Dismantling Descalzos - Day One

Bloody hell, they are certainly taking their time. It must be over five years ago now that the council here in Pamplona announced the demolition of a large number of houses in the Calle Descalzos, an old medieval street in the heart of the old town, that has been allowed to decay to such a point that most of the properties have been rendered unfit for human habitation and must be knocked down and replaced.
Since the announcement was made, I have been looking out of the window each morning, trying to spot signs of activity, and slowly, very slowly, some of the buildings have now started to come down.
In 2010 the buildings 23,25, and 27 were dismantled and then rebuilt on the same site, followed by number 24 earlier this year (2013). A start was made a few days ago, at the beginning of September 2013 on the desmantling of 47, 49, 51, and 53, and it is this demolition that we are going to follow.
How long will it take? Will the workmen spend more time having a coffee and a pintxo in the local cafés than they do working on the demolition, or will it come down in a matter of days? I'll be uploading a photo every day that the company (Erri Berri) come to work on the building, so that we may follow the (hopefully swift) progress, and to see if we can get a glimpse of the secret building that had been illegally constructed in the patio space of one of the existing buildings.

Here are the first couple of pics. Getting the preparation work done.

The morning of 6th September, 2013.

Well, we all need a bit of fuel in our engines if we're going to get physical.