My friend Lars was also with us during week 3, so most of the pictures are from the things we did together during the week. Since I had to work every day and go to Munich on business for a couple of days, this means mostly eating and drinking during the evenings, and cycling and doing other outdoorsy things during the weekend.
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One thing Lars and I do not share is taste in cameras–he is a Canon guy:
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On Sunday, Lars and I went cycling, of course, this time taking the southern route. We stopped for a Coke at one of my usual places, a small grocery store a few km south of Elche:
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On the way home, we stopped at the beach to take a look and to pee:
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This is one of the trees we watered:
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Later in the week, on Saturday, we wanted to cycle in the mountains again, following the same route we had done the preceding Saturday, but this time going further, both in terms of elevation and distance. I had photographed this view a week earlier with blue sky; this time, the sky was less promising:
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The mountains looked beautiful in the bad weather, but bikers coming downhill warned us that conditions were bad up there. And they were right; after about 30 km, at an altitude of about 700 m (2000 feet), the temperature had dropped to 7C (from 17C at sea level) and the rain and wind made it almost impossible to move. So for the first time ever, we gave up and turned around to go home:
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That evening, we had a lamb roast with roasted vegetables:
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One of my favourite side dishes, jordskokker which Lars had brought from Denmark, fried in oliver oil with chopped parsley, crushed garlic and almond flakes. This root vegetable is called Jerusalem Artichoke in English, I think, and apparently it is eaten in parts of South America. For some strange reason, it is popular in Denmark but completely unobtainable here in Spain. Either way, it is delicious when prepared this way:
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Sunday was Lars’s last day here, and I wanted him to see the orange grove in Almoradí which belongs to our friends Carmen and Hilarión. The location of the orange grove is not even in Google maps, so we met up at their wine warehouse in an industrial park outside the town. We had to wait about 10 minutes for Carmen to arrive, so I passed the time attempting to get interesting pictures in an uninteresting place:
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Across the street from Vinospe is a recycling place, where copper thieves and garbage divers come to sell scrap metal:
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Sad Santas, evidently non-recyclable:
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Hilarión picks some lemons for us, in addition to the oranges:
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The harvest. These are the best oranges in the world. Not sprayed with anything, just juicy, sweet and delicious:
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On the way home, we found a tree growing plastic bottles:
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And I added to my collection of pictures of clubs of dubious repute, this one on the outskirts of Guardamar de Segura, a popular beach town:
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A bit later, we stopped at Playa del Pinet, one of my favourite places around here. This is the main street. It always makes me think of a scene from a spaghetti western:
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The day was sunny but windy, so there were not too many people on the beach. All the restaurants are closed for the season:
