Parque de Los Principes

We have walked past this park several times but never stopped.  Yesterday we walked through it, just to see what it was like.  Not nearly as big nor as ornate as Parque Maria Luisa, Parque de Los Principes was still quite a lovely place.

You can see from the entry sign, it has lots of paths, a beautiful pond, lovely trees and landscaping.

It takes up a full city block.  We were there yesterday (Thursday) afternoon and there were quite a few people taking advantage of the beautiful weather we were having.  I think everyone is quite tired of rain.

This park has a very nice section....

A dog park...

Just for dogs (and their owners)!  We've seen lots of these in parks in the past few years and even though we don't have a dog, think it's a great place to allow dogs to run loose while they are still safe from traffic.    There were several pet owners taking advantage of this dog park today.

There are lovely ponds...  with a very graceful bridge allowing you to walk from one side to another...

You can see the city in the background...  still, the park is a lovely green oasis nestled just off busy streets.

It also has lovely landscaping..

This cactus garden has bird of paradise (the red near the pond) blooming.  You can see the fountain in the middle.

Everyone was enjoying the sun today!

Gee Mom, I want to get a little closer to the sun....

There was a family feeding the fish...

There were so many koi that we couldn't begin to count them.

The kids were having fun feeding them...

And along came this turtle to see check out the action...

We see this species of robin quite often...

It has a much larger repertoire of musical notes than the American robin...  I find myself looking high up in the trees when I hear its song.

There's been a LOT of rain lately... the park was quite muddy in places...

Here's Bill...  cleaning off his shoe after slipping in a particularly deep mud puddle.  It could have been worse...  nobody cleans up after their dogs here...  the sidewalks are like walking through a mine field.

There are some HUGE trees....

I don't know the species...  

Mostly, along the city streets there are orange trees and sycamores.  But in the parks, there are some trees that look very old.

Another view of the ponds...

We didn't see many species of birds..  mostly a lot of pigeons, or doves...

And, love is in the air. 

If you've ever heard the term "billing and cooing", you only have to watch an amorous male dove to get the meaning.

As you can tell, we love walking the city streets and finding these special places....

Bill took this photo of me as I was watching the turtles.

It's warmed up a lot this week...  no hat and no scarf!

By the way, I left my Canon EOS Rebel back in Texas...  my only camera is that little Canon Powershot SX230 I'm holding in my right hand.  It is small enough for a shirt pocket, but has a 14X optical zoom .  It has been a great camera for this trip. 

That's All For Today!