\nAfter the game, my son and I drove to the centre of Alicante to have a look. Parking the car was by now out of the question, but one could still get a good sense of the mood from behind the wheel:
\n
![\"6293189\"](\"uploads\/2008\/27.jpg\")
<\/p>\nAlternate 1<\/em> Alternate 2<\/em> Alternate 3<\/em> On Friday, we went to Madrid for a couple of days to show visiting relatives around. The rest of this week’s pictures are from there.<\/p>\n Alternate 4<\/em> Alternate 5<\/em> Alternate 6<\/em> Alternate 7<\/em> Alternate 8<\/em> Alternate 9<\/em> Alternate 10<\/em> Alternate 11<\/em> Alternate 12<\/em> Alternate 13<\/em> Alternate 14<\/em> Alternate 15<\/em> Alternate 16<\/em> Alternate 17<\/em> On 29th June Spain won the European football championship. This is the first time Spain has won a major championship since 1964, so understandably the country celebrated with gusto. Main After the game, my son and I drove to the centre of Alicante to have a look. Parking the car was by now out of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":121,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fotocycle.dk\/paws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/148"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fotocycle.dk\/paws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fotocycle.dk\/paws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fotocycle.dk\/paws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fotocycle.dk\/paws\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=148"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.fotocycle.dk\/paws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/148\/revisions"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fotocycle.dk\/paws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/121"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fotocycle.dk\/paws\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=148"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nThe alternates<\/strong>:<\/p>\n
\nWe did manage to find a place to stop from where we could watch the fireworks at midnight:
\n![\"6293211\"](\"uploads\/2008\/27alt1.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\nIn the middle of the week, I stopped to have a beer at the beach bar I showed last week. Here is the busy barmaid:
\n![\"7023238\"](\"uploads\/2008\/27alt2.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\nAs always, enjoying the sights is a major part of the attraction:
\n![\"7023234\"](\"uploads\/2008\/27alt3.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\nWe started with a visit to the Prado:
\n![\"7043254\"](\"uploads\/2008\/27alt4.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\nThe centre of Madrid is full of street performers and vendors, all hoping to liberate the tourists from their money. Here are a couple of them on the way to work:
\n![\"7043247\"](\"uploads\/2008\/27alt5.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\nAs in other Spanish cities, the street vendors are mainly African immigrants selling counterfeit handbags, sunglasses, copied DVDs and so on. They prefer to avoid contact with the authorities. When a couple of police officers were spotted walking down the street, these guys wrapped up their stuff and disappeared in no time:
\n![\"7053321\"](\"uploads\/2008\/27alt6.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\nHere is a vendor who is having a bit more luck, just outside the Prado:
\n![\"7043258\"](\"uploads\/2008\/27alt7.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\nIn the evening, I had enough of walking around. My wife and the visiting relatives hit the shops (open until 10 p.m., unfortunately) while I was installed in a bar. I could deal with that. Spanish children get an early start at being barflies:
\n![\"7043279\"](\"uploads\/2008\/27alt8.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\nAnother image of the cute little girl:
\n![\"7043273\"](\"uploads\/2008\/27alt9.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\nWhile walking around, I always look for people dressed in eye-catching garments:
\n![\"7043265\"](\"uploads\/2008\/27alt10.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\nWhen I come across a street performance, I often find the spectators more interesting than the performers:
\n![\"7043300\"](\"uploads\/2008\/27alt11.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\nThis couple, or at least the guy, was NOT watching the performance:
\n![\"7043296\"](\"uploads\/2008\/27alt12.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\nAt the end of the evening, time to go back to the hotel. Madrid’s metro is clean, efficient and cheap:
\n![\"7043309\"](\"uploads\/2008\/27alt13.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\nPeople invariably feel lovey after a nice evening out:
\n![\"7043305\"](\"uploads\/2008\/27alt14.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\n![\"7043303\"](\"uploads\/2008\/27alt15.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\n![\"7043314\"](\"uploads\/2008\/27alt16.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\n…or they feel tired
\n![\"7043311\"](\"uploads\/2008\/27alt17.jpg\")
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"