Today, I have just a few everyday windows (and doors) from my daughter’s and family’s town in Catalonia. Plus windows-within-a-window as my featured photo. You can tell from the colour of the sky that these were not taken last week, during Heat Wave Central. Nobody in their right mind was walking round then, as daily ‘feels like’ temperatures regularly hit 42 degrees
For Ludwig’s Monday Window, hosted this week by Brian of Bushboy fame.
And … I’m just back from Spain. Unremitting daily temperatures of ‘feels like 42’ have made child-minding duties a bit on the testing side, and waterside fun has been our friend. The never-ending sun routine seems – finally – to be taking a break, both here in the UK and in Spain. This photo taken the other day, pool-side, is perhaps a foretaste of the next week or so?
For Debbie’s Six Word Saturday.
This week, for the Lens-Artists Photo Challenge, Ritva asks us to Pick A Colour.
I ruminated on red, pondered about purple, almost opted for orange, nearly yielded to yellow, gleaned several greens, prevaricated over pink, but in the end, went for ….
Well, obviously you have to have sky … even if day is long past and evening’s getting on for being midnight blue …
And water’s a must too. Nothing idyllic here. Just industrial sprawl near Rotterdam.
And let’s keep up our less-than-picturesque watery scenes, on the River Thames….
… before nipping off to the fishing town of Arenys de Mar in Catalonia. That’s better. Mended nets hung out to dry.
Let’s stay in Catalonia, but head to Barcelona and some street art …
We’ve got ourselves about a bit. Maybe we need another car wash. That’s where we began, and it’s shown in the featured photo.
Seen at the Museu de l’Estampació, Premià de Mar: the only museum in Spain celebrating the art of printing on textile.
For Debbie’s One Word Sunday.
The parakeets that live round and about Ciutadella Park in Barcelona are opportunists. They know that all they have to do is hang around tourists, looking winsome, and the next meal will appear. If they’re lucky, maybe specially purchased nuts and seeds from equally opportunist street vendors. Otherwise, croissant crumbs and biscuits. They don’t seem fussy.
For Monday Portrait.
Castell de Santa Florentina has its roots as a 11th century fortified farmhouse, built on the ruins of a Roman villa to defend the area of Canet de Mar against pirates. It evolved into a proper castle-that-looks-like-a -castle-with-turrets in the 14th century.
And that’s how it pretty much stayed until the end of the 19th century, when noted Catalan modernist architect Lluís Domènech i Montaner, who was related to the then owner Ramon de Montaner, came and put his own stamp on the building, employing a team of like-minded craftsmen and sculptors. We Brits would probably recognise the style as being somewhat pre-Raphaelite: a rather romanticised Gothic vibe.
We went there yesterday. It was a bit unexpected. The route to the castle was an overgrown, muddy and pot-holed track to which our poor car strongly objected. The gate to the castle grounds was unprepossessing, firmly locked, and we and our two fellow would-be visitors wondered whether the place would open in time for our booked visit – or at all. It did: and our initial doubts were soon replaced as we wandered round this glorious building with its stained glass, ornate ironwork, fine ceilings and sculptures, harmoniously blending with the existing Gothic structure.
It’s beyond me to give you a structured and informative tour. Why don’t you just enjoy some of the details that we spotted and lingered over in the time we spent there?
Arc de Triomf is slap-bang in Tourist Central in Barcelona. It is nevertheless a part of the city I enjoy, because it’s spacious enough never to feel crowded, and is near one of the city’s green lungs, Parc de la Ciutadella with its tropical garden the Umbracle, and its winter garden – the Hivernacle.
Parakeets sit around waiting to be fed, and street entertainers ply their trade. The other day, it was a man floating bevies of bubbles into the skies.
For Leanne’s Monochrome Madness
One of our duties here in Spain is The School Run – or maybe just part of it. Leave the house and turn right, and there’s school, under ten minutes away. Leave the house and turn left, and there’s nursery, just over 10 minutes away. So in the afternoon it’s school (finishes 4.30), then nursery (finishes 5.00 o’clock). As we wander home from nursery, the sun is setting, and these are our views.
For Debbie’s Six Word Saturday.
Answer? When it’s a museum – more or less about itself. That’s Born Market in Barcelona. Built in 1876 as Barcelona’s first large-scale cast-iron building, it was a local market, then a wholesale fruit and vegetable market which closed in 1971. But what to do with this fine structure? The problem more or less solved itself when in 2001, more than 60 houses dating from the 1700s were found below ground level. Painstakingly uncovered, they reveal the life of this busy neighbourhood, where tripe-sellers and violin makers, leather-tanners and glass blowers, and food producers of every kind jostled together in this bustling, flourishing part of the fast-growing city. Their story, this city’s story is now told here in El Born Centre de Cultura i Memòria.
Here are two photos-of-photos showing the market in its heyday.
And here are a few shots of the building as it looks now: a quiet and spacious place to pass away an interesting hour or two away from bustling Barcelona, just beyond its doors.
In the last image above, you can see at floor level the excavated city beneath. Here are some of the everyday objects the archaeologists found: plates, chocolate cups and glassware, all made locally.
An unexpected addition to Sarah’s Market Challenge for Leanne’s Monochrome Madness.
From Pyrenees to Pennines 
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