{"id":3835,"date":"2022-12-20T20:42:33","date_gmt":"2022-12-20T19:42:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.fotocycle.dk\/paws\/?page_id=3835"},"modified":"2022-12-20T20:42:33","modified_gmt":"2022-12-20T19:42:33","slug":"week-49-more-andalucia-christmas-in-alicante-department-day-out","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/www.fotocycle.dk\/paws\/?page_id=3835","title":{"rendered":"Week 49: more Andaluc\u00c3\u00ada, Christmas in Alicante, department day out"},"content":{"rendered":"

The week began where the previous week ended, in the northern part of Andaluc\u00c3\u00ada. After playing in her two-day golf tournament at the Aguil\u00c3\u00b3n golf course, my wife decided that she wanted to play another course in the area, called Desert Springs, with a Wild West theme (lots of big cacti, etc.). So we spent an extra night there, moving to an apartment in the centre of the village San Juan de los Terreros to try a new place (and to save some money, the place where we stayed the first two nights wanted an exorbitant amount to extend our stay for another night).<\/p>\n

49_1<\/strong>
\nMonday morning in Mar de Pulp\u00c3\u00ad, breakfast at a restaurant facing the beach:
\n\"R007578\"<\/p>\n

49_2<\/strong>
\nThis was the second day of the tournament at Aguil\u00c3\u00b3n. In the morning I drove my wife to the golf course. She got ready to play–normally she walks when she plays golf, but in this case the tournament fee included a buggy:
\n\"R007582\"<\/p>\n

49_3<\/strong>
\nGood thing too with the buggy, as the course is quite hilly, so walking the 18 holes would be quite tiring:
\n\"DSF2221\"<\/p>\n

49_4<\/strong>
\n\"DSF2220\"<\/p>\n

49_5<\/strong>
\nIn late afternoon, after my wife was done with her tournament, we checked into the apartment in the village. The place was fully equipped, and all the nearby restaurants seemed to be closed on Mondays, so we walked to a supermarket to buy some supplies and cook dinner in the apartment. On the way, we passed the suitably tiny town hall:
\n\"R007584\"<\/p>\n

49_6<\/strong>
\nBy the time we were walking back with our shopping, it was dark and the Christmas lights were on:
\n\"R007587\"<\/p>\n

49_7<\/strong>
\nOn Tuesday morning, we had a nice visitor at the apartment:
\n\"1020872\"<\/p>\n

49_8<\/strong>
\nMy wife went off to the Desert Springs course, about 30 km away. Meanwhile, I went out on my bicycle again. I passed this field of some vegetables, ready for harvesting:
\n\"1020874\"<\/p>\n

49_9<\/strong>
\nCycling south along the coast once more, I stopped at this bench with a nice view. The slogan on the back of the bench says “Every summer creates its own story”:
\n\"1020876\"<\/p>\n

49_10<\/strong>
\nVarious passers-by have embellished the messages on the bench:
\n\"1020878\"<\/p>\n

49_11<\/strong>
\nThe coast of Almer\u00c3\u00ada is beautiful. It reminded me of the California coast around Big Sur:
\n\"1020881\"<\/p>\n

49_12<\/strong>
\nI followed the coast to Villaricos, where one small grocery store was open (Tuesday was a holiday here in Spain, so almost everything else was closed). I popped in to buy a drink:
\n\"1020887\"<\/p>\n

49_13<\/strong>
\nAcross from the shop was the town’s church:
\n\"1020885\"<\/p>\n

49_14<\/strong>
\n\"1020888\"<\/p>\n

49_15<\/strong>
\nThe entrance to the tiny harbour:
\n\"1020889\"<\/p>\n

After taking this photo, I cycled inland, another 15 km or so to the golf course where my wife was playing, changed into normal clothes, put the bicycle in the car, and waited for her to finish the round. Then we drove home to Alicante.<\/p>\n

49_16<\/strong>
\nA couple of days later, I stopped in the centre of Alicante to have a look at the Christmas decorations, which are quite impressive here. Some of the main shopping streets are made pedestrian for the season:
\n\"DSF2230\"<\/p>\n

49_17<\/strong>
\nAt the bottom of the Rambla, on the Esplanada de Espa\u00c3\u00b1a, there is an enormous nativity scene:
\n\"DSF2231\"<\/p>\n

49_18<\/strong>
\nA giant baby Jesus:
\n\"DSF2229\"<\/p>\n

49_19<\/strong>
\nA bit further up the street, another large statue:
\n\"DSF2233\"<\/p>\n

49_20<\/strong>
\nAlicante’s main department store, El Corte Ingl\u00c3\u00a9s:
\n\"DSF2237\"<\/p>\n

49_21<\/strong>
\nSanta’s furry helper:
\n\"DSF2235\"<\/p>\n

49_22<\/strong>
\nI walked down to Alicante’s City Hall. The square was also full of people and beautifully decorated:
\n\"DSF2243\"<\/p>\n

49_23<\/strong>
\n\"DSF2245\"<\/p>\n

49_24<\/strong>
\n\"DSF2246\"<\/p>\n

The final event of the week was a “day out” for our department, on Friday. Basically, we spent the day talking about ideas for the future, punctuated by a nice lunch, and of course combined with some fun. For me it was especially nice because it was held at a place just 1 km from my house.<\/p>\n

49_25<\/strong>
\nOur director opens the proceedings in the morning, flanked by Claire and Stephanie:
\n\"DSF2256\"<\/p>\n

49_26<\/strong>
\nWe were divided in 5 groups, discussing various topics and writing down ideas on the usual flipcharts:
\n\"DSF2262\"<\/p>\n

49_27<\/strong>
\nEach group appointed a rapporteur who summarized the conclusions to everyone:
\n\"DSF2272\"<\/p>\n

49_28<\/strong>
\nStephanie had come up with the idea of having a stretching session mid-morning to break the routine a bit. I don’t do stretching, but I take pictures:
\n\"DSF2273\"<\/p>\n

49_29<\/strong>
\n\"DSF2278\"<\/p>\n

49_30<\/strong>
\nPaloma the rapporteur:
\n\"DSF2284\"<\/p>\n

49_31<\/strong>
\nWe were discouraged from bringing our computers with us; the goal of the day was to disconnect from the daily work to focus on longer-term issues. But some people cheated:
\n\"DSF2295\"<\/p>\n

49_32<\/strong>
\nWe finished the day with the obligatory group photo:
\n\"DSF2325\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The week began where the previous week ended, in the northern part of Andaluc\u00c3\u00ada. After playing in her two-day golf tournament at the Aguil\u00c3\u00b3n golf course, my wife decided that she wanted to play another course in the area, called Desert Springs, with a Wild West theme (lots of big cacti, etc.). So we spent […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":3513,"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\/3835"}],"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=3835"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/www.fotocycle.dk\/paws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3835\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3839,"href":"http:\/\/www.fotocycle.dk\/paws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3835\/revisions\/3839"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.fotocycle.dk\/paws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3513"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.fotocycle.dk\/paws\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3835"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}