The second week of January was quiet. My wife was visiting her family in Puerto Rico, I was back at work, so it was back to the usual cycling and work photos.
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I start with a couple of random images from the supermarket. First, some melons that are still in Christmas mode:
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Then, a sign of the times. The inflation in the past couple of years, coupled with a terrible olive harvest in 2023, has resulted in a doubling of prices of extra virgin olive oil, a staple of Spanish life. This has led to shoplifting of olive oil, which in turn has led the supermarkets to implement anti-theft measures similar to those used on expensive alcoholic drinks:
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Monica and I went for lunch at a Thai restaurant in our neighbourhood. A real one, owned by a Thai couple. As usual, Monica photographed the food before digging in:
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I started my lunch with a soup that was seriously spicy, just as I like it:
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We continued with curries, also delicious:
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My pre-work bike rides continued to provide me with beautiful views of the sunrise over the Mediterranean:
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Then back to the office. The board of our art club, WeArt, met one day to plan our activities for 2024. The chairperson of the club is Kari, the only extrovert Finn I know:
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On Friday, we said goodbye to Juan Ramón, who is taking early retirement after working in our office ever since it was established 30 years ago. Because he has been here so long, many people know him and were invited to the reception:
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Three ladies who are part of the senior management of our office, Patricia, Susana and Ursula (Spanish, Spanish and Finnish, respectively):
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The person who made the main speech for Juan was Birgit, a manager in the operations department where Juan used to work:
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Listening to the speech:
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Finally, Juan spoke, and he did it very well:
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Afterwards, Juan chatted with various people, like here with Nicasio, who retired several years ago:
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On my way home, I stopped in the centre to buy something and photographed the churros stand outside the Corte Inglés department store:
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On Saturday, my wife was coming back from Puerto Rico, and later in the evening my best friend Lars was arriving from Denmark to visit us for a week. But in the morning I took a long bike ride to the Vía Verde. At the starting point of my ride there is a picnic area from where there is a nice view of the town of Agost:
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The picnic area, a place where I always stop for a quick snack and Coke before starting the ascent toward Maigmó:
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One of the main attractions of cycling on the Vía Verde are the views along the way. Here, a woman walks her dog among almond trees:
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Almond trees and hazy mountains:
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This is roughly the midpoint of the 22 km trail:
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A last stop at km. 17. At this point there is another 5 km of the trail, but I often end the off-road part of the ride here and go back on the adjacent paved road to Agost. A family was walking on the trail, something one sees a lot here–it is not just for cyclists:
