My cousin Renata lives in Florida, and a few weeks ago she told me that she and her husband were going to spend a week on an intensive Spanish course in Madrid and would like to visit us during the weekend before the start of the course. My French cousin Nicole lives in Brussels, and she decided to visit us as well so as to see Renata and spend a pleasant weekend in Alicante. So most of this week’s pictures are about the international cousins get-together.
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But I start with four work-related pictures. First, one of my periodic lunches with Eri, this time in a new (to us) restaurant in the centre, called Demordisco, which turned out to be excellent:
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On Tuesday morning I was visited by members of our multimedia team. They came to record a 10-minute video with me, part of a “Meet the Director” series that is published on our intranet. We had pre-agreed the topics, a mix of work-related and personal subjects. I generally hate seeing myself on video, but having reviewed the result afterwards I must say that these ladies did a good job:
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My two cousins arrived on Thursday afternoon. I took Friday off to be with them, and we started the day in the town of Calpe, about 10 km north of Benidorm. We took a walk along the waterfront:
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The most important landmark in Calpe is this huge rock towering over the beach, called Peñón de Ifach:
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Three girls at play:
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Alon (Renata’s husband), Renata and Nicole:
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This Calpe seagull seemingly had no fear of humans; I shot this picture with a 35mm lens:
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But finally it decided to take off:
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The Peñón is a popular place to hike:
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On the way back, we stopped at the town of Villajoyosa to look at the famous coloured houses and the impossibly narrow and curved streets:
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A selfie in progress:
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We came home from our little excursion around lunchtime. I am the main cook of the house, but on this occasion my wife agreed to make paella to give our guests the full Spanish Mediterranean experience. And she makes better paella than any restaurant in Alicante. As usual, I documented the progress, starting with the initial peppers:
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The classical paella valenciana is made with chicken and rabbit, but we opted for paella de marisco. The seafood is waiting its turn on the paella pan:
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The large shrimp go first (the BBQ serves as the platform for the paellera, nothing more):
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Meanwhile, the hungry guests have a drink and a conversation:
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My wife adds the sofrito and the caldo (broth, the most important ingredient in any Spanish rice):
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Finally, the rice is added in the traditional cross pattern:
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The only remaining ingredient is time. After about 15 minutes, the paella is ready:
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Mochi is very interested in the proceedings:
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My wife presents the paella:
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Renata takes a picture before we get down to business:
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Then the paella was served and devoured with great pleasure:
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In the evening I took Mochi for a walk, and we passed the temporary beach bar, not very busy this evening:
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On Saturday I took my visitors to the Mercado Central. One of the stands where we bought stuff was the jamón shop:
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Some local culture at the jamón stand:
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On the square behind the Mercado we ran into a stag party. A young man called Javi (Javier) was getting married, and they were celebrating his remaining time in freedom:
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This is Javi, I suppose the grey hair represents the joys of marriage to come:
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After our visit to the centre of Alicante, we drove the 25 km south to Hostal Maruja for lunch, stopping at the Santa Pola salt flats along the way. Alon took this photo of the three cousins:
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Monica and Mochi joined us at Hostal Maruja:
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As usual at Hostal Maruja, I ordered several dishes to share:
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This is my favourite, pulpo a la plancha:
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After lunch, Alon and Nicole in conversation on the dirt road that runs past Hostal Maruja. This beach resort is how all beach resorts here looked 60 years ago:
