Finally Madrid

We glided over the Spanish countryside, sometimes at around 300 km/h, sometimes crawling along at only 220 km/h. Once in Madrid, we used several connections on the Madrid Metro system to get ourselves to a place that was best described as "the wrong intersection". As it turns out, if you go to the trouble of getting travel directions onto your Kindle, you do still need to read what's actually there. A little more Metro-ing got us to our hotel.

We needed to experience the Spanish culture, so Lyn decided to sample a Spanish delicacy called siesta (sleeping off the sangria). We dedicated the evening to Flamenco music and dancing.

It looks slow in the video. I really needed a much higher frame-rate camera to do justice to the speed of those feet.

Here Be Dragons

Most of Antoni Gaudí's work is inspired by nature - the sea and sea creatures, trees and flowers, animals, particularly lizards and dragons. 

You can see the spine of the dragon on the roof ridge of Casa Batlló

Who needs gargoyles when you can have Observant Chameleon?

These arches in Park Güell had a pangolin feel to me

Under these arches there was a Kora player.

Now we find the dragon in the park

Apparently huge lizards are not that scary

Don't go through the gate. Just don't.

Barcelarchitecture

Yesterday and today we did hop-on-hop-off circuits of Barcelona. Architecturally it's an incredible city.

View from in the Forum

Walking around the alleys of the gothic sector

Inside the Barcelona Cathedral

Here's a sample of what it sounded like inside the Barcelona cathedral

And Sagrada Família was even more impressive.

Inside Sagrada Família (turns out my lens was smeared)

Outside Sagrada Famíli, looking at one of the facades (just one small part)

Column footings show that Gaudí knew about Great A'Tuin

The Cruise Ship of Dr Moreau

A cruise ship is an environment that can breed its own weird lifeforms. (We both found out what a good incubator it was for bronchitis-causing species.) Sometimes we suspected that lifeforms were not just the product of natural selection processes. Each night when we returned to our state room, we'd find a new creature.

Leghorn

Okay, I'll shut up. I'm not one that has to keep talkin'. Some fellas just have to keep their mouths flappin', but not me! I was brought up right, my pa used to tell me "shut up" and I'd shut up! I wouldn't say nothin'! One time, darn-near starved to death ...
Wouldn't tell him I was hungry!
-- Foghorn Leghorn 

The stop at Livorno (traditionally called Leghorn) allowed lots of the cruise passengers to head to various locations: Florence, Pisa, winery trips, etc. We didn't want the long road/rail trips, so we decided to explore the port city of Livorno itself. We took a guided boat tour of the canals and saw some of the old Medici houses, and smelled some of the old fish market smells.

Neapolitan

Naples has a mix of different flavours. It's flavoured with antiquity, business, and screw-you-jimmy.

A multi-flavoured fountain

We started our tour of Naples on their hop-on-hop-off bus tour, which drove around 5 city blocks to get 1 city block further from the port. That got us to their ticket office where everyone had to get off to stand in line to buy tickets, well, to stand in line anyway, and then stand in line for a bit more. Eventually we decided that their flavours of antiquity and business weren't as tasty as the third flavour, so we went walking instead.

Charon

There Chairon stands, who rules the dreary coast -
A sordid god: down from his hairy chin
A length of beard descends, uncombed, unclean;
His eyes, like hollow furnaces on fire;
A girdle, foul with grease, binds his obscene attire.
…
An airy crowd came rushing where he stood,
Which fill'd the margin of the fatal flood:
…
Such, and so thick, the shiv'ring army stands,
And press for passage with extended hands.
Now these, now those, the surly boatman bore:
The rest he drove to distance from the shore.

- Virgil (Aeneid, translated by John Dryden)

Charon herds the sinners onto his boat 

The god described by Virgil has now changed,
No longer garbed in foul obscene attire.
See now his dapper uniform arranged
To show command and set young hearts afire.

Tired travelers stand ready for his sign
Of seven blasts plus one of longer tone.
Then gather they on deck three in a line
While tardy souls back to the dock are shown.

His passengers no longer wear their cash
For passage on their mouths or on their eyes;
Prostheses made of plastic store their stash
And virtual coins beam hell-ward through the skies.

His craft is crammed with creditworthy scores
All heading for inevitable shores.