On our last evening in Ponferrada we were treated to a glorious sunset while dining at the Templar Castle:
The next day we took the train back to Madrid. Although we spent a couple of days there before coming back home, I did those without carrying my camera with me – so this is the end of our tour!
While walking around Ponferrada we saw this sign:
When looking where the arrow pointed, we saw this alley:
We decided to eat elsewhere.
In Ponferrada there is a Templar Castle. It was great fun to walk around a castle like it was the most normal thing to have in the middle of the city. One of the events we attended was in the castle itself, so I got to take some pictures on the internal grounds too.
In Ponferrada, like all the other places we visited in Spain, there are lovely details at the center of roundabouts. The ever-present fountain, of course:
But there was this incredibly cool sculpture near our hotel:
The “film” is metal and the scenes are made by metal strips being bent to make the appropriate shadows. It’s so impressive – and each is a work of art in its own right.
We arrived in Ponferrada early in the morning and sat tiredly in the hotel lobby until our room was ready. (The staff were amazing – brought us wonderful coffee and fruits and kept apologizing that the room wasn’t ready despite us arriving before most people would even be up!)
When we finally moved out to walk around, we found out there was a festival happening – what timing to catch the final day when we weren’t even aware it existed! It looked like a Renaissance Fair. There was a display of birds including these two rather sarcastic looking owls:
There were also a ton of food vendors. We stopped at this one because it smelled amazing.
This is where we got the delicious festival food I posted earlier (a looong time ago, actually) – and I still have yet to grill jalapenos!
After Barcelona we were on our way to Ponferrada. We took an overnight train to get there, so this was our hotel room for that night. I had the top bunk! (and yes, I had whiskey with me).
One of the “must do” items in Barcelona, apparently, is to go to La Rambla. So we did.
My favorite thing we saw was this Chinese dragon.
Soooooo. Yes, it’s been quite a while since I posted a Spain entry and I have a good reason for it. I was stumped. My next chronological step would be to post my photos for Sagrada Família in Barcelona… and honestly it’s overwhelming. So so get over this hurdle I’ve decided I’ll just pick a few and post them and move on. It’s an incredibly complex building that is still under construction and I can’t imagine how long it would take to actually see it all. Many of these were taken “blind” – I was using my husband to steady my camera with my longer lens on it, aiming, and hoping. Turned out a significant number of them were decent shots.
By the way, it turns out pigeons have little respect for architecture…
On the one day it rained we ducked into a little place to get some shelter and have a drink. They had the most beautiful food on display, but we weren’t hungry so I just admired it. And took pictures.
Another bit of randomness from a walk in Barcelona – I saw on the stones that made up the path this bit that looked like bacon. It amused me. And the people around me very likely wondered why the heck I was taking a picture of the sidewalk…
@KellyOSullivan 
