La Noche es Joven

The night is young.

Even at night, the city seems to be full of energy. Even more as compared to during the day. So much more people thronged the Puerta de Sol, the one with the Madrid bear. I got intimidated to even walk through them to get to the other side.

Somehow this photo gave a menacing and unwelcoming feeling, might be the white light, instead of the normal yellowish warm light. Might also be the perspective of this photo.

The winged goddess Victoria on the Metropolis building looked much different during the night.


After taking our dinner around 8pm, we started our 5-hour-long journey back to Oviedo. We were tired from the walking, but satisfied and hoped for another trip, hopefully during spring or summer.

Royal Palace, Madrid

The Royal Palace seemed very familiar when we first arrived here. Only after some goggling, that I found out that it was loosely based on the famous Palace of Versailles in France. One word, "HUGE"! I did not change my lenses and so was not able to get a full view of the palace. Anyway with the 18-55mm I will still not be able to shoot the whole building in one frame.

The Plaza of the East in front of the palace boasts of many statues of the kings who once resided in the Palace. Currently the palace is used for official functions and not for residing anymore.


The palace was fully built with limestone and granite, to make it fireproof. This came after the fire which burnt down the Royal Fortress which used to stand at the same site. Talk about once burnt twice shy.

The equestrian statue of King Phillip IV in the Plaza of the east. At the background is only a small part of the palace building.

Hope to have another chance to visit the interior of the palace. I heard that it is really something worth waiting up for. However for this trip, we ran short of time and do not have the luxury for it.

Plaza Mayor, Madrid

Plaza Mayor is a popular must-visit place for tourists. Its a square where you can enjoy a drink with tapas (bite size snacks served with your drinks, some tapas are free at this place). It is surrounded by symmetrical buildings around the square plaza.

At the center of the square is a bronze statue of King Philips III on horseback.

A marketplace was set up in the middle of the square, selling lots of carnival items. Might be for Christmas when everyone can enjoy themselves. It added lots of colour to the plaza, with wigs of different vibrant colours...

And various masks as well.

We then took a walk around after a short while in the energetic and vibrant Plaza. Took a photo of this person, don't know who he is, trying to take a closer look at the lion statue.

"This is MY ball, you punny human.. Roarrrrr.." "Nice kitty, nice kitty..."

Now this shifted my paradigm with "street painters". He literally painted on the streets. I wonder what happens after he finishes it. I had seen such photos on forwarded mails, not in real life and on the street, literally.

Numerous souvenir shops can be seen around this area. This one is one that I like a lot, however, it was too expensive and heavy to be brought back.

Busy Busy Madrid

Driving to Madrid took us nearly 4hours and a half. We left early in the morning while the day was still dark. There's nights are longer during winter. The first two hours of drive were along the mountain passes, which were quite interesting to drive on. Then the next two hours are along featureless plain land. We saw some solar farms as well as wind turbines on the hill on the way to Madrid.

Madrid is really a very crowded city. After finally getting our way to the parking, we started walking around as suggested by David, who's from Madrid. To my surprise, there were many, many Chinese in Madrid. To have it in perspective, I got directions from a Chinese lady while in Madrid.

I wonder whether is it the festive season that brings all these crowds to Madrid, or it is always like this here.

The weather was not the most ideal for walking around the town, however, the temperature was only around 3 to 10 degC. It was drizzling as well, not very friendly to pedestrians, i.e us from Oviedo.

The buildings reminded me of Oviedo, as they share a lot in common. It might just be my untrained and ignorant eyes ;)

Frozen Movements, Madrid

"El Oso y El Maldoño" The bear and the Maldoño tree. This is a widely used symbol of Madrid. So popular that Madrid would immediately come to mind when one sees the image of a bear trying to eat the Maldoño fruits. This is situated in the middle of busy Madrid, on Plaza Puerta de Sol.

Another emblematic symbol representing Madrid is the fountain and statue of Cibeles, in the Plaza de Cibeles. She is the Goddess of Fertility, shown riding a chariot pulled by two lions. This plaza is situated in the middle of a big round-about with very heavy traffic all year round.

Like many European cities, Madrid is populated with numerous statues, on top of the roof overlooking the city, in the middle of the Plazas, On the walls of buildings, by the walkway. There are so many of them and each looked special in its own ways.

This was taken from the top of a building overlooking the Plaza de Cibeles, wouldn't be able to take it if not for the 200mm lens. However, the shortest focal length is 55mm which sometimes makes it difficult to show overall sceneries without going through the trouble of changing lenses.

Plaza de España is one famous sight in Madrid, with the monument of Cervantes, writer of the story of Don Quixote de la Mancha and Sancho Panza. However due to the market set up in the plaza, I was not able to take a decent shot of the monument. On the other side of the Plaza is this fountain with two ladies taking a bath.

This is really nice winged goddess, with the Black and Gold contrasting each other. This was taken while walking down the Grand Via, an area which used to be the center of Madrid, full of shopping areas. While walking down this street, one has to always remind himself to look up at the buildings, else he will miss out on the lavishly decorated buildings.

Metropolis building is filled with statues like the one shown here, on its wall, accompanying the angel at the top of the dome.

Also on the same building wall. This I would presume to be the Sacred Family, however I am not sure at all.

Finally a closer shot of the winged goddess Victoria, taken as we walked nearer the building.

Madrid, Spain

Link to YouTube Video used. Use arrow keys for volume control.

Went to Madrid on the 22nd December with Dalbir. Finally I have some photos with me in the frame, rather than framing the photos in all the previous ones.

Madrid's famous "The Bear and the Maldoño Tree". You can see this bear in many emblems in Madrid and the Bank of Madrid as well uses it as its logo.

The Plaza de Cibeles, with the Communications Palace at the background. This cathedral like building is a famous landmark in Madrid and was first built as a post office.

Heading towards the Royal Palace of Madrid, hoping for a visit in the palace... Crossing my fingers...

The fountain with King Phillip IV in the Plaza of the Orient, in front of the Royal Palace.

This shot is taken from the Garden of Sabatini, the garden next to the Royal Palace. We can only see one wing of the palace from the garden. It is really huge and amazing, however, the queue was too long for us. So we decided to save it for the next visit to Madrid.

One must visit the National Museum of Prado, with its permanent exhibitions of Spanish paintings and sculptures. It is easily one of the world's finest art museum. Proud to say that I'd visited the Prado, however shame that I could not identify any piece of art in it. However, the exhibits are really nice. No photography allowed, and if it was, it will not justify the grandeur and fine artistry of the display. I'd tried surfing online for a image of the painting that I liked, however, no images on the web does it justice. Really have to be there to look at it in its purest form. Read from some site saying that the Prado’s permanent collection is one of the largest in the world. It consists of about 9,000 paintings, 5,000 drawings, 2,000 prints, 1,000 coins and medals, and approximately 2,000 decorative objects. Because the collection is so extensive, only about one-seventh of the museum’s entire permanent holdings are displayed at a single time.


Now for some photo taking sessions... snap snap snap...

Belén (Bethlehem)

Nativity scenery called Belén (which also means Bethlehem) which is a Catholic tradition in Spanish speaking countries. These displays were situated in front of the famous Cathedral of San Salvador of Oviedo.

Let me make a guess and for those who knows, please point out if I am wrong. This scene shows the Angel of the Lord appearing in front of some shepherds with their sheep. The Angel told them about the birth of baby Jesus and after that they went searching for Him.

The three Wise Men, Caspar, Melchior and Balthasar came on their camels after seeing the special bright star in the night, symbolizing the birth of Jesus.

Virgin Mary with baby Jesus, the liveliness of the display is really something worth complimenting. Unlike the other displays shown previously, this one is made in life size. The other figures were around the size of an adult palm.

More Magical Ocean, Singapore

This is a wishing "lamp" where you write your wishes on the petal of the lotus and then light the candle. Then you release it into the river of the lake and hope that the wishes come true.

There were many in the lake that night in Chinese garden, with different colours, contrasting nicely with the inky dark water.

Alright, no prize for those who can guess who this statue is representing. For those who don't, he's Guan Yu, seen as the epitome for righteousness and loyalty in the Chinese culture, a real life figure who was a general to LiuBei during the founding of the Kingdom of Shu.

If you missed out on the lanterns, you can still make a wish by throwing these red ribbons with the golden "tong qian" to the wishing tree.

Carps are known to bring fortune to their owners and these carps (also known as "koi") need lots of care to grow to such sizes.

I find this lotus very nice, with its symmetrical reflection. Lotus is an important part of Buddhist culture. Its a symbol of purity, as you often find white, pleasant lotus growing in muddy waters.

Magical Ocean, Singapore

Every year during the month of the Chinese Lantern Festival, there would be a show of various kind of lanterns made around a certain theme. This year, it was held in Chinese and Japanese Garden with the theme, 'Magical Ocean'.

This was my first time in such events and it really redefines what lanterns means to me. When one would mention the word 'lantern' I would think of red round ones, or the smaller lanterns which can be folded flat.

Behold, the 'lanterns' of dolphins that greeted the visitors at the main entrance to the Magical Ocean.

The Eight Immortals' Crossing.

A close up view of the only goddess of the eight. You can see the meticulous details being taken into account in making this display item.

Here, they showed some which were more traditional, all hung in a line under the roof.

A polar bear cub in a very playful position. There's the whole family of polar bears as well, but not all photos that I took came out nice.

This is one of my favourite, the mermaid, look at the facial features, they are made in such meticulous details that you really have to give it to those who made it.