Not a lot of photos this week, but still I was out in the mountains on my bicycle, I made a first visit to a bar in several months, and I had a photo session with Eri at the office.
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The week started a bit cool and stormy, so the snow in the mountains from the previous week was still there. I love the rare winter view of Sierra de Aitana covered in snow:
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A small family braves the wind:
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About 1 1/2 hour later, I was at an altitude of a bit over 500 m, and about 20 km closer to the Sierra, so I had a closer view of the snow:
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On Sunday afternoon, Monica and I drove to the centre to walk around a bit and buy some stuff from the Chinese supermarket. Plaza Seneca has been fenced off, supposedly for some renovation which has yet to start. But the wind had overturned part of the fence, and a group of senior citizens took advantage of the situation to reclaim their usual socializing spot:
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The Covid restrictions on bars and restaurants have been relaxed slightly recently. They must still close at 6 p.m. (restaurants can continue take-away until 10 p.m.) but they can now also have customers inside, 30% of the normal maximum. This means that some places with insufficient outdoor seating to make it economically viable to operate without guests inside can now open. And much to my delight, this includes the best bar in Alicante, Malatesta. We sat down for a magnificent Tripel Karmeliet from tap, one of the world’s wonders, and in the case of my daughter, some alcohol-free beer (she does not drink much):
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It was a bit cool, but I enjoyed sitting outside and watching the human (and canine) traffic:
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Little dog, channelling his inner wolf:
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Our office generally follows the restrictions in the wider society, so with the limited reopening of restaurants, our in-house restaurant has also reopened. I invited two of my colleagues, Fouzya and Carmen, for lunch, again my first restaurant visit since New Year’s Day. As is evident, social distancing is very much enforced in the restaurant. But the food was good and the lunch was enjoyable, the first time I ate something other than sandwiches and salad brought from home since we returned to the office in September:
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March 25th is Greece’s national day, and this year it was especially important to the Greeks since it marks 200 years since the revolution that liberated the country from the Ottoman Empire. So I asked Eri to wear something in the colours of the Greek flag (blue and white), and we had a quick portrait session during the lunch break:
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More Zoom misery, my fellow economist Piotr Stryszowski, speaking at the OECD during a meeting. Exceptionally, he participated from the office and not from his home, hence the facemask:
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I finished the week the same way as I started it, in the mountains between Aigües and Relleu:
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The snow now all gone:
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We do not have many wildflowers around here, it is too arid, but this one was nice:
