{"id":3850,"date":"2023-01-05T21:20:23","date_gmt":"2023-01-05T20:20:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.fotocycle.dk\/paws\/?page_id=3850"},"modified":"2023-01-05T21:20:23","modified_gmt":"2023-01-05T20:20:23","slug":"week-52-ilans-visit-and-the-end-of-2022","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/www.fotocycle.dk\/paws\/?page_id=3850","title":{"rendered":"Week 52: Ilan’s visit and the end of 2022"},"content":{"rendered":"

This was the last week of the year. On Christmas Day my cousin from Florida and his family arrived for a brief visit, and otherwise I spent my time cycling and walking around Alicante.<\/p>\n

52_1<\/strong>
\nThis is my cousin Ilan, from Jacksonville, FL. He is 4 years younger than me, and we were quite close when I lived in the US. In recent years we have not seen each other that often–last time was 7 years ago when we visited Florida–so it was nice that he came to Alicante for a couple of days, part of a 10-day driving vacation in Spain. They arrived from Seville on Christmas Day and continued on to Barcelona on the 27th:
\n\"DSF2429\"<\/p>\n

52_2<\/strong>
\nI spent Boxing Day showing Ilan, his wife and their 3 children around Alicante, including the giant nativity scene on the Esplanada de Espa\u00c3\u00b1a which Ilan’s youngest daughter Eden (15 years old) described as “creepy”:
\n\"DSF2427\"<\/p>\n

52_3<\/strong>
\nWhat Eden found creepy was the giant baby:
\n\"DSF2431\"<\/p>\n

52_4<\/strong>
\n\"DSF2432\"<\/p>\n

52_5<\/strong>
\nWe walked down to the City Hall to have a look at the Dal\u00c3\u00ad statue in the vestibule and the nativity scene installed inside:
\n\"DSF2434\"<\/p>\n

52_6<\/strong>
\nThe nativity scene was interesting. While the standard characters are all there, the setting is not Bethlehem but rather Alicante’s waterfront as it looked in the 19th century:
\n\"DSF2433\"<\/p>\n

52_7<\/strong>
\nIn the afternoon, my wife made paella for a late lunch, while we sat around the table on the terrace:
\n\"DSF2440\"<\/p>\n

52_8<\/strong>
\nWhile waiting for the paella, we feasted on various appetizers, like these razor clams:
\n\"DSF2438\"<\/p>\n

52_9<\/strong>
\nThen my wife got down to business. This was not a traditional paella valenciana<\/em> from our region (that involves rabbit and chicken) but rather a paella de mariscos<\/em>:
\n\"DSF2441\"<\/p>\n

52_10<\/strong>
\nReady to serve:
\n\"DSF2443\"<\/p>\n

52_11<\/strong>
\nIlan’s daughter Arielle working hard on opening a bottle of cava, an excellent beverage to accompany a paella:
\n\"DSF2444\"<\/p>\n

52_12<\/strong>
\nMy daughter Monica and Ilan’s daughter Eden; the shared genes are clearly in evidence:
\n\"DSF2448\"<\/p>\n

52_13<\/strong>
\nOn the 27th, Ilan and his family drove off to Barcelona, and I was out on my bike again. I stopped in the fishing harbour of El Campello. All the boats were in, the holiday hiatus was evident:
\n\"1020940\"<\/p>\n

52_14<\/strong>
\nThere was a new big boat that I had not seen before:
\n\"1020937\"<\/p>\n

52_15<\/strong>
\nIt provided me with a nice, semi-abstract image:
\n\"1020942\"<\/p>\n

52_16<\/strong>
\nSome people were enjoying the adjacent beach:
\n\"1020944\"<\/p>\n

52_17<\/strong>
\nOthers were enjoying the bars on the promenade:
\n\"1020945\"<\/p>\n

52_18<\/strong>
\nAnd a family of three sat down for a picnic:
\n\"1020946\"<\/p>\n

52_19<\/strong>
\nA couple of days later, on the beach closer to my home, Playa San Juan, in late afternoon. A mother looks on while her child is playing on the beach play tool (I don’t know what this structure is actually called):
\n\"DSF2450\"<\/p>\n

52_20<\/strong>
\nAs I do every week, I collected another couple of dog portraits in the supermarket vestibule:
\n\"R007613\"<\/p>\n

52_21<\/strong>
\n\"R007614\"<\/p>\n

52_22<\/strong>
\nI wanted to finish the year with some strong bike rides, starting with a 70 km ride, climbing the Carrasqueta mountain pass. It was tougher than usual due to the strong wind that changed direction frequently, so it felt extra good to be at the pass and make this selfie:
\n\"1020956\"<\/p>\n

52_23<\/strong>
\nThe view was especially nice that day due to the dramatic clouds:
\n\"1020959\"<\/p>\n

52_24<\/strong>
\nOn the way down, after about 6 km, I stopped to photograph this bend in the road. Definitely a place to slow down:
\n\"1020961\"<\/p>\n

52_25<\/strong>
\nLater that day, I went to a part of Alicante that I seldom visit, Plaza de Espa\u00c3\u00b1a, where the bullfighting arena is located:
\n\"DSF2472\"<\/p>\n

52_26<\/strong>
\nObviously I was not there for the bullfighting (of which there is less and less, fortunately). I wanted to see the skating rink set up by the city inside the Plaza de Toros. Seems a bit absurd when the outside temperature is 22C:
\n\"DSF2462\"<\/p>\n

52_27<\/strong>
\nMother and daughter:
\n\"DSF2464\"<\/p>\n

52_28<\/strong>
\nMessi fan:
\n\"DSF2466\"<\/p>\n

52_29<\/strong>
\nI wandered around the empty arena a bit, a place I have never visited before. It looks a bit run down, symbolic of the state of bullfighting today:
\n\"DSF2461\"<\/p>\n

52_30<\/strong>
\nReserved seats for government dignitaries, an echo of Franco times:
\n\"DSF2467\"<\/p>\n

52_31<\/strong>
\nI walked around a bit more:
\n\"DSF2469\"<\/p>\n

52_32<\/strong>
\n\"DSF2471\"<\/p>\n

52_33<\/strong>
\nOutside the arena is a sculpture celebrating bullfighting:
\n\"DSF2473\"<\/p>\n

52_34<\/strong>
\n\"DSF2475\"<\/p>\n

52_35<\/strong>
\nA nice lady with a bag with a fitting bovine motive:
\n\"DSF2474\"<\/p>\n

52_36<\/strong>
\nAnother sculpture on Plaza de Espa\u00c3\u00b1a, more to my liking. This is a drill head used to drill a huge water collector under Alicante to prevent flooding during our autumnal torrential rains:
\n\"DSF2477\"<\/p>\n

52_37<\/strong>
\nAfterwards, I stopped at the Corte Ingl\u00c3\u00a9s to buy something, and also passed by Conchi’s roasted chestnuts stands, a Christmas tradition here:
\n\"R007615\"<\/p>\n

52_38<\/strong>
\nThe following day was the 31st, and I wanted another long ride on the last day of the year. This time I chose an easier route, going south to Elche and Santa Pola, on relatively flat terrain. I stopped for a break at the Urbanova beach and saw this combination of container ship and sailboats:
\n\"1020965\"<\/p>\n

52_39<\/strong>
\nThere was a Polish invasion on the seaside campground:
\n\"1020969\"<\/p>\n

52_40<\/strong>
\nThe New Year’s Eve arrived. We celebrated with our local friends, and my wife prepared this magnificent cake as our contribution:
\n\"R007617\"<\/p>\n

This completes my 22nd year of weekly pictures. Onwards to 2023!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This was the last week of the year. On Christmas Day my cousin from Florida and his family arrived for a brief visit, and otherwise I spent my time cycling and walking around Alicante. 52_1 This is my cousin Ilan, from Jacksonville, FL. He is 4 years younger than me, and we were quite close […]<\/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\/3850"}],"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=3850"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/www.fotocycle.dk\/paws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3850\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3854,"href":"http:\/\/www.fotocycle.dk\/paws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3850\/revisions\/3854"}],"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=3850"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}