction at Tibidabo Amusement Park

I will be out of Barcelona city for the weekend cause we are going to visit Port Aventura amusement park in Tarragona. I hope I bring many pictures of the park although heavy rains were forecast. In the meantime to introduce the topic, I leave you with one of the most thrilling attractions in Tibidabo: Huracan (Hurricane).

The ride is short but as you see they turn you upside down for a while and then move you down towards a fountain that sprinkles some water on your face. The block of seats spins around its axis, swinging dizzily every time the big arms go up and down.

Salvador Dali and Disney Studios

Surrealist elephants standing on impossible legs that remind you of Don Quixote's famelic horse Rocinante or ghostly Dumbo's pink elephants could only be imagined by the twisted and brilliant mind of the most peculiar painter of modern times, Salvador Dalí. In this shop at carrer Ferran you may buy yourself an exclusive souvenir, a Dalinian symbol to impress your friends at home. In case they ask, tell them that you bought it because you are an expert on Dali and somebody stole your "The Elephants" (1948), "the Temptation of St Anthony" (1946), "Atomica Melancholica" (1945) and/or "Triumph of Dionysus" (1953) and you miss them so much that you need a keepsake to mitigate your grief. Now that you are at it, show them the melting clock too, and suggest it helps with The Persistence of Memory (1931).

Note: I found this video: Destino (Disney/Dali) (and I thought that comparing Disney elephants with Dali's was odd and daring!)

Cruise Ferries at Barcelona Port: Grandi Navi Veloci

This is a view of Barcelona Port as taken from the gardens of Montjuic. Besides the harbor paraphernalia in the foreground, perhaps you can manage to see a big boat and you happen to see her name, Grandi Navi Veloci. This is one of the cruise ferries sailing the Mediterranean Sea between Italy, Spain, Tunisia, Morocco and the islands of Sicily and Sardinia. You can always search for Grandi Navi Veloci ferry prices online if you wish but that's not the purpose of this post. Maybe it only means that the port of Barcelona is one of the most important stopovers for Mediterranean cruisers.

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Altafulla Beach on the Costa Dorada

100 kms away from Barcelona and 11 from Tarragona, Altafulla beach is one of the most beautiful on Costa Dorada (golden coast), an old fishermen town that still keeps its charm in spite of the menacing new buildings and the presence of a well known camping site in the area. There is a castle that dates back to XI around which Altafulla expanded and some remnants of Roman villages that are also worth mentioning. The sea was rough due to a heavy storm the night before but it was a very pleasant morning anyway. Check Altafulla on Google Maps.

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New Catalan Architecture, Sabadell, Barcelona

I came across this relatively new building in Sabadell in the outskirts of Barcelona. Not that I am normally attracted by modern architecture, especially when applied to apartment buildings but the fact that it resembles some sort of isolated monolyth, its circular shape and the neat surroundings caught my attention for more than a minute. I don't know how it must feel when you live inside a circular building but it looked innovative enough in the sense that it avoids that monotonous look which city dwellers too frequently have to cope with thanks to inefficient architects that for some enigmatic reason tend to live in state-of-the-art houses.

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Iberian Ruins: The Lichen Boy

A boy sitting on the foundation walls of an old Iberian town in Lleida, Catalonia. Obviously the kid is not surfing the imaginary waves of time to picture the ancient civilization that once lived in this vast prairie but he is rather amused by the curious surface of the rocky wall. What's this greenish-yellowish thing? Perhaps his parents not faraway, listening to the explanation of the local tourist guide, already told him that the odd thing is a symbiotic organism called lichen. Please check old posts: Lichen on Ancient Rocks, On the Tracks of my Ancestors and IR Iberian Ruins in the Spring.

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Daisy Paradise

Field of Daisies

This a picture of daisies, multi-color daisies as seen from ground level the way you would see them if laying on a field.

The image is over saturated on purpose, to magnify the idyllic experience.

I didn't want the scientific approach to the flower, on the contrary, I thought of a painting, the limit between reality and fiction, the point where a photograph starts looking like a painting, when flowers seem to be a sort of nature's brush strokes.

Withered Flower

Flowers come and flowers go, the essence of life. Splendor dissapears but you can still find beauty in withering things. Nature is like a whimsical damsel that needs to wear new makeup and dress every single day, every single minute, ever since the world began.

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The Flower in Red: Spring Wishes

Red hot spring fire emanates from this flower in red, let the good vibrations its beauty provokes thaw your winter lethargy and invigorate your soul.

Sardana Elder Dancers: The Joy of Life

The joy of life, that secret stimulant that pushes elder people into frantic activities, gathered a bunch of them in this square in front of Barcelona Cathedral to participate in a collective traditional dance known as sardana. Take a look at a color version that appeared in Barcelona Photoblog sometime ago: Sardana Dancers.

Mitoraj: Art and Publicity in Barcelona

When I took this picture some months ago, last summer I think, and I was about to publish it here I suddenly found out that someone else had posted a very similar shot, from the same place. I thought the scene wasn't original enough to show. Things like that happen in public places, you are not the only one around shooting for the web. But now I think, hey, this is my picture, so what the heck, the fact someone posted it first doesn't make me a cheater. So here it is, back from my archives, a detail of one of Igor Mitoraj's itinerant sculptures against a very idyllic billboard at Rambla Catalunya. By the way, the lady, the pose, the golden reflections remind me of (now you will think I went crazy, hmm, more or less) that famous The Graduate scene where Dustin Hoffman is laying back on a beach mattress in the middle of the swimming pool with a hand behind his neck and wearing sunglasses. Need a little help?: The Sounds of Silence. I reckon the comparison is a little ackward, but you know how weird daydreaming can get to be sometimes. How about adding some common sense to the photograph by recalling other Mitoraj sculptures featured in Barcelona Photoblog in the past: A Closer Look on Igor Mitoraj's Sculpture , Grande Toscano, Mysterious Faces, Lying Head and Hold Me Tight.

Skateboarding in Barcelona

Experience has taught me that I shouldn't talk about modern trends be it in music, fashion, hobbies or sports. Why? Well, I simply get too old for that. I am only 44 but there are things I am not prepared to understand just because I was born and raised in the 60s. Gosh, ancient history now! There are specially a couple of posts I sadly remember too well, one was about a jacket with a logo that read "social distortion" and the other was about "ska". I won't bring the issue back though. It was just an example of how can a middle-aged man screw things up when it comes to young people's stuff. This elusive preface will be my alibi to tiptoe over today's picture: Skateboarding in Barcelona. The only thing I can tell you for sure is that the photograph was taken at the beach in Barcelona.

Grilled White Sausages

When in Catalonia do as the Catalans do. Have yourself a nice plate full of grilled sausages, aka botifarra de pagés white or black. You ought to get off traditional routes of course. Not in Las Ramblas if you know what I mean. Go out, take a trip to the countryside now that it is spring time and see to find a place where you can have them cooked in the open, in front of you. As you wait, be generous with the wine, not sangria for Christ sake, no, a good wine or at least not the lousy concoctions tourists use to get for a higher price. Enjoy good Catalan food while you enjoy the nice weather. You can make it if you try, believe me.

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Almond Tree Flowers in Early Spring

Just another bunch of almond flowers taken in early spring someday in Lleida last year.

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El Born: Narrow Alley with Cha Cha Store

A narrow alley in El Born quarter, Barcelona, with a small but trendy store called Cha Chá. The exact address, Sant Antoni Dels Sombrerers 7.

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Infrared Ruins in the Spring

Iberian ruins with some spring flowers in Lleida. I have added a slight infrared effect for emphasis.

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Berries

Just another shot of some berries I portrayed here once.

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Reflections in Heron City

Another new version of an old image of mine. I showed a cropped picture in a previous post. This time I feature the whole building which is part of Heron City center in Barcelona.

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Meat Grinder: Sausage, The Making of.

Just an appliance: the meat grinder. Very common in Catalan towns when stuffing bowels with pork meat to make sausages.

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