Another week with not many photos during the working part of the week, but some good cycling at the weekend, and a friend’s birthday party.
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During my morning rides, I continued to see some glorious sunrises. Most of the time I just move on, since the focus is on finishing the ride and going to work, but sometimes it just too good not to stop and take a snap:
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A couple of snaps from my local supermarket, where I often stop on my way home to buy food for dinner. Here, the shop sign and the full moon:
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Inside the supermarket, I am buying a fish for that evening’s dinner. The lady running the counter is cleaning it for me. I just love the selection of fresh seafood that is available in almost every supermarket around here:
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On Friday afternoon I had a haircut appointment after work, at a place near Playa San Juan. I got there a bit early, so I walked down to the beach to have a beer at one of the bars. People were enjoying the relatively mild weather:
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At the neighbouring table was a couple with this nice senior greyhound:
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A pizza place near the beach that did not make it through the Covid recession. While economic activity in general is recovering well, the places that rely on tourists (such as restaurants and bars near the beach) have suffered greatly in 2020 and 2021, and many did not make it:
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I started Saturday with my usual bike ride, this time to the mountains between Aigües and Relleu:
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Later, we went to a friend’s birthday party. It was held at lunchtime, and while it was not warm, it was not too cold to be outside, albeit many of us kept our jackets on. As always, we started with a table of tapas:
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After the tapas, we always have some warm main dish, often a paella or BBQ. This time we had a real winter dish, gazpacho manchego, a thick soup that has nothing to do with the gazpacho (cold soup) that most of us know. A gazpacho manchego is somewhere between a soup and a stew, with chicken, wild mushrooms, lots of veggies etc.:
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The flavours, having done their job:
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Checking the gas:
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Ready to serve:
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On Sunday morning, I cycled to Villajoyosa up the coast. I first stopped at Platja (“beach” in Valenciano) Bol Nou just north of the town, a wonderful secluded beach, which at this early hour was empty. Here I look north towards Alicante:
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Looking the other way, there was one other person on the scene:
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I then moved on to the main beach in the centre of Villajoyosa, where there were a few more people:
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Villajoyosa has one of the most important fishing harbours on our part of the coast. It could well be that the fish I am buying in image 3 above is from here. On a Sunday morning, the boats are all in the harbour:
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A few people were out, working on various things, but by and large the harbour was quiet:
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Much to my delight, there was a sizeable population of cats:
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