Everyday life continued this week. We have had very pleasant weather, between 25 and 30C during the day, but cooling off at night to temperatures that obviate the need for air conditioning to sleep well. The pictures are from my cycling escapades during the weekend, and from another sign of autumn–the Sunday afternoon live music at the Game Café on Playa San Juan started again.
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First a couple of pictures from an evening walk in the city. This is a covered street leading from city hall to the seaside esplanade:
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A wedding was apparently taking place inside the city hall. I did not think they did that here, and I have no idea who was getting married. By the look of things, someone not too affected by the crisis:
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The seaside paseo during early evening:
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On Sunday, I was out cycling again, this time north towards Benidorm. On the way, I stopped to photograph this road, which I also showed in week 38. I think this rendition is better. The road leads from the main Alicante-Valencia road to a small seaside community called Coveta Fuma:
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One of the joys of cycling is that it is easy to stop to take pictures. This is what Benidorm looks like when you approach it on the Valencia road. After a bend in the road, you suddenly see the skyline in front of you. In a car, one could stop in the emergency lane to take the picture, but it is a bit of hassle and illegal; on the bicycle, I am already in the emergency lane (which doubles as the bike path on this busy road), so it is just a matter of stopping and reaching for the camera in my handlebar bag:
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Another sad roadside memorial. This one is in El Campello, and my daughter actually knew the victims. They were two boys from the European School of Alicante (from which she graduated this summer) who were killed on their scooter near this spot. Their friends have been adding writings on the site:
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Sunday evening, I went to our beach to listen to live music at the Game Café, another autumn/winter tradition for us. First, I went for a brief walk on the beach, which was largely empty:
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I was playing around with my rarely used 12mm lens on the M8:
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A similar view to the previous photo, this time with a 50mm lens:
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Inside Game Café, Walter Henderson and Maria Sharapova. Walter is my daughter’s ex-chemistry teacher at the European school:
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A bit later, I went outside to look at the sunset. Heavy clouds were rolling in, but the light was nice and Benidorm is clearly visible in the background:
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Indeed, a few drops fell from the sky and the umbrellas came out. The “rain” lasted all of 5 minutes:
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A dog walk picture from Friday morning. I liked the reflections of clouds in the large windows of this newly built house, and the moon still visible:
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During the day on Friday, a Czech co-worker told me about a beer shop in the nearby town of Elche. This, of course, piqued my interest, and after work I drove the 25 km to El Rincón de la Cerveza. I entered the cavernous, warehouse-style shop and thought that I had died and gone to heaven:
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I bought a small selection only, but I will be back. These beers come from Belgium, England, Scotland and the US:
The last four images are from Saturday’s 107 km bike ride, this time towards the south.
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Wall art, El Altet. El Altet is the town in which Alicante airport is located, and the locals often refer to the airport simply as “El Altet”. Paradoxically, because of the orientation of the runways, there is hardly any aircraft noise in the town:
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Unfinished commercial building in the town of Dolores. It sits in an industrial area outside the town, next to a car dealership. Most likely it was intended to be a car dealership as well, but at some point financing must have run out:
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A car dealership in La Marina, south of Santa Pola. No prizes for guessing which nationality is the target audience:
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San Fulgencio was the first place where I took a break, after 56 km. To say that it is a sleepy town is an understatement:
