Glass in Mondragon

After staring for a minute or two at the seemingly disparate photos that I took this weekend while visiting the in-laws in Mondragon, I finally found the common theme: glass. The weekend started with a trip to Marga's orthodontist in Vitoria on Friday afternoon. In the two years we've been going there, they have completely renovated the place and made it quite luxurious. Luxurious in a clean line, shiny marble floor, Scandinavian furniture, sort of way. The most impressive part is this back lit glass wall of a peaceful forest scene. It's hard to capture with the camera, but, in person, it has a lot of perceived depth to it.

The plasma television is inset into the wall with a white border and shows calm scenes from a nature documentary DVD.

The forest looks like it goes on forever. Some of the glass panels are really sliding doors, leading to other rooms. They've really put some thought into how to calm you down with interior design tricks. What better place could there be for tranquil scenes than a dentist's office?

It might suck if you were hylophobic, though.

I thought these three dump trucks looked nice in the afternoon sun. They're building a major highway that will run right by Mondragon, and make it a lot easier to get there. Right now, you have to spend 20 minutes in 3rd gear going through windy mountain roads to get to the little valley town. No, it won't be complete for the wedding, and no, this picture doesn't have anything to do with glass. Good job spotting the odd one out.

While strolling around town on Saturday afternoon, we spontaneously decided to check out the new library building. It's adjacent to the church where the wedding will take place.

It's got this awesome atrium with a beautiful marble floor. This architecture is very Spanish.

The outside of the square serves as an art gallery. The current exhibition seems to be of ominous, nightmare-inducing drawings for children's story books.

A security camera looks down from the glass ceiling.

The really expensive "only shop there for really special occasions" store, that has already sold at least one outfit that will be worn at my wedding (Aunt Marga), had some nice dresses that, in Belén's opinion, "would be perfect for [my] mother because she's tall and slim."

The store's name is "Troko". Those crazy Basques with their K's.

Marga looks in a shop window. The graffiti really makes this shot.

I liked this beer mirror I saw on the way to the bathroom in a pub. It shows how the Budweiser bottle labels were when different events in history occurred. The events that I can read from this photo are:

• Average Basketball Center 5'9"
• First Auto Race. Top Speed 78 MPH
• First Forward Pass. First Interception.
• First Night Basketball Game
• Artificial Turf

I can't think of another way to look through decades of history that more strongly implies "America, sports, and beer" than that.