The big event of the third week of 2024 was the visit of my best friend Lars, who lives in our mutual home town of Aarhus in Denmark. He has been coming every January since I moved to Alicante in 2007 except for last year. In 2022 he had been diagnosed with non-Hodgkins lymphoma and was still undergoing treatment last spring and summer, which made it difficult to travel. He told me that he would come when he could cycle 100 km once again–and after a successful course of treatment, he now can. I visited him in late October and we went cycling around Aarhus on that occasion, but the widespread flooding cut our ride short. So we were looking forward to hitting the mountain roads around Alicante.
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I did have to work during the week, though. We held a conference on enforcement of plant variety rights, during which I had to give a talk, so I took the opportunity to take a few pictures. This is the overall view of our conference room, which is also used for meetings of our governing bodies:
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I then turned the camera on my colleagues next to me:
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I had given Lars my car to use while I was at work, so I came home on public transport. This involved taking a free shuttle from the office to the centre and then the tram home. This gave me an opportunity to have a beer on Plaza Luceros, a large roundabout lined by several bars and shops. There was also a large angel statue, a leftover from Christmas:
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The Duke bar has a good beer selection:
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I especially enjoyed the Belgian beer La Chouffe on draft:
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I was able to take Wednesday and Friday off. On Wednesday, Lars and I ventured on a serious uphill ride, wanting to reach the Carrasqueta mountain pass (alttidue 1020 meters). We stopped so that Lars could take a selfie next to the sign announcing the final 10 km of the climb:
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Lars was intrigued by the sign warning motorcyclists that the police is there with drones and other devices to check speed, and that there had been 18 fatalities in the past 5 years:
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After 28 km of cycling uphill we arrived at Venta Teresa where I always take a break on the way to Carrasqueta. At that point we were at 720 meters, so there was another 300 meters to climb over the next 6 1/2 km or so. Lars told me that he felt too out of shape to do that–he had not cycled in the mountains for 2 years and it showed (hard to train serious climbing when you live in a country with its highest point at around 170 meters):
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So we went back home, but on the way we detoured into the centre of Jijona so that Lars could see the open-air nativity scene. I was hoping it would still be there, and it was:
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Not only was the installation still there, but someone had even embellished it:
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In the afternoon, we rewarded ourselves with lunch at the Thai restaurant Monica and I “discovered” the previous week:
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My spicy soup was every bit as spicy and delicious as had been the case during my first visit:
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Afterwards we went for a coffee at 100 Montaditos, the beach bar which is now among my favourite watering holes:
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A feathery visitor:
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Quite a sight in mid-January:
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On Thursday one of my team members invited us for lunch to celebrate his 15th anniversary at the office. We went to Tabula Rasa, a high-end restaurant in a low-end neighbourhood (which means low rent and low prices). As usual, Carolina provided a funny face for a photo:
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Romy, our Algerian-Spanish trainee:
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On the way to the car, some amusing wall art, something I always look for:
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I also managed to take Friday off so that Lars and I could go cycling again. Unfortunately it was drizzly, the first rainy day for several weeks, lending a Danish ambience to our ride:
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A rest in Aigues:
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Nice view of Busot in cloudy weather:
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In the afternoon, we drove to the centre and had lunch at a Lebanese place that I like. It is located on a square called Plaza San Cristobal, which was also blessed with a large angel:
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I noticed some more street art that I had not seen before (no idea who the people depicted are):
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And finally, a truly striking mural, on the wall of a sports bar, depicting the two football stars Messi and Neymar in a rather unusual pose:
