During this week, we hosted the half-yearly meetings of our management board, consisting of representatives of the 27 EU member states plus the European Commission and Parliament. I always attend these meetings, and the most enjoyable part are usually the various side encounters now that people are travelling again. As always, I also did a fair amount of cycling, including a long ride to Relleu and Orxeta, a place I had not visited in a while. And there was some more cycling and meandering around.
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My Sunday ride started with a misty morning in El Campello:
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I then climbed to Aigües and Relleu, a route I have often ridden and photographed. But then, instead of going home the same way, I took the road down to the town of Orxeta and then on to the coast near Benidorm, from where I rode home on the coastal road. This the road from Relleu to Orxeta:
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I am not a flower aficionado, but I did stop to water these pretty wildflowers:
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An abandoned bar on the side of the road:
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Confusing sign in Orxeta–which way to the bakery?
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Entering the main part of Orxeta, one passes a large reservoir called the Embalse de Amadorio:
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Like many other villages around here, Orxeta has an old part and a new part, inhabited to a high degree by foreigners. Not every Brit or German or Dutch person who buys a house down here wants to be on the beach:
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The reservoir looks quite healthy after a wet winter and spring:
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The reservoir was created by damming the Amadorio river:
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Back in the office. The meetings of our Management Board last 3 days, and on the evening of the first day we had a dinner at a local restaurant. This is what people enjoy on a June evening in Alicante. The lady in the centre of the image is Karin, director of our Operations Departments, the bread-and-butter of our office:
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After the meeting, the Polish delegation, headed by the blond lady in the middle, the head of the Polish Patent Office, met with the Polish employees of the office. The lady in yellow on the right is Joanna Kupka, a senior official in the same office, who has become a good friend during the past few years. Of course, besides office matters we talked a lot about the war; Joanna has given her apartment in Warsaw to a Ukrainian family and has moved in with a friend:
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Later in the week we had a department meeting–as all meetings these days, participation was a mix of in-person and online. Our director (my boss), Paul, is speaking:
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…while Ludmila runs things on the side:
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A couple of grabbed images. First, morning light in my hallway:
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A fish at the supermarket:
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On Friday evening, we went to a “literary dinner”, the launch of a new novel by a writer whom I do not know (but then again, I am no expert on contemporary Spanish literature). Still it was interesting to listen to her:
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Back to cycling. In Agost, they were getting ready for the Moros & Cristianos festival:
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And I finish with two of the Verdegás cats, seeking shade on a hot day:
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