Madrid, Spain
Tags: police Madrid Spain street scene urban street scene urban motor bikes motor scooters Hostal Cantabrico Hotel Quo Puerta Del Sol
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Madrid, Spain. This is the first living statue I remember ever seeing. She was standing on the grounds outside the Prado Museum among many white marble statues so, I didn't even notice her at first. I don't know how these folks hold so still for so long. They generally move when you put money in their cups. Seems like a tough way to make a living, but I found it fascinating.
Tags: Madrid Spain Madrid Spain Prado Prado Museum living statue
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Toledo, Spain. From Wikipedia:
"Damascening is the art of inlaying different metals into one another—typically, gold or silver into a darkly oxidized steel background—to produce intricate patterns similar to niello.
Damascene arrived to Toledo from Damascus. Nevertheless, the art has long been practised in Persia, Japan and even China.
Damascene ware - damasquinado or damasquino, in Spanish - is the art of decorating steel with threads of gold and silver. Toledo has developed a very important industry around this craft, also known as Toledo Gold. The art of damascene has passed from generation to generation within the same family for centuries, and has become a hallmark of this beautiful city. Toledo supplies to many shops in Spain where the damascene pieces are sold as a souvenir.
During the last decades the production of damascene has grown from mainly artisanal to industrialize, given the level of production made and traded. However, many shops still offer handcrafted jewels elaborated following the tradition of ancient times. It is good to know that the quality of the handmade work is far superior to that developed industrially, given that this the latter process is similar to print a drawing on steel, while the manual handicraft work is performed by embedding the precious materials in a base of iron or steel by hammering, following the sketch previously drawn in the piece.
Damascene work has conserved the traditional designs without many changes over the years, but there are a few handicraft workers who design innovative pieces of jewelry, which later are sold in some of the shops of the city (not in all). Nowadays you can find also craftmen who perform high quality pieces, commissioned by private customers or collectors.
For many years the damascene jewelry has been quite unknown even to the citizens of Toledo, because the craft shops are located in the historic center of the city, in turistic and remote areas far from the daily life of the residents of the city."
Tags: Damascened-inlay jewelry jeweler craftsman artist Toledo Spain
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Madrid, Spain. It was fun to see two such different engines right next to each other. Two the right of them was the high speed bullet train of the next generation.
Tags: AVE Renfe Alta Velocidad Española high speed train bullet train Madrid Cordoba Spain All types of transport
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Madrid, Spain. Alta Velocidad Española (AVE) is a service of high-speed rail in Spain operated by RENFE, the Spanish national railway company, at speeds of up to 310 km/h (193 mph). As of December 2011, the Spanish AVE system is the longest HSR network in Europe with 2,665 km (1,656 mi) and the second in the world, after China. On the line from Madrid to Seville, the service guarantees arrival within five minutes of the advertised time, and offers a full refund if the train is delayed further, although only 0.16% of trains have been so. (From Wikipedia).
We took the train from Madrid to Cordoba. It was amazingly comfortable, clean, smooth, very fast and as punctual as advertised. What a great experience! If we had trains like these in the US, I'd never take another plane. We may be advanced in many ways, but we are way behind much of the world when it comes to public transportation.
Tags: AVE Renfe Alta Velocidad Española high speed train bullet train Madrid Cordoba Spain All types of transport
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