{"id":1832,"date":"2017-03-22T13:21:10","date_gmt":"2017-03-22T12:21:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.fotocycle.dk\/paws\/?page_id=1832"},"modified":"2017-03-22T14:16:54","modified_gmt":"2017-03-22T13:16:54","slug":"week-11-flooding-in-alicante-back-to-brussels","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/www.fotocycle.dk\/paws\/?page_id=1832","title":{"rendered":"Week 11: flooding in Alicante, back to Brussels"},"content":{"rendered":"

A mixed week, starting with the most violent rain in Alicante in more than 80 years, and finishing with a quick trip to Brussels and a weekend of sunshine.<\/p>\n

11_1<\/strong>
\nAs usual, I was out and about on two wheels in the mountains:
\n\"R001479\"<\/p>\n

11_2<\/strong>
\nThere was a cross-country running event being staged around Busot:
\n\"R001474\"<\/p>\n

11_3<\/strong>
\nAbout 3 km from Busot there are some caves, popular among visitors and also used for concerts, called Cuevas de Cantelobre. The road to the caves is very pretty, and one climbs more than 200 meters during those 3 km, so an average grade of 6-7%:
\n\"R001484\"<\/p>\n

11_4<\/strong>
\nOn the central square of Busot a small vegetable market was set up. This is really the entire market–everything there is on a small scale. But the produce is all local and looks good:
\n\"R001477\"<\/p>\n

11_5<\/strong>
\n\"R001478\"<\/p>\n

11_6<\/strong>
\nDuring Sunday night, it started raining. There was a little letup during Monday morning, enabling me to walk Cheeta. The golf course was certainly not playable:
\n\"R001488\"<\/p>\n

11_7<\/strong>
\nDuring the day, at the office, I took advantage of the photographic opportunities offered by the bad weather. Here I focused on the flag on the terrace:
\n\"R001489\"<\/p>\n

11_8<\/strong>
\nAnd here I focused on the rain drops on the glass door:
\n\"R001490\"<\/p>\n

11_9<\/strong>
\nOn Tuesday the rain had stopped, and I ventured out for lunch in the centre, exploring some urban colours with my camera:
\n\"DSF1282\"<\/p>\n

11_10<\/strong>
\n\"DSF1284\"<\/p>\n

11_11<\/strong>
\nOn Wednesday afternoon, I was cycling after work. Even then, two days after the rain had stopped, wide parts of the areas near Playa San Juan were still flooded:
\n\"R001497\"<\/p>\n

11_12<\/strong>
\nApartment building parking lot. Some cars will need cleaning:
\n\"R001495\"<\/p>\n

11_13<\/strong>
\nAnother cyclist stopped to photograph the scene:
\n\"R001498\"<\/p>\n

11_14<\/strong>
\nOn Thursday afternoon, I flew to Brussels for meetings at the European Commission the following day. As usual, after checking in at the hotel, I went out in search of dinner. At a street corner near Schuman, I noticed some funny-looking additions to the urban landscape:
\n\"DSF1290\"<\/p>\n

11_15<\/strong>
\nI went over to have a closer look:
\n\"DSF1289\"<\/p>\n

11_16<\/strong>
\nBut then it was time to go for dinner, this time at an Italian restaurant called La Brace, where excellent pizza and pasta are on the menu, and there was even musical entertainment. It was funny to hear “Sultans of Swing” and similar tunes played on two acoustic guitars:
\n\"DSF1287\"<\/p>\n

11_17<\/strong>
\nMy meeting was a few minutes walk from the hotel, and it started only at 10 a.m., so I had ample time for a long morning walk. The familiar fa\u00c3\u00a7ade of Berlaymont was displaying a huge banner celebrating the 60th anniversary of the Treaty of Rome, the founding document for what later became the European Union:
\n\"DSF1306\"<\/p>\n

11_18<\/strong>
\nI see this building on a regular basis, but I continue to explore it visually, always trying for different angles:
\n\"DSF1298\"<\/p>\n

11_19<\/strong>
\nA common sight here; two women walking with a suitcase, in the direction of the bus stop where one picks up the express bus to the airport:
\n\"DSF1300\"<\/p>\n

