Motorheads are coming!
Can’t wait for the Harley Days to be back! Lots of weird and wonderful people, with their glorious machines!
HOGs
A HOG meeting during the annual Harley Days in Montjuic. What’s HOG? It stand for Harley Owners Group. Nice people!
Tables with a view
One of the restaurants with a better view in town. The one on Montjuic, next to the Miramar hotel, at the entrance of the cactus garden.
To see more ‘painted’ photos, please check my website!
MNAC
This is the rather magnificent cupola at the MNAC, the national catalan art museum, on Montjuic hill. An absolute must see! The view upon Barcelona from up there is gorgeous as well!
As it says on the box…
… this is the entrance to an old bomb shelter, nowadays a somewhat creepy tourist attraction.
Avatar
An avatar of the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona, inside a garden on Montjuic Hill.
Yes, it is blue.
Alegria
We went to see Alegria, by the Cirque du Soleil (no photos allowed), last night. The light on Montjuic Hill was fantastic.
Have a good Sunday, everybody.
Let’s walk together towards a common goal! Queuing for the public toilet.
Right. It is theme day, and the theme is people watching. Please check here to see what other participants did, or to post your own entry to the theme.
I was standing far behind you…
…but I had my long zoom with me…
News. According to ‘Forbes’ magazine, Barcelona is the happiest city in Europe, and the 3rd happiest city in the world, after Rio de Janeiro and Sydney…… Aren’t you happy wherever you live?
Monthly theme day: cobblestones
Closed for maintenance
The Magic Fountain, Fons Magica, is closed for maintenance. It will reopen on March the 2nd, usual time, with an even better light, water and music show!
Meanwhile, if you look into the crystal ball below, you might get a glimpse… Or a dream.
This is our world on Tuesday.
Plaza de España
A monochrome view over Montjuic, the fairgrounds, the 2 venitian towers and the Olympic Torch, for Dragonstar’s Weekend in Black and White.
Sad Watery Wednesday
An Italian ferry, anchored at Montjuic Hill.
This is dedicated to the victims of the Costa Concordia.
Watery Wednesday.
Skywatch Friday
The golden moments in the stream of life rush past us and we see nothing but sand; the angels come to visit us, and we only know them when they are gone. ~George Elliot
Skywatch Friday, right here.
Caixaforum
I am stuck at home for a while, so here is one more archive photo, the entrance of the Caixaforum museum of modern art.
This is for Dragonstar’s Weekend in Black and White.
Free theatre
This is the Teatre Lliure, or free theatre, on Montjuic Hill. More info here. Not sure what Agricultura’s got to do with it, but the building is quite somptuous.
On, right now, something called “Thank you Satan”.
Painting…
As you all notices, I like experimenting (well ok: playing around) with my photos. The result is never really what I expected, sometimes good, sometimes better, sometimes not good, sometimes really bad. But then, sometimes, photography can be like painting… with a little sun glare on my lense.
Black and White Skywatch Friday
OK, a few ‘trade secrets’. I took 3 photos, with a 0,7 bracket (with 0,7 dioptries difference between each photo). Ideally, these photos should be taken with your camera on a tripod, but it works if you’re really steady.
Passed the photos through a HDR program, Photomatix Pro, version 4.1. Tonemapped it, changed it into black and white using Picasa, worked a bit with saturation and shades. Et voila!
All this for 2 of my favorite weekly memes, Skywatch Friday and the Weekend in Black and White.
Watery Wednesday
Lots of cats living wild on Montjuic Hill. And they need to drink as well. Spotted this one on a very warm and sunny afternoon, last sunday, just a few meters away from the Magic Fountain. A fine pussycat for a fine Watery Wednesday!
Plaza de Espana
A black and white view from the Avenida Maria Cristina, the fairgrounds, the venitian towers, the MNAC (catalan national art musuem) and the Olympic Torch, dating back to 1992.
Dragonstar, this is for you and your wonderful black and white weekend meme! And also for Jame’s weekend reflections, as there are some reflections in the building on the left.
Watery Wednesday
Does anybody know what this type of fountain is called, if it has a specific name? Spotted it in the archetypical Spanish village in the Poble Espanyol a few weeks ago.
Whatever it is, it is for Watery Wednesday, right here.
Poble Espanyol: the romanic monastery
Just outside the village at Poble Espanyol, there is this wonderful 11th century romanic monastery, with it’s sculpture garden. Unfortunately, it was closed when we went there. This is where yesterday’s fountain is situated.
Watery Wednesday 152: liquid gold
A fountain,sunshine, a few drops, some ripples on the water… It’s a kind of magic!
Poble Espanyol
The Spanish Town (Catalan: Poble espanyol; Spanish: Pueblo español), where we met the Illustrious Hidalgo Don Quijote de la Mancha, is an outdoor open-air architectural museum, located on the mountain of Montjuïc.
It was constructed in 1929, for the Barcelona International Exhibition, that was held in Barcelona that year.
Josep Puig i Cadafalch had the idea for the museum: a town in which the architecture, style, and culture of various locations from around Spain were preserved in a single place. The aim was to produce an ‘ideal model’ Spanish village, a synthesis of monumental Spain. The architects that designed the town were Francesc Folguera and Ramon Reventós. In total, the town was built in 13 months, and although it was only needed for 6, for the exhibition, it was not demolished and was kept open as a museum.
The museum occupies a total area of 42,000 m² or about 138,000 ft² and contains 117 buildings, with streets and squares reproducted to scale.
The tower above is a copy of the Torre de Utebo, near Zaragoza.
El ingenioso hidalgo don Quijote de la Mancha
The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha, aka Alonso Quixano, was obviously not from Barcelona! But we met him here yesterday, looking for his Dulcinea, Aldonza Lorenzo.
This seems to be his place when he is here, a very fine 16th century house from La Mancha, in the Poble Espanyol.
And if you’ve never done it, please read Miguel Cervantes’s book, or watch one of the many good movies or operas about El ingenioso hidalgo don Quijote de la Mancha. It’s marvelous!
Wild HOGs!
Message to Dave in Costa Rica/Arizona: don’t touch these bikes! lol
And yes, once again, this is My World Tuesday!
HOG days: the ones for sale
You gonna get the blues with that one!
HOG time? High time!
The HOGs are back! It is the yearly Barcelona Harley weekend,complete with bikes, beards, uniforms, and biker chicks. And, of course, the usual decorations, such as this one:
Watery Wednesday 141
3 views of the same fountain/cascade on Montjuic Hill.
Yep, you’re right, it’s Watery Wednesday again! Just click here!
Magic!
Another Wednesday, and here we go again: the (almost) weekly Magic Fountain shot. Click on the labels below to see more of the Magic Fountain.
And also click here to see other participant’s photos to this Watery Wednesday meme.
Happy Easter and a good Sunday!
Catalan art from the 14th century. Well, happy Easter to many of you, a good Pessach for some of you, and a beautiful and restful Sunday to all of you!
Watery Wednesday 136
Yet another picture of the Magic Fountain for this week’s Watery Wednesday. I don’t think we’ll ever grow tired of it!!!
Weekend Reflections 79
Entering the Caixaforum museum. Owned by a bank called Caixa Catalunya, which explains the slightly weird name.
Weekend Reflections number 79 already! Wishing James a fast recovery! Click here, as usual.
Oldtimers
No, not a taxi: this is one of the first buses here, in Catalunya. With his fellow old timers. We came across them last Saturday, there was some kind of old bus rally. A few more of them…
This one be came from Paris…
Not only in London…
And they came from Belgium.
That’s our world on Tuesday! Click right here to see more!
It’s a kind of magic…
We went back to this most magic of places last night, the Magic Fountain in Montjuic. Enjoy!
(Got now enough Watery Wednesday pictures to last us 11 years… Just kidding!)
America del Sur
Barcelona is one of the most multicultural places we ever lived. Amongst others, many many south Americans
This photo was taken during a Chilean festivity, quite a while ago.. Fantastic costumes!
Theme of the month: fountains
Here we are again, the CDP monthly theme day. Today, February 1st: fountains.
Well, this is one I made earlier, from our beloved Magic Fountain, Fons Magica. Admittedly reworked to death, but I think it was worth it. Don’t you love the 2 Asian (Japanese?) girls posing in the middle of the photo, and probably getting very wet?
Click here to view thumbnails for all participants
As this is where we live, this is for My World Tuesday as well. Click right… HERE !
Skywatch Friday
Quite a gloomy and featureless sky… Made a bit more interesting by the the MNAC, the catalan National Art Museum, and the Olympic flame, built for the 1992 Olympics.
