Barcelona - Do not visit in the summer!

Last two days of visit in Spain we spent in Barcelona. When I was there for the first time 4 years ago, I liked the city. I started thinking if I like more Lisaboa or maybe Barcelona? Of course Lisaboa won, but Barcelona was the 2nd. The difference is that last time I was there in March, not August. It was about zillions less people and atmosphere was different. Now I had not a chance to get a good picture of wonderful architectural gems of this city. So I focused on photographing another market (coming soon) and some reportage pictures of the people. I don't want to share publicly people faces, so I'll stay with my other pics of Barcelona. Enjoy first bunch of pictures...

Figueres Adventures

I like Salvador Dali's art. That's why I wanted to take a chance and visit his museum in Figueres near Barcelona. But it was mistake. The only thing I was watching permanently was a plenty, millions, zillions of tourists walking slowly and chaotically around the building. Somehow I figu(eres)red out to take few pictures. This way you don't have to imagine how crowded the building was - you can just count people in the pics. But let me give some recommendations to brave guys who would like to visit this beautiful place in the middle of summer.
First of all you have to get to Figueres. It's not far from Barcelona - about 1 hour of driving over toll road or 2 hours on free road - I'm stingy and wanted to save 20 EUR, so decided to go by free road. After all it's not that stupid to choose free road, because you'll have to pay a lot of money for parking in that small city - near museum it's about 6.3414 eurocents/minute or something like that. I was lucky to find a free street parking just about 1km away. But again it was not so stupid, because if you park away, you have a closer distance to the end of ticket line. You should have at least an hour to stay in the line and buy your tickets - it's about 200-300m of line, so if you parked 1km away, you have only 700m to get to the end of tail.
Then you've to pay again! 10 EUR per person. Finally you get there and have another problem. You MUST leave your backpack in the luggage store. Let's imagine you have 3 expensive lenses and some expensive accessories and expensive body...hmmm - I decided to leave the cheapest lens and empty backpack in the store and take all the other stuff with me. Probably foreigners don't have such mental problems, but polish people are different in this area... But ok. Now you're inside the museum and can delight with the Dali's art! However it's not easy, because you are permanently jogged by other people! If you have at least 3-4 hours you can see very quickly all the stuff in the museum. If you want to meditate on it, you should probably choose different time of year and reserve much more time. It's worth it I believe. But let's stop writing this nonsense, just enjoy the pictures as usual!

Canon 1Dmk3 24-70/2.8L, 1/320, f3.2, ISO400

Canon 1Dmk3 TS-E 24/3.5L II, 1/30, f8, ISO400

Canon 1Dmk3 TS-E 24/3.5L II, 1/40, f5.6, ISO3200

Canon 1Dmk3 TS-E 24/3.5L II, 1/640, f5.6, ISO800

Canon 1Dmk3 TS-E 24/3.5L II, 1/20, f3.5, ISO6400

Canon 1Dmk3 TS-E 24/3.5L II, 1/40, f3.5, ISO2000

Canon 1Dmk3 TS-E 24/3.5L II, 1/20, f3.5, ISO3200

Canon 1Dmk3 TS-E 24/3.5L II, 1/1600, f5.6, ISO800

Canon 1Dmk3 TS-E 24/3.5L II, 1/30, f3.5, ISO3200

Canon 1Dmk3 TS-E 24/3.5L II (no shift used), 1/40, f3.5, ISO1600

Canon 1Dmk3 TS-E 24/3.5L II, 1/400, f4.5, ISO800

Canon 1Dmk3 TS-E 24/3.5L II, 1/400, f4.5, ISO400

All pictures taken handheld, all TS-E taken with manual focus. I decided to put parameters here to show you how dark is in the museum and what are possibilities of taking pictures handheld with my favorite lens and body! I love this configuration!

Museo de las Ciencias Principe Felipe

One of the day in Valencia we dedicated to visit "Museo de las Ciencias Principe Felipe". It's located in the bigger complex looking like space station. We only had time to visit this museum and miss the Oceanarium and IMAX cinema, because of time shortage. Ok, we've also visited temporary dinosaur exhibition, because my kids wanted to see them. Unfortunately it wasn't worth money paid, but otherwise dinosaurs were quite well modeled and even moving and roaring. Next time I'd like to visit the Oceanarium, because what I've seen in leaflets was really tempting. Price is high, but I still believe it is worth to pay it. This nice, modern complex is still expanding and they're building another similar objects in the old Turia riverbed. It's also worth to recommend Holiday Inn hotel next to the complex, because it's quite cheap (50 EUR for a room for 4 persons with breakfast!) and only 20 minutes walk from the attractions. Next time I'd stay in the same hotel. There's a lot more to tell, but I don't like to write (no one will read this boring text) - it's better to get there and see with your own eyes!

Old Market in Valencia

One of the most interesting things in Spain are their traditional markets. Usually located in very old, nice buildings. Such an example we have in Valencia. I visited this place for almost an hour taking better or worse pictures. It's not easy to photograph such places if you're not familiar with this type of photography, but however you can see my poor trials of showing atmosphere of the place...