Two main themes this week: eating and drinking with friends, and looking at the impressive open-air nativity display in the nearby town of Jijona, a sure sign that Christmas is upon us.
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We started the week with lunch at our friends Eliot and Assumpta:
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In the kitchen, a very interested onlooker:
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And this is the activity that Balu was following with such interest:
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When we have lunch at Eliot and Assumpta’s, usually grilled meat, lots of it, is involved (Eliot is from Argentina). But on this occasion Assumpta had made delicious grilled corvina:
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Balu is one of the sweetest dogs I know. He is a child of the pandemic, born just before Covid hit us in early 2020:
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During one of my morning bike rides the sunrise was truly beautiful, and I stopped to take a couple of pictures. These two people were sitting in the sand, waiting for sun to appear over the horizon:
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This man was combining two pleasures, fishing and watching the sunrise:
Then I return to the “eating with friends” theme. A couple of months ago, the men in our circle of friends decided to meet for lunch without our wives/partners once a month, taking turns to select the restaurant. Because many of them are Spanish-French bilingual, the name of the group is French: “Les 8 salopards” which can loosely be translated as “the 8 assholes”. The first time the group met was in late October, while I was in Denmark, so this week was my first opportunity to participate. The chosen location was a Polish restaurant in Benidorm which I had never heard of. Given my background (and my love of Polish food) I was looking forward to it, and I was not disappointed. The food was delicious and 100% authentic.
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The view of our table. The restaurant is not fancy, and the bill per head ended up at a modest 30 Euro, with drinks and tip:
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The waitress explaining some of the dishes to my friends. She was indeed Polish:
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I chose pierogi for my main dish:
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Some of my friends chose golonka, a pork shank that is also widely eaten in Germany. Roberto looks positively scared when confronted with the size of the dish:
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Iñaki also ordered this dish and applied himself:
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We spent about 3 hours in the restaurant, talking and laughing a lot besides eating, and of course this is the real purpose of these get-togethers:
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As usual, I finished the week on the bicycle, this time in Jijona, the town about 25 km from here famous for its turrón, but also well known for its outdoor nativity display, a sure sign that Christmas is upon us. The life-size figures are placed in a natural setting, and people come to see it from all over Alicante province:
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Above the rock there is a footpath:
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The central characters:
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The supporting players:
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The Three Kings are there too:
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And yes, that is my bicycle in the background:
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There was a steady stream of locals coming by to have a look:
