Stockholm - Monday 25th February 2019

Well, hello, and thanks for tuning in to the first edition of An English Fool Abroad With His Sketchbook of 2019, Stockholm Edition.

I’ve wanted to visit Stockholm for a long time – believe it or not ever since I saw the huge photograph of Gamla Stan ( the island which has the old town on it)which they used to have in the restaurant in IKEA in Cardiff. Sad. It’s one of quite a few cities which calls itself the Venice of the North, and not without good reason. Still, we’ll come to that all in the fullness.

A 7:25 flight this morning from Bristol necessitated a very early start, but even so I still only arrived about 20 minutes before the plane started boarding. For once I have nothing unusual, funny or annoying to report about the flight. We boarded on time, and we left, well if not quite on time to the dot, at least not more than a few minutes late. Something for a first for EasyJet, I fancy.

Arlanda airport is about 20 minutes away from the centre of Stockholm using the Arlanda Express. Now, I think that I was in a bit of a funny mood when I got off the plane, because for some reason discovering that the Swedish word for lift is Hiss set me off on a fit of giggles which lasted halfway into the centre of the city. When I arrived at the Central Station my first priority was to get a 72 hour travel card. This necessitated – gulp – talking to people. And it was when I was buying my card from the tourist desk in Central Station that I first encountered the Swedish Hej. Hej- pronounced hey – is a pretty ubiquitous greeting in these parts. Which is fine, except it sounds like an accusation the first time you hear it. It sounds like it ought to be followed by – what the hell do you think you’re doing? – You do get used to it pretty quickly, though.

There was no necessity to go to the hotel right away, especially since the central station is rather obviously, right in the centre of Sweden, and therefore very handy for lots of interesting things to see and sketch. I made the 4 sketches you should be able to see with this post. Coming back to the point about Stockholm being nicknamed The Venice of the North, there’s a good reason, being that the city stretches across no fewer than 14 islands. I crossed to Gamla Stan, which literally means the old town. It’s an attractive place, no doubt about that. Going across to Gamla Stan also meant that I got to fulfil one of the required elements for any visit to a capital city, namely a ride on the metro. Stockholm’s is the T (for tunnel) Bana (for Bana). I only went the one stop back to the Central Station, and was about to go and find where the splendidly named Pendletags (commuter trains) departed from, when I saw a word which will always gladden my heart. Trams, and a helpful arrow. That’s how I ended up with a sketch of the tram, and yes, of course I went for a tram ride.

So, back to Central Station for the third time, this time I really did take the Pendeltag to Alvsjo, and was delighted to find that you can actually see the hotel from the station. So far so good. Inside the hotel the reception is up several flights of stairs. When I found it, I announced to the chap behind the desk that I would like my room please, he looked at my piece of paper with the booking reference, then looked at my passport, then looked at both again, and said,
“You are not Yennifer.” No flies on this guy, I thought to myself, but decided that sarcasm was probably not the best idea at this time. I explained that Yennifer, sorry, Jenniffer, is my daughter who made the booking. In her name.
“She is not coming?”
- Yes, me old china, she’s in me rucksack here – I made a point of not saying, and explained that Jenn had made the booking, and that’s why it is in her name. He wasn’t that happy, but got a lot happier when I offered to pay the full amount up front in cash.

After unloading the bag, and removing a couple of layers of clothing – look, I know that the forecast said that it is going to be unseasonably mild in Stockholm this week, but I wasn’t taking any chances – I took the pendletag (love that word) back into the centre. My planwas to take a walk to the National Museum and have a look and thus cross off one of the items from my to do list. Good idea. Or at least it would have been if it had not been stangd pa mandag. Yes, if you haven’t worked it out that means closed on Mondays.

By the time I’d walked back to the Central Station – again – the sun was sinking low, and a bit of a bitter wind had started to blow. Also, the 4am start this morning was beginning to take its toll. So I headed back to the hotel to conclude day one.

August 21st - Elche

The last episode of An English Fool Abroad With his Sketchbook, Summer 2018. Thus ends the expedition, not exactly with a bang, but then not a whimper either.

We left for the hospital relatively early today, and were there before 10 am. We were quite hopeful that John would be allowed home today. He’d not been put on the nebuliser last night at all, which we took to be a good sign. So we took the big car, put the wheelchair in the back, and generally acted as we would if he was definitely coming home.

So we went up to John’s room, and we waited. And about 12:15 the Doctor put in an appearance. He told John that he could come home, and we gave a little cheer. However, we couldn’t go until they’d given us some forms and some medicine. Fine. So we waited again. It was between 90 minutes and two hours, but finally we were good to go.

By way of celebration we parked up by the nearest restaurant we could find, which was almost in the actual shadow of the hospital. This was the Restaurant El Mixto – El Mixto literally meaning ‘the Mixed’. Well, maybe not the most exciting name for a restaurant, but an appropriate one, since when you sat down you were confronted with three separate menus – the Spanish Menu, the Chinese Menu, and the Japanese one. The food was great, but they have a rather idiosyncratic way of serving a party of three. Jen was served with her starter and main at the same time. John and I weren’t served anything. Jen almost finished eating before my starter and main arrived together. John wasn’t served anything. Finally John’s starter arrived. Not his main, mind. That didn’t arrive until long after Jen and I had finished eating, and John had long since finished his starter. Oh well, as I said, it was extremely close to the hospital, which was all to the good. Normally I find that the hot weather is an appetite suppressant, but I was so hungry by the time we left the hospital that I could have eaten a scabby dog. In fact . . . no, let’s be fair, the food in the restaurant was fine.

I could have maybe gone on a another sketch hunt around the village after we got back, but then enough is as good as a feast. As it is I have just one double page left in my sketching journal, and that will do for the airport and for the journey home tomorrow. If you’ve been with me for the whole trip, then thanks very much. Watch this space for An English Fool Abroad with his Sketchbook again later on in the year.

August 15th - Elche Hospital

I’m sorry if there’s not a bundle of laughs, chortles, or even titters in tonight’s shorter episode of An English Fool Abroad with his Sketchbook. There were no plans for an excursion today since it’s the Feast of the Assumption and a public holiday as I mentioned yesterday. However the day turned out to be a little more eventful than I expected. John wasn’t well at all a couple of days ago. He seemed better yesterday, but was worse again today. I knew that he was feeling even worse today when he said that he thought he should go to the hospital.

We all went to Accident and Emergency – Urgencio – together, in the Hospital Del Vinalopo in Elche. John was assessed fairly quickly – his blood oxygen level was very low, and then taken off with Jen for treatment. I spent quite a long time in the waiting room, which was no hardship really since I had my kindle and sketchbook as well. I quickly sketched the entrance to the hospital, then rather surreptitiously made one sketch of the waiting room, but there’s always the danger that the people you’re sketching will cotton on, and get shirty, so I dashed off the one sketch and left it there. So it was a choice between reading my kindle, and watching ‘Got Talent Espana’ (I’m not making this title up) – Spain’s version of, well, work it out for yourself. Blimey, but it goes on for a long time, that show! Or maybe it just seems to. Most interesting act I saw? Two guys running up and downstairs carrying huge trays of glasses. One of them fell. That’s entertainment, folks.

Jen and I had some lunch in the hospital while John was being x-rayed. He’s been diagnosed with pneumonia. That’s not nice, not nice at all, but he’s been treated for it before. Eventually the doctors made the decision to keep him in overnight. So basically, that was today folks. Being in the hospital, we missed the main event of the day. Rain. Lots of it. Now, if you’ve never spent a large amount of time in this part of Spain at this time of year you maybe won’t appreciate what makes it a main event, but you’ll just have to take my word for it.

Evening visiting came and went. Jen went by herself, but came back saying that John said that he was feeling better.

Madrid - Alicante

Day Five. It started badly since Montezuma decided to well and truly take his revenge. My guess is that it might have been something to do with the fried rice I had from a Chinese takeaway just outside Anton Martin Metro station earlier in the day. Who knows? Anyway, I doubt I got much more than a couple of hours sleep, and those came in short instalments.

Still, for all that things started looking up when I started packing. I didn’t mention this in my last post, but I was quite upset on Wednesday because I lost my wedding ring. I told you about my visit to the Puenta de Toledo. Well, while I was there it suddenly occurred to me that my right finger felt a bit funny. I looked at it and I saw why. My wedding ring had gone. Now, I did cling to the hope that maybe it had come off in the shower earlier, but when I got back to my room for a siesta I checked and couldn’t find it there or in the wash basin. Then, yesterday morning, as I was making the bed for the las time I picked up the pillow, and there it was, just as f the tooth fairy had put it there. Honestly – that was my first thought, that I was being rewarded for my obvious virtue. More prosaically I guess that during Tuesday night I must have put my had under my pillow and it came off then, but even so, it made my day yesterday.

I don’t think of myself as a luddite technophobe, but I was very anxious about the fact that I hadn’t printed off my train ticket. So much so that the night before I’d downloaded it to a) my wee laptop that comes with me on all my trips – b) my phone, and finally c) my Kindle. Even so I made sure that I was at the station 2 and a half hours early AND went to customer services to check that my ticket on my kindle would be okay.

With a long time to kill I went for a walk along the Paseo del Prado and then came back to the station. I know that this sounds silly, but my train was at 12:15, and I didn’t want to go back into the station until the previous Alicante train – the 10:45 – had gone. To be honest, the Atocha station in Madrid seems to be going through a bit of an identity crisis, as I’m sure it thinks that it’s an airport. Before you could go into the Departure (Lounge) Area, you had to go through an airport style luggage check. Then when you got into the Departure area you couldn’t go onto the platform until your train was called, in the same way that you get called to the Departure gate in an airport. For all of that, though, the system seemed to work. I sat in one of the more comfy chairs which faced the glass doors onto the platforms and sketched one of the choo-choos which was waiting there.

When they allowed us onto the platform at about 5 to 12 I had time to quickly sketch the outlines of some of the people waiting, and when we got on the train – 5 minutes late so no bonus points to Renfe there – I completed the shading. The blokey sitting next to me seemed very interested in what I was doing. Finally he started talking to me, and even after my standard apologetic – ‘soy Ingles, no hablo Espanol mucho’ he kept talking. I kept picking up the odd word here and there, and after he pointed to my sketch, then the colourful logo on his T shirt I gathered that he was saying that my sketch would be a lot better with colour. Everyone’s a critic. I tried to show him the watercolour sketches in the book, but he wasn’t interested in a retrospective of my Madrid period, and said nothing. So, in an act of revenge, I noisily ate my crisps and drank my drink at him. That’ll teach him. I’d like to think that when he got off at Cuenca he had seen the error of his ways.

Fair play to the driver of the train. We left Madrid late, but we arrived at Alicante early. The last stage of the journey was to use the Cercania train out to San Isidro-Catral. Unbeknownst to me, the ticket machines are actually on the little bit that leads to their platforms. In all honesty I just didn’t see them. So I went to the ticket office. Now, in Madrid, on the very rare occasions that I did attempt to speak Spanish, the person to whom I was speaking invariably replied in English. So rather than messing about I asked the chap behind the desk if he spoke English. He looked at me as if I’d just asked him if he’d like a sniff of the dirty laundry in my pack, and replied, “No!” I’ve always wondered why they use two exclamation marks in Spanish – one like we do, and the other upside down at the start of the word. Now I know – I could actually hear the other exclamation mark. So I asked him in Spanish for a ticket to San Isidro – Catral – Albatera. He seemed most disgruntled – in fact I would dare to say that there wasn’t a single inch of him that was still gruntled – but he gave me the ticket anyway.

Madrid - Day Two

episode 2 of An English Fool Abroad With His Sketchbook – Espana 18. Now, much as I would like to pretend that I’ve had a catalogue of relatively amusing disasters today, I can’t. Frankly, it’s been fantastic.

Jenn picked out a hostel right in the middle of Madrid. It’s a masterstroke, especially considering it’s no more expensive than the hotels I stayed in on the outskirts of lots of the other cities I’ve been to. So, although I did take the Metro to he Royal Palace and the Cathedral this morning, I later found out that I didn’t really have to. Not only could I easily walk back to the hostel, I could carry on walking past it, all the way to the Prado. More about that later.

So, the first thing to do was to sit down and make the first sketch of the day. So I made a sketch of the equestrian statue of King Felipe IV with the palace in the background. Now, this was about 10 am. When I started the sketch, I was in the shade of some trees. When I finished it, I wasn’t. I can’t have been in the sunshine long, but it was enough to ensure that the only part of me that burned today was my neck. Walking past the Palace towards the cathedral there was a guy busking with his guitar, and to my untutored ears he didn’t sound bad. I gave him some coins, and then asked if he minded me sketching him. I’m not sure what he said. It wasn’t ‘si’ and it wasn’t ‘no’, so I did it anyway.

Past the National Opera House next, and I stopped to make a sketch of the Monasterio Descalzas Reales. I wouldn’t say it is the most impressive example of baroque architecture in Madrid – it has a LOT of competition, but it was handily situated for me to sit in the shade and do it.

The next thing then was a challenge to myself to find my way back to the hostel on foot. Not only did I manage it, but I kept on walking , and passed the railway station I’ll need on Thursday, then turned up the Paseo del Prado and found. . . well, the Prado, actually. They’re not trying to catch you out like that , the Madrilenos. And the Pradio really is the reason why I only made 4 sketches today. I made a sketch in the line, but once I got in, I was there for hours. Mind you, I had a bit of a hairy moment getting into the museum, for when they searched me they were not happy about my sketching pens. They had a conflab for about five minutes before they let me put them in my bag, and haul my bag off to the cloakroom. I promise that I wouldn’t have added extra facial hair or spectacles to a Velasquez or Goya, however tempted I might have been.

Joking aside, the Prado is incredible. Honestly. It was worth the price of admission for the El Grecos. Then there were the Velasquez. Then Goya. And so on. I could easily have stayed a few more hours. If you ever have the opportunity, then just do it.

The hostel being so close, I will admit that I did go back and had a late siesta, giving the feet a bit of a rest. Normally, when I’m on a city break I stay out until the feet can take no more, but it seemed silly not to have a break under the circumstances. When I came back out, it was raining. Spanish rain, mind you. Spits and spots never really developing into anything, while there was plenty of thunder. Go figure. What it did do was clear the air a bit, and drop the temperature to a bearable 31 degrees. So I had another good wander around, and an early supper of the Spanish delicacy called patatas fritas con curry. Well, you’ve got to be prepared to try new things, haven’t you?

Last sketch in Kaunas

So, yesterday my sketchpedition to Kaunas ended. I'd already planned the journey to the airport the night before, and decided that ideally I wanted to leave the hotel at 8, and that at the latest I needed to leave at 8:30. I was ready by 7:30, so that was it, I was off.

This gave me actually a good three quarters of an hour between arriving at the Railway station, and catching the bus to airport just outside it, and so I took a wander towards ton. Just round the corner I saw these guys. This wasn't a market, they'd just placed their goods on the pavement and were selling them to anyone who seemed at all inclined to buy.

It's nice from time to time to try to catch figures in poses. There's three distinct pairs of figures here. Each pair was done very quickly in one go, which means that this exact scene never quite happened - it's a composite sketch to that extent, although still faithful to the scene itself. Also I did the filling in of shapes after I'd done the outlines.

Even Closer to Home - Swansea

Swansea is the nearest city to my home. It's a city with an industrial heritage which goes right back to the industrial revolution, and a maritime heritage which goes back further, although it only received the Royal Charter granting it city status during my own life time, in 1969, to commemorate Prince Charles' investiture as the Prince of Wales.
Here's a selection of my Swansea sketches: -

The full figure just above is Captain Cat, a character from Dylan Thomas' play for voices, "Under Milk Wood". That play is set in the fictional Llarregub, which is supposedly based on the sleepy seaside village of Laugharne, further west along the coast of the Bristol Channel. However Dylan himself was born in Swansea, and as one of the most important poets of the 20th Century Swansea is justly proud of him, and actually takes its role as a cultural centre for the area very seriously. This statue, and the statue of the seated Dylan Thomas himself also picture above, are in Swansea Marina, and literally yards away from the Dylan Thomas Theatre and centre for the arts. 

The Marina itself was constructed from the Swansea South Dock, which was closed at the end of the 1960s. It took over a decade for plans to be approved and for construction to be carried out, but the Marina now is possibly the most vibrant and interesting area close to the centre of the city. If you look at the sketch on the immediate left, you can see the Pump House restaurant which was built inside the shell of the Victorian former pumping house of the docks.  Fairly close by are two of the country's collection of Historic Ships which are moored outside the Waterfront Museum, which is the more modern and interactive of the two museums close by, and which pays special attention to the city's Maritime and Industrial History.

As I've already mentioned, the Marina is one of the more vibrant areas of Swansea. This next sketch shows the luxury flats which have been built on the old docks, and also gives a hint of the wide variety of boats moored there. Funnily enough, despite me saying it's a vibrant area, which it is, I do find it a calming and peaceful experience to take a sketchbook to the Marina in the middle of the day, and just sketch anything that takes my fancy.

One historical fact that most people who don't live in or near Swansea don't tend to know, is that Swansea was the home of the world's first ever passenger railway. It opened in 1807, but it was horse drawn rather than steam powered for several decades. In the 20th century it was really a tramway, although the decision was made to close it in 1960, scrap the trams, and rip up the tracks. Sadly only one front end of one tram remains, and this is on display in the tramshed adjacent to the Waterfront Museum, which you can see in the sketch alongside. 

The Waterfront Museum houses a replica of Richard Trevithick's first ever steam locomotive. This actually first ran in relatively nearby Merthyr Tydfil, which problems with the cast iron rails cast doubt on its potential. Trevithick was one of those inventors who sadly never received much wealth from his invention, and had to watch credit go to later work by the Stephensons, amongst others. 

Budapest - supplementary

Here's a picture I made in biro, using a photograph I took in Budapest's Deak Ferenc Ter Metro Station: -

- and another, sketched from the deck of a flyboat, during a sightseeing trip along the Danube

14) Hungary - One Day in Budapest - Other Pictures

St. Matyas Church, Buda

 Yes, this is one of the pictures that I finished off in the evening back at the hotel. It was taking ages, it was cold, and time was getting on. It's a stunning looking church, high on the same hill that houses the Castle.

Chain Bridge, from Pest side of the Danube

 My first attempt to sketch the Chain Bridge. It just doesn't work because of that crenelated tower in front of it.

St. Matyas Church and the Fishermens Bastion, Buda

 My first sketch of part of the Matyas Church, and the Fisherman's bastion beside it, which is a great place to look down and out across the river and the rest of the city.

Budapest Parliament Building - Buda - from Danube

This is the other sketch I finished off in the hotel. I made a very quick outline sketch on the boat, but most of the work was done from the photograph.

13) Hungary - One Day in Budapest - November 2017 - Required Elements

Alright, it wasn't exactly 1 day. I flew out on Tuesday 31st, but didn't arrive at the hotel until after dark. I did go into the centre of town by tram and metro, but it was too dark to make sketches. I spent all day in the centre of Budapest until after dark on Wednesday 1st, and flew home early on Thursday 2nd. Well, half term holidays are short, and you have to make the most of them. As such, I was pleased with the number of sketches I made on the day - although I will admit that a few of them were started on site, but finished in the evening back at the hotel with the help of photos I took at the same time.

Budapest - Chain Bridge

 I first saw this iconic bridge lit up at night. When I looked at it, being a Londoner, my first thought was - Hammersmith Bridge. Only, it doesn't look like the current Hammersmith Bridge very much. But I must have been thinking of the previous Hammersmith Bridge, since not only were they very similar, they were also designed by the same man, an Englishman called William Tierney Clark. Once I'd started comparing these Budapest bridges to bridges on the Thames, I couldn't stop. The next two bridges struck me as being like Chelsea Bridge and the Albert Bridge - even though the similarity is slight at best. As for the Chain Bridge, the original Hammersmith Bridge has gone, but Tierney Clark's Marlow Bridge in Buckinghamshire , which was built as a dry run for this one, is still there for a comparison if you're interested.

Castle - Buda - sketched from boat while waiting for sightseeing trip to start

 I did take a sightseeing boat trip down the Danube for an hour or so. Not as interesting as the Spree trip in Berlin, but more interesting than the Vltava trip in Prague. This is the castle complex in Buda. You can either walk up to it, or do as I did and take a ride in the funicular railway.I made this sketch while waiting for 15 minutes or so for the boat to depart.

Heritage tram - Danube riverbank - Pest side

 The most interesting - slightly older looking trams in Budapest run along either bank of the Danube. I sketched this one by the stop just along from the Chain Bridge. Not one person in Budapest stopped to look at any of my sketches at all. I must be losing what little touch I ever had.

Number 50 tram - Hatar Ut metro station

One of the things I love about a European trip is when you can leave your hotel early in the morning, and walk down the road a short way then hop on a tram. From my hotel you just had to cross the road to the tram stop, and take a 15 minute ride on the number 50 tram to the end of the line at the Hatar Ut metro station. These trams are pretty much as modern and efficient as you could ask - almost up to Berlin standards. In which case its such a shame that some of the passengers take them so much for granted, and show so little respect as to leave half eaten pizza on the seats and on the floor.

12) Germany - Berlin - Other sketches - late August 2017

Domkirche - Berlin Cathedral

 This is the Domkirche - the late baroque masterpiece which houses the tombs of the Hohenzollern Kings of Prussia and Kaisers of the German Empire. I sketched it from the side of the Spree.

Marienkirche - St. Mary's Church

The Marienkirche is one of the oldest churches in East Central Berlin, and it's not without its own beauty.  It sits to the side of a square, at the end of which is the Rathus, or town hall, behind a very ornate fountain.

Brandenburg Gate

 An iconic image of Berlin. Its so easy now to cross from East to West Berlin that it's difficult to visualise that this place was the symbol of the Cold War once upon a time.

Mozart - Haydn - Beethoven Memorial - Tiergarten

 If you walk west through the Brandenburg Gate, and keep walking, you'll eventually come to the Siegsaule - pictured below. The thing is, though, that the Siegsaule is so tall, that you think it's a lot closer than it is. I was, after walking from the Brandenburg Gate to the Siegsaule, knackered. Even after resting to make the sketch, I was soon knackered walking back. This time though I walked through the Tiergarten, the park which runs alongside the road. I found this charming memorial to three great composers, and sat down on a bench beside it and made this sketch to give me a bit more recovery time.

Altes Museum - Museum Island

 Back to Museum Island. I was waiting for the airport bus and made this sketch while I did so. A group of passers by liked it, and the little Italian guy who was selling ice creams by the side of the road even asked me if he could take a photo of it. He didn't give me a free ice cream, though.

Berlin Rathaus

 This is the aforementioned Rathaus. It's not a great sketch this, although to be fair the scanner does seem to have exaggerated the slight sland to the tower which my sketch had (the original building is as straight as a dye, I hasten to add) I was intrigued because to me this looks very like a German cousin of the contemporary Cardiff Pierhead building. Did the architect have a bike?

Siegsaule - West Berlin

The Siegsaule. Literally the Victory column, which was built to commemorate the Prussian victories over Denmark, Austria and then France in the second half of the 19th century, which led to the unification of Germany in 1871.

11) Germany - Berlin - late August 2017 - Required elements

Next on the itinerary, and the last chance to go anywhere during the long school Summer Holidays, was Berlin. My wife bought me this trip as a Christmas present back in Christmas 2016, and I'd been really looking forward to it. It was another European capital city, which was reason enough, but more than that it was fair to expect that Berlin is one of the great European capitals.

I had two full days and another half day in Berlin, and I found that I did spend most of that time in East Berlin. So let's get to the trams and the river and the bridges.

Bode Museum - Museum Island

 Okay - now I didn't actually make a sketch while I was on the river - although I did take a sightseeing trip along the Spree. I have to say that I enjoyed it more than the trip on the Vltava in Prague too. Berlin 's river, the Spree is home to an island which houses five of the world's great museums - hence its name of Museum Island. This is the Bode Museum, at the tip of the island, and is one I made sitting on the opposite bank of the river. It was one of several sketches which passers by stopped to talk about, I'm happy to say.

Oberbaumbrucke bridge

 Ah yes. Now, I wouldn't say that the bridges in the centre of the city crossing the Spree are ugly. They're rather nondescript, though, and I was starting to despair of finding a real signature bridge for Berlin, until I found a photo of this, the Oberbaumbrucke, online. This is actually a road and rail bridge, as it carries one line of the U-Bahn, the Berlin underground railway to its ending. You have to go East to the end of the line, mind you, but it's worth it. I mean, let's be honest, this bridge is mad, almost Wagnerian, and I like it very much. It was a burningly hot day, though, and I burned my bald spot while I was painting this.

Hackesscher Markt S-Bahn Station

 The Hackescher Markt is a large market in the centre of East Berlin. It's also a rather nice station of the S-Bahn, Berlin's other, rather grander metro system. This was another one which attracted some nice comments, from a group of Spanish people no less, who turned out to know Catral quite well.

Hackescher Markt - catching the M6 tram to the hotel

I'll be honest, I couldn't get much enthusiasm for sketching Berlin's sleek, modern and highly efficient trams - this is the only sketch I made on the spot. This one was done from photos later-

.

10) Spain - Alicante Area - Catral-Dolores-La Marina area - Early August 2017

Church - outside Dolores

 Confession time. I saw this church as we waited by traffic lights in the car, and took a phot. This line and wash is based on that photo, and not made on the spot, sadly. It would have held up the traffic if I'd tries to do it in situ.

El Pinet Beach nr. La Marina

 This I did do sitting on the sand by the water's edge, and it's not too bad thought I say it myself.

Catral - late breakfast

 Will you please put your pen and your sketchbook down and eat your breakfast - I think that's what they said while I was doing this one. To which the answer was - no, sorry.

Catral Saturday morning market

 Too hard to stand painting in the market so had to make do with an ink sketch . I found that I got far more interested in combining figures to make the picture than I was in the scene itself.

Catral - evening in main street

Again - will you please put your bleep sketchbook down so we can go in and eat. We had a lovely Chinese meal too once I finished this one.

7) Czech Republic - Prague - Other sketches - April 2017

Vintage style car cruiser - Prague Old Town

 These stylish car tour vehicles were everywhere. You can't drive through every street in the Old Town, but through the few that you can drive, these were a constant.

St. Nicholas Church - Prague

This is y favourite church in Prague, and it's pretty much as good inside as it looks outside. It's a baroque masterpiece which sits on the same hill as the castle complex, only a little lower down.

Watercolour - Prague Old Town Powder Tower

 This is the only true watercolour I made in Prague, and I won't lie - it's based on a photograph. This illustrates one of the great things about the Old Town - you can literally turn a corner and find a medieval remnant just waiting for you to admire it, like this one.

Prague Legionariu Bridge

 You can see the dome of the St. Nicholas Church here in the background. This is a perfectly tidy metal arched bridge which only suffers by comparison with the Charles Bridge, which is really unfair competition for most bridges.

Prague - Number 23 tram approaching Legionariu Bridge

 Yes, as well as bridges I also have a thing about trams. This is the number 23 tram which I used to get to and from my hotel in Kubanski Namesti. I won't lie. I had to sketch incredibly quickly, but even so I needed three number 23s to stop there before I had the tram finished. The figures were sketched in the same way as I often do to form a composite sketch - as I've said before, they were all there, but not necessarily at the same time. This next sketch was made later from a photo that I took at the time: -

Prague Tram Café - Wenceslaus Square

 Imagine my delight to discover the café to one side of Wenceslaus Square made out of 2 vintage trams. I sat down and ordered the most expensive cup of coffee in Prague ( I can't prove this, but I can't believe anywhere else charged more) while I sketched this.

Prague - Church sketched while sitting on a bench in the street market off Wenceslaus Square

I made this sketch about an hour before my airport transfer was due to pick me up just off Wenceslaus Square, and finally a couple of passers by reacted and took a good look at my sketch. I was beginning to get paranoid through lack of feedback.