11_20<\/strong>
\nI went back to the installation I had noticed the night before to explore the sculptures by day light:
\n\"DSF1295\"<\/p>\n

11_21<\/strong>
\nThe sign explains the background:
\n\"DSF1297\"<\/p>\n

11_22<\/strong>
\nFunny face:
\n\"DSF1291\"<\/p>\n

11_23<\/strong>
\nAnother funny face:
\n\"DSF1292\"<\/p>\n

11_24<\/strong>
\nThe bases had inscriptions in various languages, here German:
\n\"DSF1294\"<\/p>\n

11_25<\/strong>
\nAnd of course, Friday was St Patrick’s Day:
\n\"DSF1313\"<\/p>\n

11_26<\/strong>
\n\"DSF1311\"<\/p>\n

11_27<\/strong>
\nOn a more serious note, I came across this fence on Rue de la Loi. A year ago, on 22 March 2016, there were coordinated terrorist attacks at Brussels airport and at the nearby Maelbeek metro station, killing 32 people and injuring hundreds. Now, on the first anniversary, a memorial was about to be unveiled in a few days:
\n\"DSF1307\"<\/p>\n

11_28<\/strong>
\nStill all wrapped up. I will get to see when I am back in Brussels on March 30th:
\n\"DSF1303\"<\/p>\n

11_29<\/strong>
\nI continued walking towards the Parc du Cinquantenaire and stopped by the statue of Schuman at the top of Rue de la Loi. A wider view shows the park in the background:
\n\"DSF1304\"<\/p>\n

11_30<\/strong>
\nA closer look. Robert Schuman, France’s foreign minister during the post-war years, was the key founding father of what later became the EU:
\n\"DSF1305\"<\/p>\n

11_31<\/strong>
\nI spent most of the rest of the day in a 5th floor meeting room at the European Commission, discussing ways to help small and medium-sized enterprises access the Intellectual Property system. During the lunch break, I took advantage of the location to get some views of the European quarter:
\n\"DSF1314\"<\/p>\n

11_32<\/strong>
\nFrom the same vantage point, a view of Etterbeek, one of the 19 communes <\/em>(municipalities) that comprise Brussels:
\n\"DSF1316\"<\/p>\n

11_33<\/strong>
\nI took a brief walk in the park to get some fresh air:
\n\"DSF1317\"<\/p>\n

11_34<\/strong>
\nUrban fauna:
\n\"DSF1323\"<\/p>\n

11_35<\/strong>
\nThis statue, at the park entrance, is simply called “The Dog”:
\n\"DSF1324\"<\/p>\n

Then the meeting ended, my colleague and I made our way to Charleroi airport, from where we could still get a flight back to Alicante that evening rather than having to spend a second night in Brussels.<\/p>\n

11_36<\/strong>
\nSaturday we had glorious sunshine in Alicante, and I played 9 holes of golf with my wife during the afternoon:
\n\"R001506\"<\/p>\n

11_37<\/strong>
\nWe even had spectators:
\n\"R001508\"<\/p>\n

11_38<\/strong>
\nThis was my best shot of the day–had I made the resulting putt, I would have made par on this hole, which would have been a first for me (I just started golf a few months ago):
\n\"R001510\"<\/p>\n

And with those long shadows we end week 11.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A mixed week, starting with the most violent rain in Alicante in more than 80 years, and finishing with a quick trip to Brussels and a weekend of sunshine. 11_1 As usual, I was out and about on two wheels in the mountains: 11_2 There was a cross-country running event being staged around Busot: 11_3 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":1779,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.fotocycle.dk\/paws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1832"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.fotocycle.dk\/paws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.fotocycle.dk\/paws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.fotocycle.dk\/paws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.fotocycle.dk\/paws\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1832"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/www.fotocycle.dk\/paws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1832\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1835,"href":"http:\/\/www.fotocycle.dk\/paws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1832\/revisions\/1835"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.fotocycle.dk\/paws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1779"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.fotocycle.dk\/paws\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1832"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}