This is not a great photo, but I still like it. I took it from the top deck of a tour bus in Barcelona, Spain. "Colon" is Christopher Columbus. He is high above the traffic. The statue is supposed to have him pointing to the new world which he will discover for Isabella and Ferdinand, monarchs of Spain. They would lay claim to this new world. Columbus would return a hero and then strike out for another voyage to the Western Hemisphere. It makes for a romantic monument. However, Columbus is not pointing to the new world. As best as I can figure it, he is pointing to Africa. It could be that he is just pointing to the Mediterranean Sea which is where he went first, but it is not the new world he discovered. The second thing I always find interesting in this story is that Columbus is discovering America. No he didn't. He discovered some islands of the Americas and they were inhabited. How do you discover a place that has already been populated? In any case, I like the Spain-America connection and the lovely city of Barcelona. I discovered Spain and its wonderful cities two years ago. Maybe I should get a statue made - I'll have it pointing to the Bering Strait.
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