Barcelona 2009 (Travel Flashback)

Another picture from the terrace at La Pedrera in Barcelona.

Like everything else on this terrace, the broken bottles seem like an anachronism, something somebody might have added after seeing the 7Up bottles in the Watts Towers or a Julian Schnabel crockery painting from the 80's. But I think they're part of the original design.

Abstract

A red tile roof in Copenhagen, close up. You knew that -- it's obvious what it is. But the longer you look at it the more it seems like a meaningless pattern.

Because how can a roof be that perfect and pristine? Well, it's Copenhagen. They are big on pristine there. I'm guessing that spring cleaning includes climbing out on the roof with a bucket of soapy water and a scrub brush.

Compare it to a roof in Windsor, below:

Talking is cheap, people follow like sheep (Travel Flashback)

A flock of sheep in Segesta, Sicily, last November. I always liked this picture and don't remember why it never got posted at the time.

Welcome to the working week

A guard at the Parliament in Athens.

Guards like this don't have easy jobs. You generally have to wear a uniform that was designed several centuries ago, you have obnoxious tourists constantly taking pictures of you, and you actually have to remain alert in case there is some threat.

When we were in looking at the various royal residences in Copenhagen, our guide kept repeating, "Shots have been fired here." As though otherwise we'd assume the guards were merely ornamental.

But on a strictly ornamental basis, you can't beat the Greeks. That skirt and those stockings are completely impractical for the climate, and I don't know how you're supposed to chase anyone with those pompoms on your shoes.

Saturday in the park with Jayne

Here's a photo from Central Park last weekend, before the heat exhaustion drama, but after I uttered the fateful words, "Hey Jayne, it's about a hundred and fifty degrees and I'm too stubborn to buy a bottle of water so let's go into the Ramble and try to take pictures of birds!"

Obviously I didn't really say that. But I might as well have.

Welcome to the working week

The camel wranglers at Giza.

After 100+ temperatures much of last week, another Egypt picture seems appropriate, especially after the heat exhaustion caught up with me Saturday in an Upper West Side Indian restaurant. Egypt, I had no problems. Central Park, not so much.

Meanwhile, back in real life...

New York, that is, in blistering hot and humid July. This is a building facade on 42nd Street; I'm assuming there is some landmark-related reason that part of the building is gone but the facade remains. It looks like something Magritte might have painted, the clouds behind the empty windows.

Welcome to the working week

Boys herding goats down a street in Cairo.

For some reason, short weeks after a three-day weekend always feel much longer than they ought to. Here's hoping that this one is an exception!

Copenhagen reflections, redux

I had meant to put this picture up as well, but never got around to it - the reflections in a second window at Nyhavn.