Guellovoetsluis

A tiny salamander was crawling across our livingroomfloor. It seems only a few days ago, but I know it was early Spring, when I ran into another salamander. It was sitting upon the street, almost frozen to death. About seven centimeters of amphibian was giving its best imitation of Gaudi’s famous lizard. However, this one happened to be sitting on the middle of the road in Hellevoetsluis instead of Parc Güell at Barcelona. I saved it from being squashed by a car and released it near the small pond in our garden.

I've never been sure whether Gaudi’s mosaic dragon was a salamander or a lizard. Before releasing ’my’ salamander, I made a photo of the little guy. Though it’s tail was not in full mating colours, it was easy to see this was a male. According to taxonomy its four toes clearly indicated it was a salamander, not a lizard. Knowing this I compared my photo to Gaudi’s creature. The photos of Parc Güell's famous inhabitant definitely showed five toes, thus confirming it is a lizard. 
The Spanish tourist office has declared Gaudi’s design ‘a salamander-lizard’. Interesting, a non-existing hybrid of an amphibian and a reptile. Anyway, who cares...we all know it is a sculpture…fountain…mosaic…kind of thing…And my version has three toes!