Tag: Sketch/Vignette

Alhambra Between the “new” Pantheon-like palace and the old deteriorated citadel, there is a sandy plaza where you can buy popsicles and beers and look out over Granada. People sit in twos and threes along the low stone wall, savoring their refreshments and resting their feet — for the Alhambra is a vast beauty, and…

A sunny day stroll through Plaça de Catalunya. The square anchors one end of Las Ramblas, so it flows with citizens and tourists, to-ing and fro-ing, talking and shopping. Beneath a ponderous blocky sculpture, pigeons ring around a pond. As I stoop down to snap a photo from a different angle, a large seagull swoops…

July 2005 Step off the Metro. Blast of heat, humidity, traffic, voices. Far off, maybe the drone of surf. In, out, in, out. Slurping at shore. Cross the busy street. Flip flops slap against pavement. Thunk against sand. Pass through the skateboarding exhibition. Giant half-pipe with speakers mounted up top. Neck craned to watch leaps,…

Blue seats. Blue sky. A few blue jerseys, but mostly the crowd is here for the home team. Royal Madrid. We file in, climb up, take our seats. Around us, a few people dig into bags of sunflower seeds or peanuts. Light up their cigarettes. Smoke drifts up in tiny clouds, like swarms of gnats…