Winter is well and truly over, at least in our part of Spain. During week 7 we had one day with localized rain but mostly spectacular skies. By the weekend the weather was glorious and I explored a new area and was rewarded with an interesting discovery.
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On Sunday afternoon, my wife and I stopped to have a look at a cricket match. She had never seen cricket before. After watching it for a few minutes, her verdict was “it is even more boring than baseball”. We moved on:
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Beatrice works in my department. She is very sweet and photogenic, even if somewhat shy:
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Here she is working on something with two colleagues from another department:
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The reason I always bring the camera to work is the same reason why I always carry a camera–to be ready for opportunities. On the same day I took the above pictures of Beatrice, the sky was spectacular. During the morning, the view from my window was like this:
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During the afternoon, the threatening clouds delivered on their threat:
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The new sculpture on Avenida Vicente Ramos is now finished. It is nice to have some art to look at while walking the dog. A plaque explains that it is a gift of the local nursing association; the two hands symbolize the care provided by the profession:
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Later on Saturday morning, I decided to drive down to the Salinas de Santa Pola, a large salt marsh and bird sanctuary about 25 km south of Alicante:
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Another view of the Salinas, a place I visit from time to time:
This time, I continued driving towards the south. After a few km, I saw a sign pointing to a beach and decided to explore it. What I found was amazing. There was not much beach access. Instead, I found a ghost town. Entire subdivisions (urbanizaciones as they are called here) whose construction has simply stopped. The skeletons of the buildings now lie abandoned, and in some places one can already see nature beginning to encroach. Clearly, what happened was that the developer ran out of money and gave up. Our coastline is dotted with such places now. Here, some bank lost a lot of money, and a lot of workers lost their jobs. It will be a long time before the crisis is behind us. In the meantime, at least these places provide photo opportunities for people like me.
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Overall view:
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Skeleton:
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Inside the skeleton:
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What was intended to be a staircase:
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Semi-finished staircase and discarded signs:
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Iron flower:
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Iron crescent:
