spain: part uno + i'm a lebowski achiever

Here's my first blast of pictures from an amazing week in Spain. Here interred are:

• pillars in the tomb at the Valley of the Fallen
• a ton of scooters in El Escorial
• the bullfighting arena in Madrid
• a statue of a matador saluting Alexander Fleming (the guy that invented penicillin) because he saved so many lives (I know this totally makes sense because he probably saved a lot of matadors...but it just seems a weird combination for a municipal monument)
• the old train station in Madrid remodeled into a turtle garden
• various city shots
• the gardens at the royal palace
• the opera house in Madrid
• the Roman amphitheater in the middle of old Zaragosa (it's surrounded by apartment buildings...how cool is that?)
• shots of the Basilica of Our Lady of the Pilar across the Ebro River

So that's that for this post with regards to my recent Spanish travels. I've got enough good shots saved up for two more so those will follow here in a few days. At the moment I'm in a terribly good mood because I effin' finished my piece for the All-State Choir! That is a massive load off my mind. I celebrated it as any sensible person would with a midnight showing of The Big Lebowski at the Uptown Theatre (where I may or may not have snuck in a backpack full of Heinekens). Now on to part extraction. Formatting two, double piano scores is going to be extremely time-consuming.