During the week, I continued to enjoy my newly recovered relative freedom to move around, and we got together with our friends Eliot and Assumpta for the first time in more than two months. Right now, even the ability to do little things like that feels new and wonderful.
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I cycled to Villajoyosa again this week, but this time I went all the way to the centre of the town, since now there was no danger of being fined for leaving my municipality. Along the way, there is this short tunnel, which I normally do not particularly enjoy on bicycle, since the shoulder is narrow in the tunnel. But on this Sunday morning there was no traffic, so I even stopped to take a picture:
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Once in the town, I enjoyed the beautiful coloured houses in the little streets and on the beach promenade:
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Life on the beach paseo seemed more or less normal, although there were fewer people than usual, and the dress code was different as well:
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Entrance to Villajoyosa harbour:
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As I was leaving the beach area to cycle home, I was being watched:
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In the afternoon, we were invited by Eliot and Assumpta for lunch at their house, the first social visit in more than two months. Such visits are now allowed, with maximum 10 participants. We were 8 humans and 2 dogs, so within the limit. As we arrived, Eliot was already doing his thing on the BBQ:
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Ingredients found in many Spanish kitchens:
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Two puppies at furious play. They had amazing energy levels:
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But I did catch them at some semblance of stationarity. This one belongs to Assumpta:
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And this cutie belongs to Lucas, Eliot’s son:
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The next day, I was on my way to Busot and stopped to take in the view of the road and the climbing that awaited me–the little white house is the highest point of the ride:
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The familiar view of the village, with the cemetery on top:
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Busot has a new part of the village, with some nice, large houses and a nice view:
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My usual routine is to get up at 5:30 or 6, wake up with some coffee, have breakfast and go for my ride at 7-7:15 a.m. This means that I get to see some lovely morning light, like here over the old round tower in El Campello harbour:
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Small boat coming in:
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On Wednesday morning, I had an appointment with my rheumatologist who works in a clinic near my office, south of Alicante. I took advantage of the opportunity to visit the beach at Urbanova, a place I had not seen since February. The beach, like the ones north of the city where I live, is being cleaned up in preparation for the return of tourists, limited as it might be:
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Many of the bars and restaurants were still closed:
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But I was pleased to see people having breakfast at Moments, one of my favourite places:
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And some life on the promenade. In a few weeks, when Spain’s reopening enters the next stage, people from Madrid, who own many of the apartments on this beach, will be allowed to travel here again, and there will be more traffic on the beach:
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Some anti-confinement graffiti in Urbanova:
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Another morning ride, another morning of beautiful light along the beach:
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Morning light can be enjoyed also by looking down:
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In Busot, a man talks to his neighbour from his balcony:
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Busot, green trees and blue mountains:
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Along the road between Busot and Jijona a huge solar power plant is being built. Some people may consider it an eyesore, but I focus more on the clean energy it will produce, and the land on which it is being built is just a large, barren field:
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Another outing on the beach, this time by car to go for a beer at one of my favourite bars. I put a long lens on my camera and took some images of the distant mountains and the city of Benidorm across the bay:
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Fishing on the wave breaker:
