Prowling my world, camera in hand

The second week of the year was marked by a slightly sad occasion, namely my son’s departure, and a joyous one, the arrival of my friend Lars from Denmark for his customary January visit.

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On January 5th, Moses and I drove to Madrid, from where he was flying back to New York and Buffalo the next day. After checking into our hotel near Barajas airport, we took the metro to the city. Plaza del Sol was magnificent:

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We went to have dinner at a Cuban restaurant, La Negra Tomasa. Highly recommended, both for its decor and the delicious food:

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Aside from the food, they also make excellent and innovative cocktails, such as this Cubanito, essentially a Bloody Mary but with rum instead of vodka. The combination works extremely well:

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Next morning, after the hugs and goodbye, Moses is on his way to the security scan at Madrid airport:

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This was truly the tail end of the holiday season:

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After saying goodbye to Moses, I drove home to Alicante. On the way, I stopped to explore the arid landscape of Castilla La Mancha a bit:

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I followed this dirt road, leading to a place signposted as “Santuario de Belén”, i.e. a monastery of some kind:

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The santuario turned out to be quite posh and well-kept. It probably earns some of its income by providing lodging and other tourist services:

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That same afternoon, my friend Lars arrived in Alicante from Denmark for a two-week visit. We spent the rest of the week just relaxing (him) and working (me) until we went to Barcelona Saturday morning to spend the weekend there. The remainder of this week’s pictures are from that Saturday in Barcelona.

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Our hotel was very close to Plaza Catalunya, and after checking in we quickly met up with my friend Lluis and went to have lunch on a lovely little square nearby. Lars had his camera at the ready:

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Lluis makes a point over plates of tapas:

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One of the joys of Barcelona is to sit at an outdoor restaurant and indulge in people watching:

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And we were being watched from above as well:

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Lluis is such a perfect Catalan gentleman that he always gets his way with people he wants to photograph, even if it is a group of Norwegian beer drinkers:

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I like to do my street photography in B&W, but sometimes colour is really better:

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After lunch, we walked to Café Zurich at the top of La Rambla. Café Zurich is the spiritual home of the European branch of the Leica Users Group. There, we met up with Luciana, a friend of Lluis, a lovely and feisty lady who is an artist and photographer:

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We took the metro to the Caixa Forum, to see a big Salgado exhibition:

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This scene reminded me of the Escalator to Nowhere in an old episode of The Simpsons:

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After taking in the Salgado exhibition, we sat down for some coffee and conversation at the Caixa Forum cafeteria. Luciana was introduced to the joys and idiosyncracies of the Leica rangefinder:

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The pleasures of the LCD, shared by my two friends Lars and Lluis:

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We then took the metro back to Plaza Catalunya where Luciana had left her bicycle:

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Having said goodbye to Luciana, we walked to another of our usual places for dinner, the Catalan restaurant El Julivert Meu:

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Every meal there starts with bread with tomato and garlic:

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Escalivada, another traditional Catalan dish:

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Nationalist sentiment in Catalonia is non-violent but it is strong, and Catalan flags are everywhere:

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Greengrocer near La Rambla:

We finished the evening at Café Zurich, where we engaged in a bit of people-watching before turning in for the night.

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Father and daughters:

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Conversation:

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Waiting for her date to emerge from the metro: