The week began in Rzeszów in Poland, where my wife and her partner Curra were playing in a bridge tournament, and it ended back in Alicante, saying goodbye to our wonderful trainee Romy, who was leaving us early to study at the prestigious College of Europe in Bruges.
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Sunday was our last day in Rzeszów, and while my wife and Curra were playing, I drove to the town Przemyśl, just 10 km from the Ukraine border, which I had also visited last year. A few km before reaching Przemyśl, I pulled over to have a look at a modern church in a village called Orły (“Eagles”):
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As a lover of modern architecture, I really liked the church, also inside, although I could not help wondering about the waste of money it is to build even more churches in a country where nobody has more than 1 km to the nearest church:
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I then drove to the centre of Przemyśl, parked the car and walked around for a couple of hours. A sign indicating the Camino de Santiago caught my eye. It is sure a long walk from here to north-western Spain:
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It was a hot day, so the mist installation on the central square Rynek was handy:
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A statue of the Good Soldier Švejk and his dog. Švejk is the main character in a series of books by Czech writer Jaroslav Hašek, which I read as a child in Polish translation and absolutely loved. The hero is an ordinary man whose goal in life is to survive being drafted into the Austro-Hungarian army in World War I. This part of Poland was part of the Austro-Hungarian empire during that war, and there is even a street named after Švejk:
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I happened upon an impromptu photo session near Rynek:
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The river San flows through Przemyśl:
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I drove back to Rzeszów where my wife and Curra were finishing the bridge tournament. After taking this group photo of the bridge players who had come from Spain, we drove the 300 km to Warsaw from where we were flying home the next morning. Curra is the lady with the crutch on the left, and my wife is next to her:
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We stayed in a hotel near the Modlin airport north of Warsaw. In the morning, I went for a brief walk along a river next to the hotel:
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One of the nice things about the hotel (we have stayed there before) is a very nice breakfast, finished with a freshly made pancake:
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Back in Alicante, it was a week of saying goodbye to my trainee Romy. She would normally be with us until mid-September, but she had been accepted to the College of Europe in Bruges and so was leaving about a month earlier. On Tuesday, she invited the department for a drink in the office:
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As usual on such occasions, I took pictures of my colleagues while munching the snacks and having a drink. This is our French trainee Laura:
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Patricia, and Blanca hiding behind her glass:
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Blanca:
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My new assistant Silvia, on the left, with María:
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Silvia:
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Lila, chatting with someone:
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Tuesday was also our wedding anniversary, so my wife and I walked to a nearby restaurant called Barra Zero for dinner. We did make a selfie to send to our children, but I focused my photography on the food, which looked and tasted nice:
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On Wednesday we continued our goodbye celebrations with Romy. The small team of economists took her out for lunch in the city, at a restaurant called Bigoli. Here she is with Marie-Hélène:
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Michał and Carolina:
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A delicious appetiser involving burrata:
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As we usually do with departing trainees, we gave Romy an Amazon gift card. But to prepare her for life in Belgium, I added an important cultural reference:
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Walking back to our car park along a rain-wet street, a rare sight in Alicante:
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On Friday, Romy’s last day, I took the very last photo of her in the office. She has been an usually willing “victim” and I plan to make a Blurb book for her–I certainly have enough pictures of her for that:
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At the weekend, I was back out on two wheels, this time to Jijona, the world capital of turrón. This is the town as seen from a spot a couple of km away, where I often stop to pee before entering the urban area:
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The main street in Jijona was decorated for a fiesta:
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We finished the weekend at Cirque du Soleil, currently visiting Alicante. This sort of thing is not really my cup of tea, but my daughter insisted and just bought the tickets, so I went. And I must admit that it was impressive. I did not take many photos, but here are three from the grand finale:
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