london1952 | Blue Skies on a Grey Day !

What a grey-day !! ...or is it gray-day ?? (it seems LJ doesn't like this spelling, but in English it can be either apparently) It started off with a bit of a jolt with a phone call from our lovely friend David, checking if Franco was safe and sound. News was just breaking about a helicopter crashing, he'd heard Covent Garden, and knows it's on Franco's some-times route to work, in the event it was near New Covent Garden near Vauxhall. Sadly the pilot and one person on the ground died, with several injured, but it could have been so very much worse as it was during the rush hour and in a busy area for traffic, and well-populated with offices and homes.

Apart from being grey, it has near got above zero-degrees and it's perishing indoors and out ! It's back to Italian class this evening, but I'm blaming the cold for my lack of concentration !! LOL

So, searching for something sunny to cheer me up, I was drawn to my photo sets from our trip to Spain in September (most of which I have yet to post about) and selected these from Day 9 as the memory has stayed clearly in my mind.

Just off the main road, in a very open landscape, we happened across this amazing Roman Temple, well what is left of it, which is spectacularly set overlooking the Valdecanas Reservoir. The water was very low and lent the whole area an almost moon-surface-like appearance.

The reservoir was formed when a damn was built across the River Tagus and valleys were flooded in 1963, and the temple columns were then re-set above water-level. They are remains from the Roman city of Augustobriga.

a tiny Franco (taking photos) gives an idea of the scale of the columns........

The main road crosses the water using this bridge.

The only people around the "off-the-beaten-track" site were a few fishermen at the water's edge, seemingly indifferent or oblivious to their fantastic surroundings !!