The week leading up to June 24th, San Juan, is a weeklong fiesta here in Alicante, with much drinking and so on, but also fireworks displays and so-called mascletas, where explosives are set off during the day just to generate smoke and noise. Spain is a loud country!
Besides the merrymaking, large statues called Hogueras are mounted around the centre of Alicante and in many neighbourhoods. They only exist for a few days; at midnight on June 24th they are burned down while large crowds look on (and fire trucks are on standby. I stay away from that event, but earlier in the week I walked around the centre to have a look at the Hogueras and at the people looking at them.
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But I start with a simple photo from the office. One day Eri came to see me about something, and I realised that there was a nice photo there. So I asked her to come in through my door again, this time with my camera at the ready:
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Of course there was some cycling too. I went to the Vía Verde on my mountainbike. Stopping in Verdegás for my usual break there, I photographed this impressive olive tree in somebody’s backyard:
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Along the Vía Verde, I stopped to photograph the grapes, now nearing maturity. These are not for wine, they are table grapes:
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Nice to see something green in the otherwise arid landscape, a large field of almond trees:
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Heading into the mountains. The Vía Verde, a converted narrow-gauge railroad that was abandoned in the 1980s, goes from Agost at about 300 meters above sea level to Maigmó at 650 meters over a total distance of 22 km. So a long, gentle climb, quite easy to cycle:
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The drought we had this spring is quite evident in this reservoir:
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The rest of the photos in this week’s blog are from a walk in the centre to look at the Hogueras. Along the main shopping street of Alicante, people have decorated the trees with messages indicating their usefulness (I was not aware that there was any plan to cut them down, but perhaps the protest is against pollution that harms the trees):
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On the Puerta del Mar square, workers were busy installing a Hoguera:
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But the one at the end of Esplanada de España, the main pedestrian street, was already there. One could see it from a distance:
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Overall view of the Hoguera on the Esplanada:
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A closer view:
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Even closer:
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Interesting detail:
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People come to look and take pictures:
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I walked on to the nearby Plaza del Ayuntamiento,the square in front of City Hall. There was a big Hoguera there too:
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Work still in progress:
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Looking on:
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The face:
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At this point I got thirsty, so I retreated to the Irish pub O’Hara’s on the Esplanada and had my pint while watching the other patrons:
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I walked down the Esplanada and came upon a group of protestors with whose cause I very much sympathise:
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Back at Plaza Puerta del Mar, the Hoguera is almost finished:
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A final touch:
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A mermaid, luring sailors:
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Just before descending into the underground car park on Plaza Puerta del Mar, I took a few photos in the corner of the harbour. This surfer statue is a popular spot for birds:
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…and for people wanting a photo with the statue and the yachts as the background:
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Conversation:
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The Stanbrook memorial, a relatively recent addition on our waterfront. The Stanbrook was a merchant ship which rescued more than 2600 refugees from the encircled city of Alicante in the final months of the Spanish Civil War in March 1939 and sailed them to North Africa, in an act of incredible bravery on the part of the Welsh captain, Archibald Dickson (who sadly perished, along with his ship, just six months later, victim of a German torpedo in the North Sea):
The story of the Stanbrook escape can be read here (in Spanish only).