April 22nd: Out and About

Every occupied house in the countryside has a yard full of dogs. Whereas in the UK you might see one or two dogs in a premises, here there can be half a dozen or more, all different shapes and sizes, and all barking at the same time as you walk past. These are not savage dogs and are often not fenced in but warily come en masse to check you out. The photo shows a particularly cute puppy from one of these packs.

Anything unusual in the scene below? Yes, it’s been photo enhanced by the computer, to bring out the blue spectrum, but that’s not what I’m looking at. It’s the shape on the left, half way up: a submarine. The Spanish Mediterranean fleet is based in Cartagena 15 miles away, so it’s not come far. Shortly afterwards the sub dived, then resurfaced, turned and headed back to Cartagena just in time for lunch. Spain is clearly banking on fighting only gentlemanly wars with civilised rules and proper meal breaks.

This is a pretty view from one of our walks. However, the point of interest is the white stone pillar on the left, mid-photo. These pillars are to be found around the whole coast of Spain and mark the shore limits, inside which building is not allowed. Locally there are a few places where structures have been erected within the shore limits and these may well have had local permission of sorts, but now a hard line is being taken with the object of demolition.