It was a week with the usual cycling and work activities. But the cycling pictures are from a place I do not go to that often, the town of Villajoyosa up the coast just south of Benidorm. There is also a Wednesday night dinner in the city with five colleagues (together, we constitute the management of our department), and a visit to Alcoi and a modern art gallery on a rainy Saturday morning. The images are chronologically presented, from Sunday to the following Saturday.
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Sunday morning the sun was shining, and I cycled to Villajoyosa, a town on the coast, about 25 km from here. It is not a hard ride, but not that easy either, because the road is never flat–one is going up and down the entire way–but the views of the Mediterranean on one side and the mountains on the other are great. My first stop in Villajoyosa was a small beach called Playa Bol Nou. It is not in the town itself, and used mostly by the locals. Early in the morning, there was just one person besides me:
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Looking the other way there is a characteristic rock formation, obscuring the view of the neighbouring beach, Playa El Paraiso:
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Clearly, the beach had been heavily used the preceding Saturday night:
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I continued cycling towards the centre of Villajoyosa. At one point, there is a bridge over the Amadorio river that runs into the Mediterranean here. Not much of a river these days, so the city used the mostly dry riverbed to create a wonderful park for the people of the town:
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From the main street I descended to the beach on the wonderful narrow streets:
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Loneliness Street:
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The beach promenade was almost empty on an early Sunday morning:
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I took a break and took in the colourful houses that are the hallmark of Villajoyosa:
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A small group of bathers emerging from the water:
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The waiters are getting ready for the day. No indoor seating will be needed today:
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I continued to the fishing harbour. Villajoyosa has a far bigger fishing harbour than Alicante, albeit on a Sunday morning it was largely empty. This the fish auction house, which of course also contains a bar:
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I walked around a bit, looking at the boats:
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Finally I saw some human action; two men and a boy were doing some work on a boat and needed water:
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When I came home, I saw that my mother’s cactus (or rather its children) have gone crazy with flowers again:
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In the afternoon, we went out for our usual Sunday lunch–we do this almost every Sunday. This time we went to a nearby restaurant, with a nice relaxed atmosphere and good food. Like these appetisers:
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A feature of eating in this place are the birds that hang around, waiting to clean up food spills and tables after the guests have left:
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I finished the day in our tiny fishing harbour here in El Campello. Not much action here either:
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But lots of people strolling around, including these children trying to get a closer view of the small fish swimming in the harbour:
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Monday at the office, I photographed the artist (Carmen) and the buyer (Claire). We had been planning it ever since Claire bought the painting from Carmen a few weeks ago but because of people’s teleworking arrangements, it was not easy to find a time when both of them were in the office and not too busy:
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On Wednesday night I had dinner with the other four members of the management team of our department. We were celebrating an accomplishment, something we had been working on for more than a year, and decided to do so with an informal dinner in the centre. So as to be able to imbibe freely, I took the tram to the centre, which also gave me some additional photo opportunities while walking from the stop to the restaurant. It was a nice evening, and lots of people were out enjoying drinks and food:
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A funny sign outside a bar, advertising a “day care for husbands” and assuring wives that they only have to pay for what he drinks while there, and that they had never lost one:
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Then I reached the restaurant and sat down for a nice evening with my colleagues, here Anne-Sophie (Danish-French) and Blanca (Basque):
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One of the nice things about eating outside is to watch the people passing by. Here a woman is doing some window shopping:
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Family of 3 at the neighbouring table:
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A rare photo of me, taken by Blanca. The chupito to end the dinner:
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Walking back to the tram, I snapped this bar with a nice theme:
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I took a morning beach walk on Saturday. It had been raining during the night, and it was still cloudy and iffy:
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A few people were out and about:
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Driftwood:
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Later in the morning, the rain started again, so I gave up any ideas of a bike ride–I know it is a bit wimpy, but as I live in one of the sunniest places in the world, I see no reason to get wet on purpose. Instead, I drove to a town called Alcoi, about 60 km from Alicante, to visit a modern art gallery. Alcoi is very much a mountain town; this is a typical street in the centre:
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The IVAM (Institut Valencià d’Art Modern) is based in Valencia, but now also has an outpost in Alcoi, housed in an old bank building:
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The staircase is quite grand, with stained-glass windows representing piety, charity and frugality:
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But then modernity arrived; I was there to see an exhibition of Spanish sculpture from the late 1930s until today:
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Nice, spacious exhibition space:
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Some really interesting ceramics:
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The meeting room of the foundation that runs the place:
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While walking back to my car, I photographed this old cinema, now converted into some kind of arts centre:
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On the way out of Alcoi, I stopped at the roundabout marking the entrance to the town:
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The view of Alcoi, in rain and mist:
More works from the sculpture exhibition can be seen here.