Monday, December 18, 2006

This Bridge/ Tunnel Is Between Sweden & Denmark, Apsolutly Stunning !!


My world.... and my jouneys that almost lasted a day,found this Bridge/Tunnel Breathtaking:-
The bridge (or should it be called tunnel) goes under water to allow
movement of ships . In order for ships to pass, this bridge is half
under the water. You drive down in the water and then come out on the other side.
Truly a marvelous piece of engineering!? This bridge is between Sweden
and Denmark. Picture taken from the side of Sweden .

Thursday, December 7, 2006

These BreathTaking Photo's were taken with my digital camera Nikon 5.3 pixels.







It had been quite a miserable day in Spain near the coast where i live, infact it was so unusual to have most of the day covered in cloud, we were expecting the worst, and it really did look like we were going to have a thunder storm.
It was about 5pm late after noon when the cloud started to disperse,and blue sky was appearing through the cloud cover,and within 30 minutes it had almost gone,except fot the cloud that was now covering the sun.
As the night drew close,the sun was getting ever closer to its fall,and in Spain once the sun goes down it is almost pitch black with night.
I quickly ran to get my camera, and when i got back out side i was not disapointed, this was truly apsolutly beautiful site,a spectacle and all this was viewed from my home staniding in my Patio.

More Fantastic Sunset Images.....".Stunning "



Sunday, December 3, 2006

A Bloggers Story You Will Have To Believe, As It was so True !!









It was a beautiful sunny day,as it was usual for this part of the world,so my wife & i had decided to walk along the coast with the dog bringing up the rear.
It was a stone throw from the house where we lived,so it was not going to take us long to get there,in fact we did this trip almost everyday,as we lived in Spain on the Costa Blanca and very close to a rocky fronted headland,we would stroll along and take sometime to reflect on any changes that may have taken place since the last time we were here( yesterday in fact )time was on our hands,i mean we had retired and the days could be long,so as we walked, often waiting for the dog to gather up all his usual smells along the ground, his noise never very far from the sandy surface and then he would from time to time lift his head, just to see how far we had gotten in front of him.

This particular day was a Sunday, and it would be normal for lots of local people to be walking their dogs too,or even folk walking together in groups,young couples and also families out for their traditional Sunday walk,maybe a time to reflect and take some well earned rest from their hectic working lifestyles,and people in retirement which were many along this part of the coast,as most people would have retired from Work and being Pensioners they all had decided to live near the warm waters of the Mediterranean,as we both had done the same.

In this part of Spain it was a mixed International group of people, Mainly from England,Germany,Sweden,Denmark,Holland,a few Retiring from France,and all other countries in the European Union,and of course the Nationals from Spain itself,the Spanish People especially the ladies young and old would be dressed so beautiful in their Sunday Best,as this was a real treat for the Spanish,it was very Traditional for them to dress and look absolutely stunning in their attire,and we would all look and greet them........ Hola,Bueno dias...... as they slowly pass us by,maybe a thought running trough their minds look at those in T-shirts and shorts, the typical dress of the tourist or us resident to the local community.

Anyway before we loose track of where we are going you will have noticed the photo at the top of this post.
This is the headland where we spend most of out time relaxing,walking,and generally making the best of the Spanish sunshine.

This particular day was different,it was strange as there were more people than usual and lots of cars parked all over the area,there was a deathly hush about the whole area, and we desperately hurried our dog to catch us up, so we could investigate what was going on. It was normal for the Local lads to be spending there leisure time jumping,and diving off the rock edge into the deep blue waters of the Med, and this area had been used several times for this activity, but why the interest, we could not understand the amount people looking around,and some of theses anxious people were pointing away from the main area.

We had reached halfway towards the main area of activity, when we noticed to our left parked on the out reaches of some rock area was a white Helicopter, "Wow" how did he land that Helicopter on there was our thoughts almost instantaneously, and then before our eyes,a lady popped over the rock edge towards where we were walking.

We shouted out to her in Spanish..."Qay passer" whats happening,but she just looked away,i asked again but the response was the same..."Nothing; we got no response" so we carried on towards the flock of on-lookers,in the distance we heard the horrible sound of sirens, these began to get closer and were coming from all directions, the sirens soon got louder and louder,and before we could speak they had driven to a part of the rocky area further away from the main area as we thought of interest.

They seemed to park up behind some small Fincas (bungalows on the coast) that would be used for holiday homes by the Spanish people who probable lived in the larger cities up North from us, and some considerable distance away.

These bungalows were not letting us see what was happening, and then all of a sudden all the people close to where we were heading just started running towards these bungalows,we could not attempt to run as we had the dog to think about, and he was oblivious to the whole thing,all he was interested in doing was finding his smells, and spraying little grasses that had forced there way up between the cracks in the hard sandy surface.l

We had almost by this time reached the rear of the small Fincas, and in front of us a track, large enough also to give access to vehicles that ran between the Fincas, and at this time a vehicle in fact came towards us in quite a hurry, so we had to quickly find a spot to get out of the way of this vehicle, we both shouted anxiously & loudly at our dog to get out of the way, we decided at this time to put on his lead,so that he would keep tightly against our heals.

The vehicle passed quite quickly,for some reason we both turned our heads backwards to catch the vehicle leaving the track into open ground,it was towing a small dingy with outboard motor attached,the dingy bounced on its two wheeled trailer as went out of site to the place we had just walked from, the place also where all the people had run from at the top of the rocky headland.

We had decided to take no notice at this stage,and carry walking to the end of the track this also into open Sandy rocky ground,from which another small bay opened up onto another rocky headland separated by these small Fincas (bungalows).
It was only then, we realised something really had happened,and we needed to see for ourselves what it was, it was strange as at this point we had realised our normal Sunday stroll with our dog had turned into a tragic event......BUT What Was It.?

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As we got within 25 meters of the Headland, it became apparent that this was a serious incident,as by this time there must have been at least two hundred people milling around trying hard to get a good advantage point at the edge of the rocky headland,and most of the area had been taken up by all sorts of people young and old,dogs were barking at each other, and it was difficult at times to hold our dog from pulling us towards some other dogs off there leash.

All of a sudden a familiar but not usual noise came over our heads the whooo hooooo ooooo oo of the Blades of a Helicopter,and everyone just looked up,as this large thing just above our heads with rotating blades creating a sand storm at ground level, we all turned away from this massive brown cloud that had covered us all,it was impossible to see anyone or anything for a few seconds that seemed forever,and finally the Helicopter flew out to sea, we wiped our eyes cleaned our sun glasses,and put our hair strait,within seconds the roar of the helicopter was banking to the right it turned back towards us, and faced us hovering above the cove,this was truly an incredible site.

I remember saying to my wife "hey" that's a different helicopter from the one that we had seen parked up on the rocks below the first headland, it was much larger and it had a heat seeking camera that protruded from the underneath, and a man in uniform was hanging out of the door,and he was making movements with his arms, as if he wanted us all to leave or get away from the edge of the rocks, we really did not know what he wanted us all to do,and then a loud speaker from the rear of us was shouting in Spanish please move backwards, get back !! and with this we all started to move backwards with great reluctance...but it was obviously very important.

I had not yet been able to see anyone we knew, i needed desperately to know what had happened,what was going on, it was even a lot more difficult as our Spanish language was not that good, we could understand a lot of words, but this only if they spoke slowly, and we had just arrived were all the people were, and before we could do anything or see anything we were pushed back to at least 50 meters,back from the edge of the rocks.


As we looked to the sky, the Helicopter was getting closer to the land again, he was coming towards us, a Police Man Police Women stood in front of us as they were placing barriers across the front of the crowd and the numbers of people was getting larger by the minute. Then this large Helicopter started to come down, and it landed on the rocks from the very place were we had stood only minutes ago.

Some one tapped me on the shoulder, "Hi you Two" it was one of our English neighbours,he said terrible news isn't it,i said why what has happened,well all i know he said was that someone had reported seeing a fishing rod and tackle all set up at the edge of the rocks,and a bottle of vino that was half empty, but know one was anywhere to be seen,that's terrible i remember saying,what has he done, has he took his own life,or had he been to close to the edge and fell into the sea......we really did not know.

It was about five minutes later that another boat passed us by i noticed it rocking in the tide,as by this time the sea seemed to be getting higher,it was as if the tide had pushed its way in,this could not be good news for the Rescuers,and this large orange coloured boat with several men on board,it was something we all regognised as a rescue boat,some one said that it had taken some thirty minutes to get to the scene.

We were disgusing what could have happend,when we over heard a conversation that it was a brother aged 9 or 10 thought to be diving off the rocks, and that the tide had taken him down,as this was a very bad area for swimmers, although everyday you could see boys diving and swimming all of the time,it was if the were oblivious to the dangers.

As we looked on, four or fiver divers passed us in there diving suits,carrying oxegen bottles and flippers,it was not long before they had dropped into the sea,a loud noise was then heard and the roar of the Helicopter engine & rotor blades sounded as the Helicopter began to take off heading out to sea.

The Helicopter banking right and heading strait back to the shore,but this time it was hovering over the waters edge, the sea crashed into the rocks,and once again people started running towards the edge of the rocks to get closer to see what was happening,so we oviously followed them.

As we reached the edge of the rocks, we could see a couple of boats or dingys and also more divers,and red cross volunteers( Cruz Roco)the Spanish name for Red Cross, these men and women were looking to a cave below us.

These volunteers were pointing towards a part of the waters edge that went into a crevis or cave area, and the water was lashing in, as the divers crashed against the rocks,a very difficult task for them,and the possiblity of one of them being injured.
We could not bare to watch anymore and our dog was getting fed up with the whole thing,he was just so bored,so we started to Make tracks home.

whilst heading for our home we kept looking back all of the time,as we watched the Helicopter take to the skies this after giving two complete turns, as if to wave goodbye,also the divers were coming out of the water, and they gathered together in a circle, and one of the men was using on a walkie talkie, he seemed to be talking to the Life boat, and the next thing,he sped off leaving a white trail behind him in the choppy waters.
No one was found,we wondered what had happened,surley they cannot leave someones family in that water.....BUT for some reason they did...... and no one could explain what was going on.

We had ruined our walk,and we spent at least two hours watching this unfold,and to get nothing from it at the end gave us both a very sad empty feeling.
We had returned home,and we talked about the incident for hours after,and it was not untill we went out again later on that day to walk the dog which was some four hours later that we actually found out what had happened.

"This sad event had turned in to a FALSE ALARM".

The person who had gone missing,has aparantly been found safe,and it was great relief to learn that this was the case.
what a great job all the Volunteers and Emergency rescuers did,they all diserve a pat on the back,they were apsolutly fantastic,and all that for a false alarm which of course at the time they did not know.

"How a day can turn out,and at least a Happy one to end".

A Sad Day! Today

A Sad Day! Today
Today the 8th January 2007 We lost our Cocker Spaniel Dog Ronaldo. He was put to sleep !