Travel – Page 25 – The Bald Heretic – Short, bald dude with a goofy beard

Skullduggary In The Subway

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While riding the subway today we encountered – dum dum DUUUUUUUM! Pickpockets!

When the subway train entered the station and we began to board there was a man on a cell phone half in and half out of the train. He “seemed” to be looking down the station for someone he was talking to on the phone and “seemed” to be inadvertently blocking the door and “seemed” to inadvertently move into my way. Each time I shifted to go around he blocked me again. All the while two more men came in from behind as if they too were trying to get on to the train and past this buffoon.

The scam is an old one. The three men were working in concert. The one man on the phone as the distraction and the other two to jostle and rifle pockets and pocketbooks.

Fortunately, I keep everything well locked down. No wallet or other valuables in the hip pocket, money and passport in a money belt and my backpack zipped up. Once I realized what was happening I shoved the guy on the phone out of my way and boarded the train.

He looked at me and smiled. He and his buddies did not board the train.

I escaped the incident without loss, fortunately.

Barcelona – Day 3 – Part 2

After collecting ourselves back at the hotel room we headed out and braved the metro to go see La Sagrada Familia, a cathedral designed by Antoni Gaudi. Construction began in 1882 and is not expected to be completed until 2026.

The structure is amazing to see in person. I was particularly happy to have my very wide angle Sony 16-35mm lens with me to capture a few images. These are both done using HDR techniques that involve taking 3 separate photos, each with a different exposure setting, and blending the images together to create one high dynamic range image that brings our the detail and evens out the overall exposure.

And later that evening for a night shot

Barcelona – Day 3 – Part 1

The sun came out today. After a full day of rain yesterday we were very happy to see it. We got up and headed out for some breakfast and then walked down La Rambla to the Cathedral of Santa Eulalia aka the Barcelona Cathedral to watch the Sardana dances.

La Rambla was bustling early. The crowds were building fast and the human statues were gearing up for a busk-o-rama day.

And the beggars were also taking advantage of the sunshine.

Walking through the Barri Gotic on the way to the cathedral we marvelled at the ornamentation on the buildings in the neighborhood

During our wandering we stumbled upon the secluded Gothic cloister which encloses the Well of the Geese (Font de les Oques) where 13 white geese are kept, the number explained by the assertion that Eulalia was 13 when she was martyred.

After communing with the geese for a bit we found our way to the front of the cathedral for the main event. Each Sunday the citizens of Barcelona gather in front of the cathedral for for the Sardana Dances. Some to dance, other just to watch and listen to the cobla.

After this it was back to the hotel to recombobulate and have a snack. The walk back was met by extremely large throngs of people jamming La Rambla

Next up, La Sagrada Familia

Rain On La Rambla

Rain or no rain, we’re here to enjoy ourselves. We walked down La Rambla and Cynthia spotted me with he umbrella while I took a few photos with the 85mm f/1.4 lens.

Barcelona – Museo Nacional d’Art de Catalunya

Since it is raining and we have also mastered the metro, we decided to spend the day at the museum looking at art. Not a bad choice at all. Unfortunately, I find photographs from inside a museum to be kind of boring. I love seeing the art and browsing the gallery and I do take photos, but the results always seem kinda bleh. Here are a few that I like from the day. You’ll note that two of them are not actually pictures of the art, but are of the historic building housing the art. And one is of the intrepid William The Sheep.

Barcelona – Day 2

As the weather sites have all been saying for the last few weeks, today is a day of heavy rain. I’d hoped the forecast would change as we got closer to arrival, but it did not.

Fortunately, we packed foul weather gear and have been moving about. The first stop today was La Boqueria for some breakfast at The Bar Central Cafe and then to have a look around and take some photos.

It is a unique market with fresh produce, meat and seafood. Some of the seafood is so fresh it tries to crawl, slither or otherwise wriggle out of the display.

Arrival – Barcelona

We made it to Barcelona without a hitch. The only real bump in the road was that we arrived to the hotel around 11:00 am Barcelona time and the room wasn’t ready for us to check in yet. After a long overseas flight it is tough to cool your heals waiting to get into your room. They finally gave it to us around 1:30. We quickly unpacked a few things and took a 2 hour nap.

One we woke up we were pretty hungry so we walked across the street to the El Corte Ingles and bought some groceries.

After we had eaten something we felt much better and rode the metro over to see the Magic Fountain of Montjuïc

We ran out of steam pretty quick and headed back to the hotel. As we were walking Cynthia suggested we go have a look at Casa Batlo which is not to far away. We walked over and snapped some shots, but I am not overly pleased with what I got so may plan to shoot some more later.

Of course William The Sheep is tagging along for the journey

Time to get some sleep and get ready for tomorrow. Rain is forecast, but we’re prepared!

Bon Voyage!

And so it begins! Barcelona and Valencia, here we come!