wanting to take the perfect picture

12th of October and public holiday in Spain. It’s such a nice thing to have a day off in the middle of the week. Sun was shining and I decided to go to Segovia to take a nice picture of my Ducati and the aqueduct. I was glad to have a purpose to the ride, after my journey this summer I find it hard to just ride out with no goal.

Well, the ride was fantastic as expected, but let me tell you what happened with the picture. I did a slightly illegal manoeuvre to enter the big square in front of the aqueduct and parked right at it.

After a few shots I realised how small the bike looked on the pictures and I decided to move the bike to the centre of the square and take a close up with the aqueduct in the background. I had already imagined the picture in my head and was about to move the bike to the perfect spot when two scooter police ladies approached and shot non-admirable looks at my bike. Of course, I couldn’t park there, I knew that, but I was taking pictures… anyway, history has taught me to not argue with police in Spain, nor try to explain anything. So I just say yes to everything, not answering how I entered the square and prepared to leave. I hoped they would move on so I could take the final picture but annoyingly enough they hung around to monitor me taking off, like they knew I would stay. I decided to take the bike to the café on the way off from the square and think things over. I started parking the bike in a place that not in any way would cause a problem, but one of the scooter lady police immediately shot off after me to say that I’m not allowed to park there either, but that uphill there is a parking space… I wanted to say ”hey, lady why don’t you ride out to fight some real crime”, but thought the better of it and said “gracias” and forced myself to produce a big smile.

After some circulating I found this place to give another try at photographing. I decided against returning to the square since the notorious police probably would fine me if I did so.