My sister and brother-in-law were with us until Wednesday, and on Monday we celebrated her birthday. Otherwise, it was the usual mix of work, cycling and some very nice weather.
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On Sunday I took my visitors to the Francisco Gomez vineyard, a modern bodega about 70 km from Alicante which is a great place to visit. On the way you drive through some nice fields with interesting views:
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The vineyard:
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The courtyard:
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The old new façade. In fact, Francisco Gomez is a brand new bodega, having produced its first wines only 10 years ago. But some of the buildings are built with old stones from AndalucÃa:
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A modern gargoyle of sorts:
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The fermentation tanks:
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Francisco Gomez produces both wine and olive oil. This is a detail of an old olive press:
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The cellar:
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The tour is ending soon; our guide explains the wines and olive oil we will taste in a few minutes:
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In the tasting room, some snacks are laid out for us to go along with the wine:
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My sister gets down to business:
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While we were touring the facilities, the sky became more interesting:
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I had also brought my medium format film camera, loaded with TriX:
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Some food porn from home; a paella:
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And some Argentina-style grilled beef:
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Monday morning my wife prepared a sumptuous birthday breakfast for my sister. Cheeta was very interested in the proceedings:
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The way to start the day:
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In the evening, my sister is munching on something, and Cheeta, as always, shows great interest:
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The way to end the day:
Then on to some cycling pictures.
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The door of the church in Aigües. The priest’s name is Francisco, but evidently to his flock he is simply Paco:
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Sunrise on Playa San Juan:
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Dawn on Playa Muchavista:
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About 20 minutes later, in the hills, the rising sun illuminates the road and a rather drab-looking building:
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View of Alicante from the descent from Aigües:
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The highest point in the village of Busot is occupied by the cemetery, as is often the case in small-town Spain:
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Peeling paint on the road to Jijona:
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Cat on balcony in Aigües, looking at something:
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Looking at me:
Finally, two miscellaneous images that I include just because I like them.
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Our favourite local pizza place, La Tagliatella:
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Saturday night, we are at a party with an Algerian theme, and one of my wife’s good friends Nereida is talking to another friend of ours:
another interesting and neat set, Nathan!
Comment by Geoff Hopknson — 22 October 2014 @ 00:44
Excellent. We visited a tasting room here in Oklahoma, but the snacks were for a wine smoothie (not kidding for once). There was a winery in northern Oklahoma that we visited, wine made from their own vineyard. Their Cabernet was excellent, $20 per bottle, but they only had one left…A year later the vineyard was burned down by competitors. This probably doesn’t happen much in France or Spain, I would guess.
Comment by Ken Carney — 22 October 2014 @ 01:20