Another quiet working week, with lots of cycling on weekends. The two “events” were a wine tasting at the office on Tuesday evening, and the return of Egle, a Lithuanian colleague who moved to the other end of Spain 10 years ago but is now back at our office here in Alicante.
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I started the week with a ride on the Vía Verde. To get to the start of the trail (an old railroad that has been converted for recreational uses), one has to cycle a few km on a very technical field path:
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The path leads through vineyards and is quite pretty, although in the ball-busting category in places:
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Another cyclist passed me while I was taking the preceding picture:
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Finally, I approached the disused Agost train station where the Vía Verde begins:
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The Vía Verde itself is relatively smooth gravel, and one can enjoy landscapes like this field of almond trees:
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One day I had to slum it home from work on public transport because my car needed its annual maintenance. My office provides a free shuttle service to the centre of town, from where I can take the light rail home. While waiting for the tram, I hung around Plaza Puerta del Mar, looking at the pigeons:
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A nap on the bench:
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The male African migrants in Alicante usually start their working life here by selling cheap trinkets and fake handbags on the beach. The women, at least some of them, provide itinerant hair braiding service. The police occasionally clears them out but at the end of the day people have to eat:
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The cacti in my garden continued their flower show, now provided by the “children”:
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Continuing the return to normality, we now have the monthly wine tastings at the office in the normal manner. On this occasion the theme was “around Spain’s Mediterranean coast”, with a very entertaining and knowledgeable lady sommelier:
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When I started working in Alicante, one of the members of my team was a Lithuanian woman called Egle. We became friends and saw each other socially from time to time. But a few years later her contract ended and she had to leave the office. For the past 10 years she was working for EU’s fisheries agency in Vigo, Spain’s north-western corner, about 1000 km from Alicante. But now she has managed to get a job here again, and one day I invited her for lunch at the beachside restaurant Moments:
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One of the dishes we enjoyed was a salmon coca, a Valencian cousin of pizza:
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Back to cycling. On Saturday morning I went to Jijona, a town about 25 km from where I live. While taking a break on a bench on the main street, I suddenly heard music and saw a small procession of rather happy people. I never found out what it was about, but they certainly were enjoying themselves:
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Afterwards, I cycled home via Busot. The road between Jijona and Busot, about 10 km, is lovely cycling:
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One of my favourite places along the route there is a newly constructed large solar power plant. Many NIMBY types dislike this sort of thing, but I find it beautiful because I know it is this sort of thing that is necessary to save the planet:
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On the square in Busot there is a source of mineral water. People come from all over the area to fill bottles:
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To prevent abuse, the municipality set up a sign limiting the amount of water people can take. Some wise guy embellished the sign by strategically deleting some letters. So instead of “no loading more than 20 liters” the sign now reads “no shitting more than 20 liters”:
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On Saturday afternoon, Monica and I went to have lunch at a street food event on Plaza Seneca in the centre. The weather was good and the place was well visited:
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My favourite picture from that event (and indeed from the week) was this little dog, seeking shade on a hot afternoon:
