{"id":3111,"date":"2020-12-19T19:17:03","date_gmt":"2020-12-19T18:17:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.fotocycle.dk\/paws\/?page_id=3111"},"modified":"2020-12-19T19:58:12","modified_gmt":"2020-12-19T18:58:12","slug":"week-50-christmas-in-alicante-sunrise-in-el-campello","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/www.fotocycle.dk\/paws\/?page_id=3111","title":{"rendered":"Week 50: Christmas in Alicante, sunrise in El Campello"},"content":{"rendered":"

The second week of December means that the holiday season is well and truly underway, although it was a normal, and actually quite busy, week at work for me. Still, in my free time I had some nice light. I did cycle every day, but unusually for these weekly blogs, there is not a single cycling picture this week. <\/p>\n

50_1<\/strong>
\nThe previous week I had been at the Plaza del Ayuntamiento to look at the giant nativity scene being installed. This week I went down to have a look in the evening, when the huge figures would be illuminated. As soon as I parked the car, I pointed my camera at the beautiful post-sunset sky over Alicante harbour:
\n\"DSF7024\"<\/p>\n

50_2<\/strong>
\nThe statues were indeed impressive in the evening light, and many people were there to look at them:
\n\"DSF7036\"<\/p>\n

50_3<\/strong>
\nThe colours changed every 10 seconds or so:
\n\"DSF7030\"<\/p>\n

50_4<\/strong>
\n\"DSF7035\"<\/p>\n

50_5<\/strong>
\nSome very impressed (and a bit scared, even) little spectators:
\n\"DSF7037\"<\/p>\n

50_6<\/strong>
\nBehind all this, the Alicante town hall, also nicely decorated:
\n\"DSF7039\"<\/p>\n

50_7<\/strong>
\nCalle Rafael Altamira, the street connecting Plaza del Ayuntamiento to Alicante’s main shopping street; the city government very much hopes that people will come to the centre to look at the statues, and then go this way to spend some money:
\n\"DSF7041\"<\/p>\n

50_8<\/strong>
\nLater in the week, I stopped at Plaza Seneca on my way home from work. It is a square in a residential neighbourhood, not posh at all to put it mildly but not slummy either; a real mixed city neighbourhood. I like the area for various reasons, not least because the Eastern European and Chinese grocery stores are there, and I like my Polish goodies and the kimchi and other Asian goodies I buy from the Chinese store. This time, I noticed an addition to the street furniture on the square:
\n\"DSF7042\"<\/p>\n

50_9<\/strong>
\nDespite the pandemic, the Christmas market on the square was on. Being an outdoor activity, it is relatively safe, especially when everyone is wearing masks:
\n\"DSF7043\"<\/p>\n

50_10<\/strong>
\nThe market is mainly for children, or maybe really for the parents:
\n\"DSF7049\"<\/p>\n

50_11<\/strong>
\nIt is not that cold in Alicante, between 15 and 20C, but that is cold for a chihuahua:
\n\"DSF7046\"<\/p>\n

50_12<\/strong>
\nWe said goodbye to another colleague this week. Andrew has been seconded to us for the past 3 or 4 year from the UK Intellectual Property Office, but now it was time for him to return to Wales (the UKIPO is based in Newport, next to Cardiff). So we raised a glass to him on Zoom. Andrew is in the lower left corner:
\n\"R006267\"<\/p>\n

50_13<\/strong>
\nAndrew’s office is close to mine, so I took advantage of the opportunity to take a picture that I had been thinking of for some time. Andrew’s son was born a couple of years ago, he uses a photo of him as the screen background on his laptop. I like the parallelism in this image:
\n\"R006273\"<\/p>\n

50_14<\/strong>
\nAt home, I continued to light the Danish advent light every evening:
\n\"R006278\"<\/p>\n

50_15<\/strong>
\nI went out for lunch one day with my wife and daughter, and my main dish was this delicious and photogenic pulpo a la berciana<\/em> (pulpo, Bierzo-style, referring to a city in northern Spain):
\n\"R006266\"<\/p>\n

The final seven images are from Sunday morning. I pass the fishing harbour of El Campello almost every morning during my bike rides, but this time I wanted to go there with a proper camera, and also without having to rush, as is the case in mid-week, when I have to be home in time to shower and drive to the office and still arrive at a decent time.<\/p>\n

50_16<\/strong>
\nI arrived just before sunrise:
\n\"DSF8031\"<\/p>\n

50_17<\/strong>
\nA few minutes later, the rising sun peeks over the harbour wall:
\n\"DSF8036\"<\/p>\n

50_18<\/strong>
\nI then turned around and photographed the things that were illuminated by the rising sun, such as the 16th century guard tower:
\n\"DSF8052\"<\/p>\n

50_19<\/strong>
\nA bird convention on the beach:
\n\"DSF8051\"<\/p>\n

50_20<\/strong>
\nOne of the many cats living in the harbour:
\n\"DSF8046\"<\/p>\n

50_21<\/strong>
\nA reflection:
\n\"DSF8050\"<\/p>\n

50_22<\/strong>
\nAnother reflection. There is nothing manipulated about this photo; this is a faithful representation of the colours:
\n\"DSF8048\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The second week of December means that the holiday season is well and truly underway, although it was a normal, and actually quite busy, week at work for me. Still, in my free time I had some nice light. I did cycle every day, but unusually for these weekly blogs, there is not a single […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":2755,"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\/3111"}],"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=3111"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/www.fotocycle.dk\/paws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3111\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3116,"href":"http:\/\/www.fotocycle.dk\/paws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3111\/revisions\/3116"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.fotocycle.dk\/paws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2755"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.fotocycle.dk\/paws\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3111"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}