The main event during this week was clearly my Covid vaccination, but from a photography point of view, a bicycle ride on the Vía Verde and the first roll of film in my newly acquired Rolleiflex are both more important.
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The week started with our friend Eliot’s birthday party. The curfew now starts only at 1 a.m., so one can have more of a proper celebration. Here is the birthday boy doing what he usually does, serving copious amounts of grilled meat:
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The toast:
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(From left to right) Balu, Monica, Alejandra:
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The next morning, nursing a slight hangover, I took the mountainbike and ventured out to ride the Vía Verde del Maigmó. It had been raining all night, and the 5 km field path to get to the start of the Vía Verde was more technical (read: muddy) than usual:
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Finally I approached the starting point of the Vía Verde, the old train station of Agost, located amid vineyards:
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Some nice light at the start of the trail:
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I saw this couple several times during my ride. Their speed was somewhat slower than mine, so when I stopped to take pictures, they would pass me, but then I would catch up with them later:
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At the first rest stop, about 27 km into the ride, I admired my muddy bike. Generally, I do not clean my bikes (or cars, for that matter), but in this case I did hose it down when I came home a few hours later:
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At about 5 km there is this small viaduct; this was a narrow-gauge railroad once:
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Later on, a dry river bed with lots of vegetation:
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At km. 17, a family of four passed by:
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This is the couple in picture no. 8, emerging from a tunnel:
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In the late afternoon, I went to the beach. My way to enjoy the beach is to get a table at the bar on the promenade and watch the human traffic while enjoying a cold beer:
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An African vendor selling clothes and things on the beach. These are the people risking their lives crossing the Mediterranean in rickety boats. They have had a tough year during the pandemic, like everyone else who lives off the beach and the associated tourism:
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Many years ago, I had a Rolleiflex and I stupidly sold it. During the past couple of months I have been yearning to have one again. I love the square format, and I love the quality that can be obtained with these old cameras. A few weeks ago I came across a Rolleiflex T, roughly my age, in a Facebook group, and bought it. This week I got the first two rolls back from the lab, and I was very happy with the results. This is Plaza Seneca in central Alicante on a rainy day:
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In the office, I enlisted my favourite model, lovely Eri, for some more camera tests:
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But the main event of the week was that I was called for the first shot of the Covid vaccine. I was wondering why it was taking so long, since my wife (same age as me) was vaccinated in early May, and several colleagues at the office who are younger than me had already been called. But since I had the disease in January and therefore have some degree of immunity, I was not too worried. Still, I was happy when I got the call, and I showed up early at the facility where I was going to get my jab, a senior citizen centre about 3 km from my house which was being used as a vaccination facility:
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Queuing in an orderly fashion, a somewhat unusual occurrence in this country:
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At exactly 9:06 I was given my Astra-Zeneca vaccine. After the jab, we were asked to sit in the garden for 15 minutes to make sure there were no adverse reactions, with a nurse watching us:
The remaining four images are in the “miscellaneous” category.
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The pretty blue flowers are everywhere, including on my windshield:
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A curious sign at our local Carrefour supermarket. By law, the origin of all produce must be clearly marked. In the fruit and veg section, I am used to seeing the country of origin identified. Sometimes, the Spanish region is shown (for example, Murcia). But in this case, the supermarket apparently felt the need to emphasize that Catalonia is part of Spain. Not sure if this is a political statement:
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Sometimes one does not need to leave the house to see beauty. This is morning light in my hallway:
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To finish the blog with something tasty, here is a dinner I cooked during the week, grilled shrimp, beans and tofu in gochujang sauce:
