More slices of life in the second week of November: a book club meeting, a bike ride on the Vía Verde del Maigmó, and some impromptu photo sessions on the beach.
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On Tuesday evening, our book club WeRead met at the usual place, the Pynchon bookshop in central Alicante. The book of the month was “One Hundred Years of Solitude” by Gabriel García Márquez, a classic which I have had on my shelf in both English and Danish for many years, but had not gotten around to reading until now. When we have these meetings, we also take a photo of the books on the table. In this case, we had the book in Greek, Danish, English and Spanish:
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As usual, we took turns talking about the book and how we had reacted to it. This time, the discussion was particularly intense. María del Mar is originally from Costa Rica, and she talked about how she recognised many aspects of her culture in the book (García Márquez was Colombian, and she explained that the cultures of Colombia and Costa Rica are quite close):
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María illustrated one of her points by reading an excerpt from the book:
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Viv did the same thing:
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Kari, who grew up in a small Finnish town, talked about how the book opened his eyes to the world when he read it as a teenager:
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The following day, I went for lunch with some of my colleagues at one of the nearby restaurants, Moments. Here is Carolina with our new trainee, Romy:
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One of my favourite appetisers at Moments, called coca, basically a local cousin of pizza, but with much finer and thinner crust:
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A nice smile from Carolina:
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On Saturday morning I decided to take my mountainbike and cycle to the Vía Verde, the old railroad converted to cycling/hiking trail. On the way, I stopped in Verdegás to once again check on “my” kitties. This one was just enjoying the sunshine:
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This one assumed the traditional dignified feline pose:
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A few km later, I hit the Vía Verde, stopping at the picnic area to drink my Coke and eat a banana. I have always been fascinated by the light and shadow at this place, and this time I managed to take a picture that I like sufficiently to show:
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Further up, the views are really beautiful:
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Around km. 17 (the total length of the Vía Verde is 22 km) the regular road, much used by road cyclists and motorcyclists on weekends runs right next to the trail:
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At the top, at km. 22, there is a parking used by people who drive here to hike, and some picnic tables for tired cyclists to rest. While I was taking my break, some fellow two-wheelers arrived:
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Back home, I photographed this dog outside the supermarket. For some reason, the hooks inside the vestibule have been removed, so my opportunities for continuing my “dogs of Consum” project are reduced. But occasionally, I am in luck:
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Staying with the canine theme, I finished the week at the 100 Montaditos bar on the beach, and photographed this happy creature. Now that we are in the low season, dogs are allowed on the local beaches:
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One reason I go to this place is to watch the human (and canine) traffic on the promenade as I enjoy my pint:
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Then this rollerskating couple came by for a photo shoot:
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The little girl passing by seemed interested in the proceedings:
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Then three young women on the beach proceeded to goof around while documenting it:
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Apparently, doing amateur model shoots on the beach is the thing this winter:
Then I finished my beer and went home to cook dinner.