On 29th June Spain won the European football championship. This is the first time Spain has won a major championship since 1964, so understandably the country celebrated with gusto.
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After the game, my son and I drove to the centre of Alicante to have a look. Parking the car was by now out of the question, but one could still get a good sense of the mood from behind the wheel:
The alternates:
Alternate 1
We did manage to find a place to stop from where we could watch the fireworks at midnight:
Alternate 2
In the middle of the week, I stopped to have a beer at the beach bar I showed last week. Here is the busy barmaid:
Alternate 3
As always, enjoying the sights is a major part of the attraction:
On Friday, we went to Madrid for a couple of days to show visiting relatives around. The rest of this week’s pictures are from there.
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We started with a visit to the Prado:
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The centre of Madrid is full of street performers and vendors, all hoping to liberate the tourists from their money. Here are a couple of them on the way to work:
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As in other Spanish cities, the street vendors are mainly African immigrants selling counterfeit handbags, sunglasses, copied DVDs and so on. They prefer to avoid contact with the authorities. When a couple of police officers were spotted walking down the street, these guys wrapped up their stuff and disappeared in no time:
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Here is a vendor who is having a bit more luck, just outside the Prado:
Alternate 8
In the evening, I had enough of walking around. My wife and the visiting relatives hit the shops (open until 10 p.m., unfortunately) while I was installed in a bar. I could deal with that. Spanish children get an early start at being barflies:
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Another image of the cute little girl:
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While walking around, I always look for people dressed in eye-catching garments:
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When I come across a street performance, I often find the spectators more interesting than the performers:
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This couple, or at least the guy, was NOT watching the performance:
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At the end of the evening, time to go back to the hotel. Madrid’s metro is clean, efficient and cheap:
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People invariably feel lovey after a nice evening out:
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Alternate 17
…or they feel tired
