Digs

A day out in Spain today. We headed to Figueres where, of course, I spent the first hour of the day out driving around and around the town, down increasingly narrow streets, looking for a parking space. I eventually found one so far away that we were actually outside the signs that mark the edge of the town. No matter, it's all extra exercise.

The need for a loo drove us into the Dali Museum, where the kids marvelled at the wide definition of what counts as art. Conor was bored by anything not 3D or animated, but Katherine had fun soaking up the paintings too "oh I see, so it's things that are not really real, but not really made up".

Then on up the hill to the Castell Sant Ferran - the biggest castle in Europe. It really quite some site and we had the pleasure of being the only visitors today. It is quite a modern castle - built to defend the new border when the Spanish/French border was redrawn at the Pyrenees in 1659. The blip is from one of the dormitories for soldiers and I've only posted this because I'm pleased with how it came out. The room was very dark - with just the bright window providing light. Some exposure merging gave me this - which is just how it looked to my eye. The horses quarters were actually more magnificent.

On the way back from the Castle I knew I was going to have some trouble finding the car - seeing how it was practically in another county. I had sensibly taken photos looking back along the route we took from the car park into town, but had obviously missed a couple of key corners. Happily, Conor found the way. I always think he just wanders around in a daze, paying no heed to our surroundings. But it turns out, that's me and Katherine - he is fully switched on and can always find his way back to the cave car.

The first Blonde moment of the day was earlier. When I stopped the car for a brief bit of shopping just over the Spanish border in the morning, I couldn't get the doors to lock. I kept pressing the little button, but nothing was happening. I was just on the verge of calling Mr B, embarrassed, for advice when a (rather tall dark young and handsome) man got out of an adjacent car and said "No lock?" He came around and I showed him how it just wouldn't work and how I'd tried all the buttons. "Use key" he said. And sure enough, turning the key in the keyhole did the trick.

Duh. I hang my head in shame at my incompetence. No daughter of mine will need a man's help to lock a car.