Birds on the beach

At the beach in Brazil one expects to find crows and seagulls. But look what comes along when people have a feeding place for birds. The food consisted of fruit: Mamão (Papaya), banana, orange, limão (lemon). The feeding table was under some trees, the weather was mostly overcast and I had to take the pictures through a window. Outside I couldn't get near without disturbing them. So the pictures are in no way perfect, but it gives an impression of the birds that were there. I had never seen any of the colorful ones on my earlier visits. After some study on the Internet I found that a lot of these birds are tanagers. 

Male Brazilian Tanager

Red necked tanager

Green headed Tanager 

Blue dacnis

I have no idea about these birds. Also a tanager?? or maybe a kind of finch??

Outside the light is so much better! These beautiful lapwings were all over the beach. 

Southern Lapwing

I love these small birds. One of the tyrant family. Masked water tyrant

This bright yellow tyrant was sitting near us in a beach hut. Probably waiting for something tasty. 

Great Kiskadee  (large tyrant flycatcher)

 There were seagulls, although not many.

Finally the scavengers... Here they call them crows, but they are  Black vultures .

This bag with garbage is waiting for the garbage truck that is arriving. The vultures are there first!! Impressive birds. This one is standing in one of the small rivers that run down form the mountains.

The end of a busy day?? Or just drying its feathers before the next job?

A jungle in a station.

Did you ever expect a (small) jungle in a station? This is the Atocha station in Madrid. On the outside it looks like a quite normal station. Well it is enormous.

The building feels "warm" because of the red colors of the wood, the metal and the stones. During it's lifetime it adapted to the local movement of the earth. 

On the inside it gets even more interesting.... 

An amazing space opens up. Around the corner there is a large jungle like space.

Palms and other exotic plants.

Here you can sit and pretend to be in a forest. Waiting for your train to leave or just to take a rest from the busy city (when it is raining).

Buy something to eat or read in one of the kiosks.

It is obvious that, especially when you travel with children, it is a must to visit the turtles floating on their overcrowded artificial islands.

An official stands here all day looking at the timetables....

Yes it is time to go to the platform!

The train will and leave this small jungle behind. 

Have a good trip!!

Atocha station

Chickens on the table....

I wanted to swim. Nowhere a swimming pool in sight. But then one day someone told us, there is one just across that busy road in your town. It belongs to a kind of club. So after forgetting about it for a long time, one day I just passed the place. The gate was open. Inside the grass was growing and growing....
It seemed abandoned, not cared for. Now this is a mistake people like me are likely to make in Brazil. Something doesn't look as clean cut as we are used to in Europe and you start thinking there must be something wrong. Although.... there were chickens sitting on the table...


The place in fact looked beautiful. Just the place to take some pictures. Before anyone tries to clean it up again.

Large lush trees provide shade. So good when temperatures are around 30 C all day. Here are not many houses with balconies (either too wet or too hot) in the neighborhood, so a fine place to read or just sit and rest.

The cock tries to order something from the bar. There is a large churrasqueira so maybe he is asking for a frango assado (fried chicken from the BBQ).

A place for the band. 

Space enough for children to run around.

All nice and airy, but extremely empty. There must be lots of people who want to have a party here.

 This looks like a fantastic meeting place for pensioners... Not bad to sit here for some hours discussing the major problems in life.

 

For the active persons there is a swimming pool, large enough to have competitions. And a separate pool for children.

 I would sure like to reserve this private place for the early evening....

Just waiting for someone to cut the grass.

Glass panels, bold structures and shiny surfaces....

The Museum Reina Sofia (contemporary art) in Madrid not only houses a great collection. One of the top pieces is the Guernica of Picasso (no photo's there....).... But it also is a fantastic building. The heart of the museum is an old hospital building by the Italian architect Sabatini (last quarter of the 18th century). In 2005 the building was enlarged.

The museum is located on a square. The first thing you notice are two huge glass elevator towers with each three glass elevators (yes... this is only one).

It is fun to be in one of the towers and take pictures of the other.

Or of the square down below.

Later, having lunch on the other side of the square I was watching the elevators. They were behaving like a giant fruit machine.... Sometimes three in a row.

Bingo......

The most fantastic part was the roof pavilion.  Glass panels, bold structures and shiny surfaces. 

Fantastic reflections!

Connecting the old and the new.

Bold structures and bold lettering.

A good place to rest the feet for some time before going back inside to see even more great paintings.

A flying cape of bronze

As Spain has a history of many kings, it is obvious that there are still many equestrian statues of these kings. 

On the Plaza de Oriente, on the (east) side of the Royal Palace in Madrid, you find  one of the finest: The statue of  king Philip IV of Spain (1605 - 1665). 

He had many children but his son Charles II would be the last in line of the Spanish Habsburg dynasty (from Charles V to Carlos II).

The statue was made by the Italian sculptor Pietro Tacca based on drawings by Velasquez, who painted many portraits of Philip. Pietro Tacca made the king look rather handsome (compare some portraits by Velasquez).

More important is the way this Pietro Tacca handled the bronze. He makes one think it is easy and gives it a lightness like a piece of soft cloth flying in the wind.

Because the horse is lifting it's front legs very high it is told that the statue has to be balanced by putting more weight on the "bottom parts". Also for these kind of statues the tail is conveniently "touching" the ground. When you look at more equestrian statues, they mostly have 3 legs on the ground. Other options are people that hold the reigns or some (fantasy) construction in the middle.  

 Over his harness Philip IV wears a cape that flies behind him suggesting movement as if it is made from a very light material. This is a masterpiece. The lace seams are looking delicate.

The horse is looking extremely alert: Ready for Battle!

It's manes are long and finely worked.

There is a lot to read about Philip IV of Spain . And off course this is just a small part of the very interesting history of Spain in general.