\nI start with a picture from my local supermarket. Seeing a cute dog when I come in to shop always brings a smile to my face and makes me think of my late beloved Cheeta:
\n
![\"1150155\"](\"uploads\/2019\/34_1.jpg\")
<\/p>\n34_2<\/strong> 34_3<\/strong> 34_4<\/strong> 34_5<\/strong> 34_6<\/strong> 34_7<\/strong> 34_8<\/strong> 34_9<\/strong> 34_10<\/strong> 34_11<\/strong> 34_12<\/strong> I took Friday off to spend the day in Madrid. The distance between Alicante and the centre of Madrid is about 450 km, taking around 4 hours to drive if there are no problems on the motorway. So until a few years ago, a day trip to the capital was not really feasible: 8 hours of driving would leave too little time to enjoy the city. But then the high-speed train AVE came to Alicante, and now it takes 2 hours and 25 minutes to travel from the centre of Alicante to the centre of Madrid, in comfort and at a price that makes it cheaper than driving for one person. I took a 7 a.m. train from Alicante, and a 9 p.m. train back, giving me almost 12 hours in the city. I have made a dedicated gallery from the day here<\/a>, but below I show some images that did not fit into that gallery.<\/p>\n 34_13<\/strong> 34_14<\/strong> 34_15<\/strong> 34_16<\/strong> 34_17<\/strong> 34_18<\/strong> 34_19<\/strong> 34_20<\/strong> 34_21<\/strong> 34_22<\/strong> 34_23<\/strong> 34_24<\/strong> 34_25<\/strong> 34_26<\/strong> 34_27<\/strong> 34_28<\/strong> 34_29<\/strong> 34_30<\/strong> 34_31<\/strong> 34_32<\/strong> 34_33<\/strong> 34_34<\/strong> 34_35<\/strong> 34_36<\/strong> 34_37<\/strong> 34_38<\/strong> 34_39<\/strong> The last seven images, from Aig\u00c3\u00bces and Busot, have two common themes: preparations and cycling.<\/p>\n 34_40<\/strong> 34_41<\/strong> 34_42<\/strong> 34_43<\/strong> 34_44<\/strong> 34_45<\/strong>
\nOn Sunday afternoon, our neighbour Juan invited us for paella in his backyard. He prefers to make it in this very rustic manner rather than using a gas paellera<\/em> as is more common. He is originally from Castilla La Mancha, and this is how they made rice in his village. Here Juan adds water to the caldo<\/em> with chicken, vegetables and other good things:
\n![\"R005531\"](\"uploads\/2019\/34_2.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\nThe final step is to add the rice and wait:
\n![\"R005532\"](\"uploads\/2019\/34_3.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\nReady to serve:
\n![\"R005536\"](\"uploads\/2019\/34_4.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\nJuan has a large garden which contains, besides the usual lemon tree, some grapes as well:
\n![\"R005535\"](\"uploads\/2019\/34_5.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\nOne of the aspects of my job I enjoy is the opportunity to have trainees in my team. These young people, typically graduate law or economics students, are nominated by their universities and get to spend a year working with us. In the vast majority of cases, it is beneficial to both the trainee (who gets useful work experience and an enhanced CV) and for us, since we get some real work out of them (no fetching coffee here). They get paid 1200 Euros a month which in Alicante is more than enough for a single young person to live on. After they finish the year with us, then can apply for another year at the European Patent Office in Munich to get further experience in a different setting. On Tuesday we were saying goodbye to our trainee Oscar who was finishing his year in my team. We held a farewell lunch for him at Moments, the beachside restaurant a few minutes from the office:
\n![\"DSF4700\"](\"uploads\/2019\/34_6.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\n![\"DSF4702\"](\"uploads\/2019\/34_7.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\nThe owner of Moments knows me, and he came over to our table to chat, and to tell us about a new seafood restaurant they are opening a hundred meters away, also on the beach promenade:
\n![\"DSF4701\"](\"uploads\/2019\/34_8.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\nWe ordered the dessert to share; I did not eat it but it did look nice:
\n![\"DSF4704\"](\"uploads\/2019\/34_9.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\nBack at the office, I have something new to photograph the next couple of months. When I joined the agency in October 2007, an apartment building was being built about 100 meters away. Given that our location is not the most attractive (5 km from the centre, no beach access, hardly any bars or restaurants within walking distance) it seemed as a speculative project already then. Sure enough, when the financial crisis hit in late 2008 and early 2009, work stopped, the cranes and other equiment disappeared, and some bank became the unhappy owner of the skeleton. It remained like this for the next several years. Finally, late last year, we bought the site for about 1\/4 of the original asking price from the second bank that owned it (the first one had gone bust some years ago). The intention is to clear the site and hold the land in reserve for future expansion of the office. This week, the demolition of the large skeleton began.I plan to document it as it progresses. This is the start of the work on Monday:
\n![\"1150159\"](\"uploads\/2019\/34_10.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\nBy Thursday, two “dinosaurs” were munching away at the concrete:
\n![\"DSF4706\"](\"uploads\/2019\/34_11.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\n![\"DSF4709\"](\"uploads\/2019\/34_12.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\nI arrived in Madrid with a half hour delay (the reasons for which were never explained by the railway company RENFE), and walked from the Atocha station to the Prado, my first stop. Along the way, I stopped to photograph this traditional bar:
\n![\"DSF4712\"](\"uploads\/2019\/34_13.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\nAlthough Madrid seemed half-empty (in August, half of the city’s population decamps to the Mediterranean coast where I live), there was the usual long queue outside Prado to buy tickets. Fortunately for me, I am a member of the Amigos del Prado, so I have free entry and a separate entrance:
\n![\"DSF4730\"](\"uploads\/2019\/34_14.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\nI went to the Prado to see an exhibition of 17th century Dutch and Spanish painting, but I also went to re-visit some of my favourites, especially Goya. His Maja is one of the great paintings of all time:
\n![\"DSF4726\"](\"uploads\/2019\/34_15.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\nBut this is probably Goya’s most important painting at the Prado, at least for me. It is called “3 de mayo del 1803” and depicts the execution of Spanish rebels by French troops following a failed uprising against Napoleon’s occupation the preceding day. I find it an utterly fantastic piece of art, and it makes a deep impression on me every time I see it:
\n![\"DSF4727\"](\"uploads\/2019\/34_16.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\nAfter my visit to the Prado, I walked to the metro station to go to my next destination. Along the way, I photographed details and signs, such as this old bakery sign:
\n![\"DSF4735\"](\"uploads\/2019\/34_17.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\nAnd this street sign, embellished with stickers:
\n![\"DSF4734\"](\"uploads\/2019\/34_18.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\nI took the metro to the Banco de Espa\u00c3\u00b1a station to visit a photo exhibition at Fundaci\u00c3\u00b3n ICO. While walking to the gallery, I came across this memorial to a cyclist killed in traffic:
\n![\"DSF4751\"](\"uploads\/2019\/34_19.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\nThe exhibition at Fundaci\u00c3\u00b3n ICO was called “Framed Landscapes”. It examined the evolution of the man-made urban and rural landscapes in 8 European countries. The quality was variable, but I liked the section documenting the changes in Schlieren, a suburb of Zurich:
\n![\"DSF4737\"](\"uploads\/2019\/34_20.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\nSchlieren, 2009 and 2017:
\n![\"DSF4739\"](\"uploads\/2019\/34_21.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\nThen it was time for lunch. I took the metro to Sol and walked to the Mercado de San Miguel, a posh version of Barcelona’s Boquer\u00c3\u00ada. It is not a market where people go to buy food; rather, it is a place where you go to eat at the many stands, all serving delicious food:
\n![\"DSF4763\"](\"uploads\/2019\/34_22.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\nI started with a couple of pinchos (a type of tapas) at this stand:
\n![\"DSF4757\"](\"uploads\/2019\/34_23.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\n![\"DSF4755\"](\"uploads\/2019\/34_24.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\nOn Calle Mayor, connecting the Sol square with Plaza Mayor, the manteros<\/em> (African vendors of fake sunglasses, football shirts and other branded goods) were busy:
\n![\"DSF4780\"](\"uploads\/2019\/34_25.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\nBags:
\n![\"DSF4771\"](\"uploads\/2019\/34_26.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\nPotential customers:
\n![\"DSF4770\"](\"uploads\/2019\/34_27.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\nI walked around Plaza Mayor a bit, Madrid’s most touristy spot. As usual, I looked a the people around me, such as this family with a baby:
\n![\"DSF4768\"](\"uploads\/2019\/34_28.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\nA tourist guide, waiting for customers:
\n![\"DSF4778\"](\"uploads\/2019\/34_29.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\nConversation:
\n![\"DSF4777\"](\"uploads\/2019\/34_30.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\nAfter my visit to Plaza Mayor, I took the metro back north and went to the Fundaci\u00c3\u00b3n Mapfre to see another photo exhibition, this time a very comprehensive retrospective of photos by Berenice Abbott. I must admit that I was not familiar with her work, but after visiting the exhibition (which included an hour-long documentary film about her life and work), I am a fan. She was truly a remarkable woman and a remarkable photographer:
\n![\"DSF4786\"](\"uploads\/2019\/34_31.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\nThe lower floor of Fundaci\u00c3\u00b3n Mapfre houses a permanent collection of paintings by the great Catalan artist Joan Mir\u00c3\u00b3. In his later years, he created paintings by buying cheap paintings at open air markets and embellishing them in his own way:
\n![\"DSF4788\"](\"uploads\/2019\/34_32.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\n![\"DSF4789\"](\"uploads\/2019\/34_33.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\nMy craving for art satisfied, I decided to spend the rest of the pleasant afternoon in the Parque del Buen Retiro, or simply Retiro, a large park in the centre of the city with several beautiful structures, a large pond, and of course numerous bars and caf\u00c3\u00a9s. The pond with the impressive Alfonso XII monument is the centerpiece of the park:
\n![\"DSF4801\"](\"uploads\/2019\/34_34.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\nWhen I see a sight like this, I always wonder how in the 21st century people can accept a culture that permits the man to be dressed comfortably while the women have to cover up like this–on a sunny afternoon in Madrid at 33C:
\n![\"DSF4819\"](\"uploads\/2019\/34_35.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\nSerious gardening:
\n![\"DSF4803\"](\"uploads\/2019\/34_36.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\nTaking a break:
\n![\"DSF4806\"](\"uploads\/2019\/34_37.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\nA garden:
\n![\"DSF4832\"](\"uploads\/2019\/34_38.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\nThe scooter nuisance has also invaded Madrid:
\n![\"DSF4834\"](\"uploads\/2019\/34_39.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\nI cycled to Aig\u00c3\u00bces and Busot on Saturday morning. In Aig\u00c3\u00bces, people were setting up the week-long Moros y Cristianos festival that was beginning that evening:
\n![\"1150176\"](\"uploads\/2019\/34_40.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\nContemplating the chairs:
\n![\"1150179\"](\"uploads\/2019\/34_41.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\nHelp arrives; in a village like Aig\u00c3\u00bces, a fiesta is very much a community effort:
\n![\"1150181\"](\"uploads\/2019\/34_42.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\nFollowing the standard script, the Saracens take over the main square, then the Christians conquer it, and throughout the week, everyone drinks a lot of beer and eats a lot of paella:
\n![\"1150182\"](\"uploads\/2019\/34_43.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\n![\"1150183\"](\"uploads\/2019\/34_44.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\nA few km later, I passed the town of Busot, where the third stage of the Vuelta a Espa\u00c3\u00b1a bicycle race was going to pass through on Wednesday. This roundabout was already suitably decorated, and I decided that this is where I would come to watch the cyclists:
\n![\"1150186\"](\"uploads\/2019\/34_45.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
![\"1150184\"](\"uploads\/2019\/34_46.jpg\")
<\/p>\n