Casas Colgadas

One of the attractions of Cuenca are the "Casas Colgadas" (Hanging Houses). A type of building that was once common (during the 15th century). You can see everyone around taking pictures of them, myself included. That night I had dinner in one of them. An excellent dinner in very good company :). That's when I finally got why some very rich and powerful people, centuries ago, would consider this as one of their residences: it's the view and feel outside and inside. It's one of those things you have to be there to figure it out.

Old times

The year is 2009; the place is Porto; the motive is Red Bull Racing. During breaks they had this airplane (and others) doing low-flying passes. But what caught my attention, in this particular case, was imagining how it should have looked like a few decades ago.

Mountain 'flowers' hotel

Trying to imagine this hotel without the flowers... now add lots of snow... Would you stop the car just to take the photo? Probably, no. That's why the flowers make all the difference. It's the red of the flowers, the green of the trees, the mountain background, the walls and sometimes a bit of snow. Also the location in the middle of a Pyrenees valley (in Andorra). Added with good memories. It's those thinks what makes a place worth stopping by and take a photo.

Karneval

Some years ago, for the first time, I had to work during the Carnival. I was in the north of Germany and it was cold! But, we were determined to make the best of the non working hours we had. So we asked around and we were told that there was some interesting Carnival on an nearby city, Köln. The experience began on the highway where we could see entire families properly masquerade for the occasion inside the cars (very hard to miss :)). When we arrive we were amazed with all the special customs and the joy on the air. We watched closely the parade. I was amazed that even with a small compact camera people would stop and pose for me! Suddenly everything ended too soon, due to the cold (the highest of the day was -2 celsius). One should never stop being amazed with new things :)

'Sun work'

Every single day on the beach I watched this man working. He basically rents you a 'shadow' on the hot sand during the summer. The rent starts as soon as the sun rises and ends just before sunset. During this time he doesn't rest. He controls who is using the rented space and material without paying and makes new clients. His skin tone shows the dedication to his job. And, as any other business, he has 'regular' clients that know his story. Here he is packing everything to unpack again early in the morning of the next day. For some, Summer means beach, sea, sun, relaxation,... For him it means necessary money.