real monasterial de el escorial

A cold wintery day well worth it after exploring the Monastery.

Beautiful, kind, shy and loving Clara.

madrid

Hannah made a little Spanish friend :) The woman behind on the left is his grandmother and while none of us spoke a word of each others language, there was two minutes of this little boy wanting to grasp Hannah's hand. The little things...

He had their attention for a good 15 miutes and deservedly so. Brilliant with the diablo and a performer as well, laughs and cheers all round from the kids. Tom, Hannah and Clara.

A day well spent in Madrid before making our way back to Moralzarzal, 40 minutes north in the foothills. The sunset on the hills was amazing, buttt I run out of battery. oops.

the gypsy once said...

Pete North. Fellow artist of the music variety and no not the famous pornstar.

I first heard Pete singing and playing his acoustic guitar when I walked into my hostel room in Brighton one late afternoon. It'd been raining all day outside, I'd just been shopping and was ready to veg out. He politely asked if I didn't mind him playing and I said that of course it was fine. A pleasure in fact to be able to listen.

Here's the track he recorded for the first time while I was present and lying on my top bunk, listening and writing in my own diary. It's simple, tells a story and he has a rough intriguing voice. He's studying music at Uni, oh and he's at least twice my age, but only in body. Testament to his character and cretivity. Get behind him and watch his space online.

http://soundcloud.com/petepanic2/the-gypsy-5-mb?utm_source=soundcloud&utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=raw&utm_content=http://soundcloud.com/petepanic2/the-gypsy-5-mb

childhood innocence

A rare moment I photograhed mum's friends son not posing. He became very fond of me.

Tom and Hannah.

El castillo de Manzanares el Real.

A local castle four times older than Australia.

A long beautiful day within which moments of magic for the little people brought our day some sunlight despite the rain.

Moralzarzal

The town we stayed in with one of Mum's high school friends. Try 26 years later and reuniting in Spain. The photos though. I had the pleasure of accompanying J on his walk of Thar. The mountains in the distance at the base of which we lived for the four days just north of Madrid.

I renamed Thar the protective herd dog below, Thor because of his imposing figure and I couldn't properly pronounce his Spanish name. The man above's name is J (his request, not actual name) is the intriguing husband of my mum's high school friend we were staying with.

How many people do you kno who own a huskey, a goat, a miniature spaniel, a goose and a pig? Then how many people do you know that own all these, are Spanish and who takes them all for walks all on leashes at the same time? Well I met one; Filo. Within two minutes I'd been told through our translater J that she thought I had a nice bum and could take as many pictures as I liked because I was handsome. Well J swiftly pulled me away and we kept on walking. She was a character.

Man and dog. J had Thar trained perfectly. He'd called him back here as there were some other smaller dogs nearby. Despite the allure of some feline friends, Thar obeyed J's call faultlessly.

Barcelonaaa

From my diary:

"So turns out the first time I came to Barca, I didn't really see it. It's beautiful."

Maybe it was the joy of seeing Mum and Hannah for the first time in 11 months, being a part of Hannah's first experience abroad or the inspiring architecture. I'm yet to answer fully and aren't rushing. Still enjoying the pictures.

 

 

Typical Barcelona.

Love these two photos. Barcelona in motion on the left with the sun perfectly placed to shine onto the busy afternoon traffic.


Below, men's business. Cataluyna Sqaure in the middle of Barcelona, two men reading newspapers and a group next to them watching two other older men play chess against each other. The little things about a foreign city that are right under our noses.