A Touch of Green

Today I felt in the mood for green so I went to Palau Real a beautiful park near Diagonal Ave. and the University of Barcelona . I took a whole series of pictures and wandered through the many paths crawling across the unusually exuberant vegetation. This aquatic plants were delighted with the few sun rays that we could enjoy today in Barcelona.

Street Artist Photo V

Tourists wouldn´t miss by any chance posing with a glittering star like Gary "Cupper" (so would sound Cooper in Spanish more or less). Hope he doesn´t mind me calling him such names. This funny cowboy conquers your camera with his winks and his sweet smile, of course you have to pay a little for the reward but it is worth the price. There's always a history of sacrifice behind each of these performances.

Street Artist Photo IV

To follow with Las Ramblas street artist series here goes number four. I would call it more or less "My skinny fellow rider" or "The hell of a company". Of course maybe you could come up with much better names. This picture is dedicated to Eric's ParisDailyPhoto who has been publishing a picture a day for a whole year without missing any. Happy Anniversary!

Street Artist Photo III

If one of the living statues in Las Ramblas of Barcelona seems truly realistic this must be the Miner. Notice how the smudge and the soot contribute to give the character the solid appearance of a carved marble stone. Right behind him you can partially see the opera house Liceu.

Las Ramblas: Dragon and Umbrella Photo

Just in front of La Boqueria market and very close to the opera house El Liceu, on the façade of one of the art deco style buildings you find this magnificent dragon holding an enormous lamp in menacing attitude as if guarding the old umbrella shop shut down a long time ago. Besides the oversized fan on top, a curious umbrella keeps floating in the air as the reminder of old prosperous times for this trade.

Street Artist Photo II

It is a common belief that here in Spain we go nuts about bullfights, flamenco and spend a lot of time enjoying our siesta, nothing more far from reality. As you saw yesterday in my previous post Las Arenas...we have less bullrings (I have never been to a Plaza de Toros in my life), flamenco is being blended with pop, rock, salsa or even jazz and of course we don´t have time for siesta anymore, hummm, that, I do miss. This bailaor of flamenco (flamenco dancer) was performing near the end of Las Ramblas, suddenly he jumps, I shoot and notice on my screen that his legs were not even blurred in the picture. You have to admit that good dancers sometimes flow in the air.

Las Arenas: A Historic Barcelona Bullring to Become a Leisure Center

Ready for the latest in architecture, well maybe you have not seen it all. That you have to build a leisure center but you have a historic bullring such as Las Arenas in the way, no problem we call Richard Rogers the English architect we put some props under the brickwork and we lift it up to go underneath. You don´t believe it, well just check the photo I took this morning. The main purpose of this center will be to provide a link for pedestrians who want to walk between the Montjuic area where you have the Olympic stadium and some important museums like Art Gallery Fundació Miró towards Parc Joan Miró on the other side. Under a huge translucid dome enjoying the food of the many restaurants, jogging round the circular track or simply going to the cinema, people from Barcelona and tourists will be more than just pleased.

Joan Miro: A Photo in Pastel

Dona i ocell (Woman and Bird), in the Parc de l'Escorxador (literally Slaughterhouse Park), was inaugurated April 16, 1983 and was meant to welcome visitors coming to Barcelona traveling overland. Placed in the same place where the slaughterhouse used to be from 1892 to 1979, it is a combination of phallic and female genital elements, evoking the Roman habit of engraving or carving such images or motifs on the city gates to wish travelers good health and give them strength. The collage of colors against the blue sky reminded me of some aquarel or oil pastel painting so I decided to enhance that by giving the not so beautiful buildings in the back some artistic daubs with a well known image editor. Perhaps you would like to follow this link to Joan Miró

Street Artist Photo

Barcelona is a cultural melting pot, and Las Ramblas is the main stage. Street artists from all over the world, scattered among flower and animal stalls give their particular impersonation of different characters, acting as human statues that witness silently the parade of tourists swarming around them to steal pictures and maybe drop some coins in their "vase".

Sagrada Familia: Mosaic Detail of a Spire

This is a wonderful view of one of the spires in the Sagrada Familia Cathedral. After taking a lift where you are charged two euros (better than climbing up the spiral staircase which is very narrow) you get to a small passage between the towers from where the city, the sea and the mountains can be seen in all its splendor. Small details of this unfinished masterpiece like this mosaic buttons stand right before you, making your camera hesitate between them or a good picture of the skyline.

The Hanging Gardens of Barcelona

This is not the seventh wonder but it is definitely a building full of life near La Illa shopping mall on Diagonal Avenue. In your way towards the center of the city coming from Tarragona and on your left you have a wide promenade for people and bikes with trees alongside, from where you can enjoy sights such as this.

Smart Stack of Cars

Believe me I don´t get tips for this pseudo ad, but if you like cars like me you have to admit that it is a great display. I had seen this car dealership many times but it never occurred to me that it would be so photo friendly. You can see it near El Corte Inglés (Diagonal Ave.), a nationwide chainstore and maybe the richest together with Zara.

Rambla de Cataluña: Posing Giraffe

This graceful giraffe is called Coqueta (coquettish) and with it you enter Rambla de Cataluña through the mountain side (in Barcelona when you give directions everything is mountain side or sea side). The sculpture was made by Josep Granyer in 1972. At the far end of this long avenue, that is, sea side you will finally meet a bull, a bronze one of course by the same artist. This main artery is a must if you travel to Barcelona because of the sights, the architecture and the great variety of restaurants and shops in the area.

Hot Costumes

Now that is carnival time there´s nothing like "hot" costumes to wear. I noticed this funny windowcase where manikins were basking in the sun on top of the main floor of this little shop at Plaza Ibiza in Horta, a quarter near the hills surrounding the city.

Reflections on Tomatoes

Though it is a simple photo I like the illusion it creates. From my car I took this picture of a big ad on the side of a truck driving by. 

Stained Glass

Inside Gaudi's Sagrada Familia fantasy travels at the speed of light. Stained glass windows are so sophisticated and futuristic in design that for a moment you might think you are dwelling Tolkien's most surrealistic dreams.

Eager for Light

Picture taken on my way to market. To see a plant that size, out of the wall searching for the light of the sun against the sky so blue gave me new strength for the rest of the day.

Two Little Nuns

On my way to the market of Horta I saw these two nuns in a narrow alley and I thought it would make a nice picture.

Carnival in Barcelona

Carnival is a name for any kind of revelry or festivity. By tradition, it is the season just before Lent celebrated by merrymaking, processions, dancing, and feasting. During Carnival week masked balls, processions of decorated floats through the streets, costume parades, and feasting generally mark the celebration. The word "carnival" probably comes from the medieval Latin carnelevarium, meaning to take away or remove meat (in the past, Catholics were forbidden to eat meat during the 40 days of Lent). The first day of the carnival season varies from country to country. Mardi Gras, Fat Tuesday, from the custom of using up meat and fats in the home before Lent, here in Spain is Fat Thursday.

Barcelona's Carnival is not very important, there is no central parade - individual districts organize and hold their own. At night-time, during the week before Ash Wednesday the streets are full of people dressed up and many parties are held (the most popular of which is usually held in the Spanish Village - Poble Espanyol - on the Saturday night). During the day children's carnivals are organized and most schools let the children go in fancy dress on the Friday before Ash Wednesday.

Sagrada Familia: The Passion Façade

Passion Façade detail