This, you guessed it right, is for Skywatch Friday, one of the most beautiful memes there is. Click right here, right now, to see absolutely fantastic photos! Do it! Now!
Watery Wednesday 111
Been a while… From the archives, one of our old favorites, the Magic Fountain near Plaza de Espana.
As usual, this is for Watery Wednesday 111. Please click here if you want to be totally flabbergasted!
Watery Wednesday 98
Been a while since I post anything from the Magic Fountain in Montjuic… Enjoy! This is one of the main things you CANNOT MISS, when you’re next in Barcelona! You can get an idea of the size of the fountain by watching the people in the foreground: it is huge!
MNAC
One of the more unexpected items to be found in the Catalan National Art Museum, the MNAC. Painting by John Hassall, sometime between 1893 and 1924.
Festival per Xile
Last weekend, we had here a Festival for Chile, Xile in Catalan, to help rebuilding Chile after the big earthquake they had there. An afternoon of dance and music. The photos above and below are from the Grupo Folklórico Renacer Boliviano. Very good and very colorful.
There also was a very talented catalan juggler, whose name we didn’t get.
Free entrance, but by selling food and Tshirts, they made just a bit over 18.000 euros. Well done!
Plaza de toros
This is one of the 2 bullfighting arenas I know of in Barcelona.
Bullfighting. Whatever you might think of it, the news here are that many people try to stop it. Some want to stop it entirely, some want it to be just a sport, with no actual killing of the toros, the way they do it in Portugal.
Well, this arena is being transformed into a giant shopping center. Due to the crisis, the works stopped for a year, but they started again. The complex should open early next year.
And once again… Sorry for having so little time to browsing your blogs. Will try to come back as soon as possible.
Lamps
A couple of lamps at the MNAC, with a very distinctive modernist style, what they probably would call Art Nouveau in Paris, I suppose.
Sagrada Familia
View over Sagrada Familia Cathedral from Montjuic Hill. Started in 1882, the last known and estimated date about the completion of Gaudi’s masterwork is set fot 2026. 16 more years to wait. The original estimate for the completion was 2150… Good and fast workers!
Going at the moment through a long series of medical check, so not much energy left at the end of the day for browsing many blogs. I will be back soon, promised. Just need to totally switch pretty much all my habits to something much healthier. Wish me luck!
Stairs with peacocks
Last sunday, we saw this absolutely fabulous picture as well, at the Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya. And it remains a mystery to this day: the description was missing. Does anyone know anything about it?
Latest news from our adventures in XTML land… Hope you like the new favicon, and there is now a random post widget in the sidebar.
250th post: Names and dolls
Art nouveau
I am starting today a small series about the MNAC, Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya. The Museum is celebrating it’s 75th anniversary, with an exhibition called ‘Convidats d’Honor’, guest of honor. It’s a kind of best of the museum’s pieces, and it is worth the visit, believe me!
The first piece we want to show you is this wonderful catalan art nouveau dressing table, the finest we’ve ever seen. Wouldn’t you love to have it in your boudoir??? We would! Without the people in the mirror though.
The header, by the way, is another rendition of the museum’s cupola. The best way to see it is to sit down on one of the too comfortable sofas put there for this purpose. Lean back and enjoy, in other words!
Barcelona wedding a la japanese
For some reason, japanese couples absolutely LOVE getting married in Barcelona. And the photoshoot is always on the steps of the Museu Nacional d’Arte de Catalunya, aka MNAC. Every time we go there, there is at least one japanese wedding, sometimes more.
And here are their limos.
We can only wish them anonymously a very happy life. And may they come back to Barcelona!
Magic!
Some more (archive) photos from the most magic place in town, the magic fountain. Don’t have much time and opportunities to go out at the moment, or to browse your blogs, unfortunately.
Intruders…
One of the many canons adorning Montjuic Castle. What was deterring intruders years ago seems now to be welcoming all the foreign tourists on the big ships in the background…
By the way, the 5th visitor from now on, 8.14PM in Barcelona, will be the 10.000th… A big welcome to you, my friend! Have some cake!
8.46PM: welcome to Lois, from Tallahassee, one of our first visitors ever, and also our 10.000th visitor! Lois has a wonderful blog, please check it out, it is really worth it!
The kiss
Just outside the museum I depicted yesterday, is the big beautiful magic fountain, of which I have so many hundreds of photos. Trying to put some order into that chaos, I stumbled upon this little gem. Enjoy! And please kiss someone in the next 10 minutes!
Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya
You might remember earlier pictures of this museum on the flanks of Montjuic Hill. Here is the central cupola, absolutely magnificent!
Much more info about this museum here.
Evening sky over the city
One evening in Montjuic…
Sundown over Barcelona
The 2 boats you see are ferries, from a company called Acciona. The go to the Balearic Islands, Mallorca, Minorca and, of course, Ibiza, Eivissa in Catalan. Photo taken from Montjuic Castle.
Theme day: night
On the first day of every month, we are having a theme day. Many of us post a photo, around the same theme. Today’s theme is night. Here is my small contribution, another photo of the Magic Fountain in Montjuic. Last week, they started a new show, mainly based on 80es music. Should you happen to be in town, go to see it!
Click here to view thumbnails for all participants, believe me, it’s worth it!
Many many more pictures of the Magic Fountain, or Fons Magica in catalan, here
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Cable car to the beach!
Following yesterday’s posting, I had a question about the tower you can see on the photo. This is actually, and litterally, the cable car to the beach. It goes from/to Montjuic |Castle to/from the port and the Barceloneta beach. Much faster than taking several buses and metros. Convenient, but not cheap.
On the right hand side of today’s photo, you can see a small part of a second tower, just above the World Trade Center, the round building. And just underneath the biggest cable car, the Maremagnum shopping center, complete with restaurants, one of the biggest aquariums in Europe, 2 cinemas, one of them an IMAX cinema.
Grandi Navi Veloci
Grandi Navi Veloci, big fast boats to Italy. Barcelona is an important ferry hub, boats to the Balearic Islands (Ibiza, Mallorca, Minorca), to Italy (Genoa, Livorno, Sardegna, Civitavecchia, near Rome). Many cruise-ships stop here as well. And they are in fact really affordable, almost (but not quite) cheap. I will hopefully do the trip to Italy quite soon to eate la pizza, will show you the pictures, promised!
This picture was taken on Montjuic Hill, from Barcelona Castle. The guy at the canon is not me, and nobody shot anything or anyone from here for a long time. Ciao!
Parrots, finally!
There are quite a lot of these green parrots living free in Barcelona, but they are very shy, and therefore really hard to catch on camera. This afternoon, just below Montjuic Castle, I came across this little gang and, oh joy, they weren’t shy at all. I managed to go very close without them flying away. They are as big as a common pigeon, to give you an idea of their size.
Art Nouveau at the MNAC
We went to the MNAC, Museu Nacional d’Arte de Catalunya, a while ago. Very fine museum, absolutely not to be missed!
Among many other beautiful things, I discovered this Art Nouveau furniture. I actually took a note of what it was and who had made it, but I lost the paper. So, If anyone knows more about it, please put a comment! Molt gracies!
09 July: might have been Miucha
Empty?
Not quite.
Click here to view thumbnails for all participants to this theme day.
Where is our blogger?
This blog is about Barcelona. But, in many ways, it is also a blog about freedom, freedom of speech, freedom of thinking, of movement, freedom of vote, just simply freedom.
Amir, a fellow blogger from Tehran, has disappeared because he dreamed of freedom. The CDP community has set today aside to raise awareness about what is going on in Iran, about what happens to freedom.
Suppressing ideas has never been a successful way to make them go away.
Green, not only the color of Islam, but also the color of hope.
Click here to view thumbnails for all participants
On the road…
Very curiously, although Spain is a catholic (some would say a very catholic) country, there are no laws against public nudity.
So, what is quite normal on many beaches here can be seen in towns. The place where I took this picture was far from any beach! That guy was maybe going to work, who knows, totally naked. And it’s legal.
Well, to each hes own, I suppose. As long as it’s legal…
Jardi Botanic
This, you might have guessed, was taken in the Botanical Garden, on a grey day.
The Garden is celebrating its 10th anniversary, and they had some kiddie activities going on this day.
I just liked the contrasting colors on that shot.
Fons Magica
I have been living in Larnaka, Cyprus, for a while. Lots of wild or abandoned cats were living/surviving on the streets, parks, beaches, begging in restaurants. 3 or 4 people took care of them, feeding them, or even taking them to the vet, if they needed it, all on their own expenses as, sadly, the municipality did not really care.
Not quite sure how it is here in Barcelona, but on Montjuic Hill, the cats seem to have at least one very organized friend.
Barcelona Daily Photo 
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