{"id":2566,"date":"2019-07-23T21:27:23","date_gmt":"2019-07-23T20:27:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.fotocycle.dk\/paws\/?page_id=2566"},"modified":"2019-07-23T21:27:23","modified_gmt":"2019-07-23T20:27:23","slug":"week-28-early-morning-on-the-beach-two-birthday-parties-on-the-same-day","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/www.fotocycle.dk\/paws\/?page_id=2566","title":{"rendered":"Week 28: early morning on the beach, two birthday parties on the same day"},"content":{"rendered":"

It was a week of cycling, work and, on the last Saturday of the week, two birthday parties in one day, hard work.<\/p>\n

28_1<\/strong>
\nThe week started on Sunday with the usual bike ride. I did a fairly hard ride, involving cycling uphill for about 30 km, and then by and large letting gravity bring me home. This spot is my first rest, after 26 km, just before a steep climb of 10% lasting 1 km. Normally I stop just before the tunnel, but this morning it was so hot that I needed the shade:
\n\"1140786\"<\/p>\n

28_2<\/strong>
\nIt was a busy week at work but on Tuesday morning I went down to the beach for a few minutes. The light was lovely:
\n\"1140791\"<\/p>\n

28_3<\/strong>
\nWalking at the water’s edge:
\n\"1140792\"<\/p>\n

28_4<\/strong>
\nEl Campello, illuminated by the rising sun:
\n\"1140793\"<\/p>\n

28_5<\/strong>
\nOn the way home, a kitty drinking from a puddle. He looked up at me (I was on my bicycle)…:
\n\"1140800\"<\/p>\n

28_6<\/strong>
\n…and then walked away in the kind of dignified way only cats can:
\n\"1140801\"<\/p>\n

28_7<\/strong>
\nFriday afternoon; I am back on my bicycle after work. This is what Alicante looks like from the surrounding hills:
\n\"1140802\"<\/p>\n

28_8<\/strong>
\nFriday evening, as usual waiting for my pizza at Tutti’s and looking at the people around me:
\n\"R005501\"<\/p>\n

28_9<\/strong>
\nSaturday started with a trip to the bakery to get bread for the morning; many people instead take their breakfast right at the bakery. This is a very typical feature of Spanish life:
\n\"1140808\"<\/p>\n

28_10<\/strong>
\nA couple of hours later, another typical Spanish scene, in Aig\u00c3\u00bces. A grandfather taking a walk with his grandchild. Grandparents play a big role in child rearing here, partly because of strong family ties, and partly out of necessity–child care is expensive for many young families:
\n\"1140809\"<\/p>\n

28_11<\/strong>
\nThen it was time to drive to a village north of Benidorm, where our friend I\u00c3\u00b1aki was celebrating his 61st birthday. As we arrived, the usual grillmeister Hans and another friend were already at work:
\n\"L1014065\"<\/p>\n

28_12<\/strong>
\n\"L1014068\"<\/p>\n

28_13<\/strong>
\nThe view from the house was gorgeous, an undulating landscape dotted with fruit plantations, covered to protect them from birds:
\n\"L1014055\"<\/p>\n

28_14<\/strong>
\nA banana tree that in the end yields nothing edible:
\n\"L1014083\"<\/p>\n

28_15<\/strong>
\nThe party went on for several hours, with people eating, drinking (not me, sadly, as I was driving), and conversing. This is Hans, originally from Germany but has lived in Spain most of his life, and his wife Mar. They are a great couple who just came back from a 20,000 km motorcycle trip around South America:
\n\"L1014072\"<\/p>\n

28_16<\/strong>
\nHans and Mar in B&W. They were telling us about their adventures in South America, and the plans for upcoming motorcycle voyages, one from North Africa to the Cape, and one starting in Miami and basically riding the circumference of the North American continent:
\n\"L1014074\"<\/p>\n

28_17<\/strong>
\nMar talking to one of the other women at the party. Like all the other pictures from this afternoon, I used my Leica M8, in this case with the 90mm Tele Elmarit lens. I am always amazed at the quality of this 40+ year old optic:
\n\"L1014082\"<\/p>\n

28_18<\/strong>
\nThen it was time for I\u00c3\u00b1aki to pour the cava:
\n\"L1014086\"<\/p>\n

28_19<\/strong>
\n…and to receive his presents…:
\n\"L1014094\"<\/p>\n

28_20<\/strong>
\n…and to have his cake:
\n\"L1014087\"<\/p>\n

28_21<\/strong>
\nAround 8 p.m., we drove home, stopping briefly to photograph this hilltop village:
\n\"L1014101\"<\/p>\n

28_22<\/strong>
\nAt 10 p.m., it was time to go to the second birthday party of the day, this time fortunately at a nearby restaurant, a nice, non-fancy place. The photo of the owner displayed next to the bottles is typical of this kind of place:
\n\"R005504\"<\/p>\n

28_23<\/strong>
\nA beer at the bar:
\n\"R005502\"<\/p>\n

28_24<\/strong>
\nOur table:
\n\"R005507\"<\/p>\n

28_25<\/strong>
\nOur Catalan\/Argentine friends:
\n\"R005506\"<\/p>\n

28_26<\/strong>
\nTime for the presents:
\n\"R005511\"<\/p>\n

And that was that week.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It was a week of cycling, work and, on the last Saturday of the week, two birthday parties in one day, hard work. 28_1 The week started on Sunday with the usual bike ride. I did a fairly hard ride, involving cycling uphill for about 30 km, and then by and large letting gravity bring […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":2397,"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\/2566"}],"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=2566"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/www.fotocycle.dk\/paws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2566\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2571,"href":"http:\/\/www.fotocycle.dk\/paws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2566\/revisions\/2571"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.fotocycle.dk\/paws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2397"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.fotocycle.dk\/paws\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2566"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}