A Walk to the Nursery

Firstly I would like to correct something which I stated in my last post. I stated that on Sat7th/Sun8th November for the first time ever Spain produced more than 50% of its electricity from renewables for the first time. In fact 53% of it's total energy was produced from wind power alone! Rather impressive I must admit, although one has to also point out that this was in the hours between 12.30am and 5.30 am when there was very low energy demand and it was very windy all over the country (I can vouch for that the boat was fairly banging about!) it was also warm and it was night time so the majority of the country was sleeping. The total wind energy production percentage for a year in Spain is usually between 8-11%. So it is a great milestone to have reached but a very variable one for a country that is entirely covered in turbines. Also I have learned not to quote out of magazines without doing a little research first!

Enough of the boring stuff! Yesterday Ali and I decided to walk to Alisha and Kaylee's nursery to pick them up instead of taking the underground. Here are some pictures of what we saw in and around the nursery.


Firstly a picture of the girls on the way to nursery in the morning all wrapped up because it a bit nippy at 8am!


Here is a picture of the Forum Building it is in Parc Del Forum which we have to cross to get anywhere.



This is Ali standing at the start of the Avenuida Diagonal which starts at the Forum Parc and goes diagonally the whole way across the city away from the sea (the clue is in the name!) We walked up here to Poblenou which is where the nursery is and only really a 15 - twenty minute walk but we take the underground with the girls as we have already walked for about 15 mins to get through the Forum Parc.



The first interesting thing we came across was the Parc del Poblenou which is actually four parks which have the inconvenience of being cut open by roads but it is the city so I suppose you cant argue when getting space to do something that isn't thirty stories high! The park is a 'homage to the shade' It has many weird and wonderful features like the cactus holders above! But is also full of willow tress and archways covered with vines as below. In the summer when they are in full growth they must certainly be a welcome respite form the hot Spanish sun.

This is one of the gates - no plain iron railings around here!

And these are the park 'benches' they even swivel so you can look which ever way you want!


This is the Skytower just a block or so up the Avenue from the park there is a restaurant at the top. I never understand how these buildings with the overhangs stand up but Ali assures me that it is perfectly safe....


At the half way point of the Avenuida Diagonal (as far as we went for today) there is this building the Agbar Tower. It is inspired by the eruption of a geyser and is far more colorful than my photo suggests as it was taken into the sun because we had to head back towards the nursery.

We discovered the Glories shopping centre here which has a big Carrefour Supermarket and is just next to the tram line so we decided to take the lasses to the park after nursery then get tea and the tram home to the marina.



On our way to the nursery we saw a few more interesting sites too. The one above Ali took the photo I had told him to get a snap of the graffiti on the wall but being himself Ali included the building site too!



This is a university Campus which is built around an old factory chimney. Poblenou is the old industrial heart of Barcelona and they have preserved quite a few of the original chimneys if not the factories too.


We have noticed since we have been in Spain/Barcelona that all modern buildings absolutely must incorporate a 'twist' in the architecture whether it be just colour or gravity defying overhangs or the usual squintness of everything. Here is another example, this building looks like it has a giant yellow net draped over it why I do not know but it does stand out which I presume is what they were looking for!


Alistair thought these bins were very good and maybe the answer to Lerwick's wheelie bin dispute, every street nearly has recycling bins at the end and they are emptied every night.
They are very heavy and would presumably be less of a hazard during a winter's gale.


This is one of the many small pieces of art that are on the Rambla de Poblenou (a rambla is a street with a central paved walkway, usually with benches and trees.) The rambla is the main focal point of the area with lots of benches up and down the old people always talk to the girls and it seems like a really nice place - until you notice all the crazies lurking amongst them, there is an old alky who is very often to be heard roaring at people up and down the rambla clutching his bottle of meths like beverage, but he seems harmless enough. He is one of a few I have noticed when hanging around waiting for the girls to be finished.

This is the nursery all the mums and dads wait out in the street to pick up the kids each day.


Back at the Parc Del Poblenou

An old factory chimney in the Parc

Peerie bairns and big bairns


More lovely autumn colours


Then we went up to the supermarket deftly keeping the girls out of sight of the nearby Disney store (we had looked in earlier and Ali nearly had a heart attack at the frivolity and prices!)


The girls loved this huge sausage but didn't love the whole newborn piglets vacuum packed in the fridges behind the sausage, that was a new one on us too - eek! they looked so peerie and cute but so dead and lifeless.

We got the tram home and found out it actually comes a lot closer than the tube which is good when you have tired girls!