It was a week of intense work, and of course some cycling and good eating and drinking too. Twice a year, we host meetings of working groups organised around themes such as Enforcement of IP, Public Awareness, Legal, Digital, and the one I chair–Economics & Statistics. The attendees are representatives of the Member States, the private sector, and civil society. These meetings are a lot of work for us, and we spend a lot of time preparing for them and running them. We host them in Alicante in the spring and in Brussels in the autumn. So this week it was Alicante.
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But first a couple of images from downtown Alicante. A colourful mural on a street which contains one of my favourite beer shops and my favourite vegetarian restaurant:
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Just a few metres down the street, this amusing small mural which I had not noticed before:
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This is the room in which I spent much of the week. Here, my Italian colleague Valerio (who chairs the Enforcement Working Group) is speaking with one of the participants:
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In this particular meeting, I was just there to listen, so I spent some idle time on taking a selfie:
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On Wednesday night, we hosted a dinner at Maestral, one of the restaurants we use for such events because they can accommodate 100+ people. Here, Peter Hedin from Sweden, an old friend, speaks to my colleagues Carolina and Blanca:
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Peter and Blanca:
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One of my favourite people, Linda from the Latvian Ministry of Culture:
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Two Danish guys at dinner, consulting the phone:
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On Thursday, I went for lunch at Moments with two Polish economists. Not only is the food wonderful, but you get to enjoy views like this:
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Even though it was a pleasant lunch, there was also work involved. Piotr is an economist at the OECD and he brought his laptop to show us some stuff related to a study on which we are working together:
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On Friday, we had the meeting of the Economics & Statistics working group; during a break, I took a relaxed picture of Chris and Carolina:
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On Saturday, we drove to Moraira, a town about 70 km north of here, to visit a British couple we became friends with in Switzerland. They have a vacation home in Moraira, with this view of the town:
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We went for lunch at a restaurant near the coast. Clearly, they are geared to an international clientele:
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All food tastes better in settings like this:
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After lunch, we went back to the apartment and spent a couple of hours chatting. When the moon rose over Moraira, it was time for us to drive home:
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On Sunday, I went on a hard 100 km bicycle ride in the mountains. I have often looked at this old house near Jijona, but this time I stopped and photographed it:
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After 32 km, I stopped for a Coke at Venta Teresa, well deserved after 1.5 hours of pedaling uphill, climbing from sea level to 600 m:
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After my break at Venta Teresa, I continued climbing, reaching the Puerto de la Carrasqueta mountain pass at 1020 m and then descending to the town of Ibi. After passing the town, I stopped to photograph this funny house. I have passed it many times but this time I decided to stop and whip out my camera:
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Door bell:
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The fence and the wall are decorated with numerous quirky figurines:
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But then I saw this writing on the gate (“dangerous dogs, loose”). The bowls on the right made the threat credible, so I got back on my bike and moved on:
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On the home stretch, after about 80 km, with 20 km to go. On the left is the A7 motorway leading to Alicante, and on the right the service road on which I cycle:
