I went to the north of Spain twice in the early nineties and visited Barcelona for a day each time. I only remember bits and pieces — walking down the Ramblas and how weird the Gaudi cathedral was — and can’t find any pictures from either trip, so it made sense to make it the first city break of 2013 and the first time we’ve done something like this since the birth of Junior¹

Oslo’s new Opera House is bright and “Vibrant” — this weeks PhotoFriday theme — literally to the point that it hurts your eyes when the sun is out. (Fortunately this doesn’t happen very often in Norway!)

There are lots of cars “In Motion” around this roundabout in Lisbon, Portugal, which I thought made this a good choice for PhotoFriday this week.

It’s been a while since I entered a PhotoFriday challenge, but when I saw that this weeks was theme “Texture” I immediately thought of this picture. It was taken in Spain in 2009 and has been the desktop picture on my Mac pretty much since then!

I Have really fond memories of summer 1994 when I did a summer job in Ipswich. (Yes, I’m talking about Ipswich in a blog entitled “Oslo.” Bear with me.) Now Suffolk isn’t a glamorous location necessarily but it was a good time for me and it was a great, hot summer. A few years ago I stopped back in the town on the way back from a wedding. I really wish I hadn’t. Maybe it was the grey and the rain or maybe the years had not been kind, but Ipswich just wasn’t what I remembered.

The difficulty with this weeks challenge, “Countryside,” was which picture to use? I’m not really patient enough to be a great landscape photographer but I’ve got lucky a few times, including this time in Ireland.

I’ve not posted an entry for the last week or two, so there’s no suggestion to vote for my entry this week!

Having spent a little time in Jordan, Egypt and Moorish Spain, the word “Geometric,” this weeks PhotoFriday theme, says “Islamic architecture.” The above picture was taken in the Muhammad Ali Mosque in Cairo.

Please also vote for my entry in last weeks challenge, “Grandeur.” I’m entry number 118.

There are no guarantees when travelling in the UK. Even in May the weather can be all over the place, beautiful, bright and sunny one minute, drab, grey and miserable the next.

There are no guarantees when travelling with a five month old baby. They can be bright and cheery and laughing one minute and crying and screaming the next.

Both of these things made my trip to the Lake District rather different to most of the travel I’ve ever done. Except when I travel with a tour group, I normally have a pretty relaxed schedule. That was more-or-less mandated this time!

Here is my entry for this weeks PhotoFriday challenge, “Grandeur.” For those that have been following the current series of The Apprentice, you’ll realise that this image represents English Sparkling Wine. In this case, I’ve stretched the concept even further. In the programme, it was a French word used to describe an English sparkling wine. Here, it’s a bottle of Italian, still wine. Never mind.