{"id":3867,"date":"2023-01-19T17:01:08","date_gmt":"2023-01-19T16:01:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.fotocycle.dk\/paws\/?page_id=3867"},"modified":"2023-01-19T17:44:39","modified_gmt":"2023-01-19T16:44:39","slug":"week-02-moses-comes-to-visit","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/www.fotocycle.dk\/paws\/?page_id=3867","title":{"rendered":"Week 02: Moses comes to visit"},"content":{"rendered":"

The second week of January was about one thing and one thing only: our son was coming to visit us for a week. I had not seen him since I visited him in New Jersey in early May, and my wife had not seen him since early January. So we were obviously very much looking forward to the visit (as was his sister Monica, of course). I start with a few of my usual photos from bike rides and such, but then the rest of the blog is about what we did with Moses.<\/p>\n

2_1<\/strong>
\nAs I often do on weekends, I went to the beach to have a beer on the promenade and do a bit of people watching:
\n\"1060774\"<\/p>\n

2_2<\/strong>
\nKiddie bicycle parking:
\n\"1060770\"<\/p>\n

2_3<\/strong>
\nChristmas dog (the most important day in the Spanish Christmas calendar is Three Kings’ Day, so on January 7th it is still OK):
\n\"1060769\"<\/p>\n

2_4<\/strong>
\nContinuing with the canine theme, three photos of my supermarket dogs:
\n\"R007620\"<\/p>\n

2_5<\/strong>
\n\"R007619\"<\/p>\n

2_6<\/strong>
\n\"R007618\"<\/p>\n

2_7<\/strong>
\nOn Sunday morning, I cycled to Jijona and stopped for a break at a tiny square decorated with a large mural which plays very well with the adjacent street:
\n\"1020989\"<\/p>\n

2_8<\/strong>
\nThis is the only place I have seen this kind of decoration on trees:
\n\"1020990\"<\/p>\n

2_9<\/strong>
\nTraces of Christmas:
\n\"1020991\"<\/p>\n

2_10<\/strong>
\nWhen I returned home from my ride, I found my wife in full June Cleaver mode. Our firstborn was coming the next day, and she was going to make one of his favourite dishes from Puerto Rico, pasteles<\/em>, an extremely delicious but also very labour-intensive dish. One starts by peeling and food processing large quantities of pumpkin and \u00c3\u00b1ame<\/em> (yam, mistakenly confused with sweet potato in some places):
\n\"1060780\"<\/p>\n

2_11<\/strong>
\nThe fillings are prepared–meat, peppers, olives and other goodies:
\n\"1060781\"<\/p>\n

2_12<\/strong>
\nThe inner layer of wrap is a banana leaf; not something one expects to find in a regular European supermarket, but we have a large South American population here in southern Spain, and they also use such things for their cuisine, so it is quite easily available:
\n\"1060782\"<\/p>\n

2_13<\/strong>
\nThe vegetable mass is formed into a patty and filled with good things:
\n\"1060784\"<\/p>\n

2_14<\/strong>
\nThe pasteles are wrapped in banana leaf and then pergament:
\n\"1060790\"<\/p>\n

2_15<\/strong>
\nReady for the pot:
\n\"1060791\"<\/p>\n

2_16<\/strong>
\n\"1060792\"<\/p>\n

2_17<\/strong>
\nReady to eat:
\n\"1060793\"<\/p>\n

2_18<\/strong>
\nTemporary storage:
\n\"R007621\"<\/p>\n

2_19<\/strong>
\nYummy:
\n\"R007622\"<\/p>\n

2_20<\/strong>
\nIn the afternoon, I drove to the centre to have a look around. The Christmas fair on Plaza Seneca was deserted, waiting to be taken away until next year:
\n\"1060794\"<\/p>\n

2_21<\/strong>
\nA “puticlub” near Plaza Seneca; there are fewer and fewer of these establishments, probably a good trend:
\n\"1060799\"<\/p>\n

2_22<\/strong>
\nMysterious mannequin:
\n\"1060798\"<\/p>\n

2_23<\/strong>
\nI stopped for a beer at Malatesta, empty on this Sunday afternoon:
\n\"1060802\"<\/p>\n

2_24<\/strong>
\nThe glory of Belgium:
\n\"1060808\"<\/p>\n

2_25<\/strong>
\nThe bar will lend chalk to anybody who wishes to embellish its wall. Some of the contributions are funny, some philosophical. This one says, “I am afraid of my own ego”:
\n\"1060803\"<\/p>\n

2_26<\/strong>
\n“Life has two days, and today is a holiday”:
\n\"1060801\"<\/p>\n

2_27<\/strong>
\n“The funeral of aunt Miriam”:
\n\"1060806\"<\/p>\n

2_28<\/strong>
\nThe the glorious Monday morning arrived. My son was on his way to Alicante from New York (via Madrid) and I was at Alicante airport, eagerly waiting to welcome him. While I waited, I entertained myself people watching, as I usually do on such occasions:
\n\"1060809\"<\/p>\n

2_29<\/strong>
\nFinally, Moses appeared:
\n\"1060811\"<\/p>\n

2_30<\/strong>
\nAt home, with the family reunited, an impromptu gift exchange. Monica always asks for her favourite cereals from the US:
\n\"1060829\"<\/p>\n

2_31<\/strong>
\nOn the other hand, Moses will take Belgian Pierre Marcolini and Danish Anthon Berg chocolate back to New Jersey to enjoy with his wife:
\n\"1060832\"<\/p>\n

2_32<\/strong>
\nMonica had bought some thoughtful presents for me and Moses from the Liverpool FC online shop (being a good father, I have brought up my son in the True Faith):
\n\"1060825\"<\/p>\n

2_33<\/strong>
\nThen we sat down for our first meal together, our classic Puerto Rican lunch of pasteles, rice and beans, and salad:
\n\"1060834\"<\/p>\n

2_34<\/strong>
\nThe highlight of my son’s visit was going to be a 200 km bicycle ride (a so-called brevet<\/a>) on Saturday, arranged by a local bike club. For me it is a recurring event, but for Moses it would be the longest distance he has ever covered in one day. And living in New Jersey, he has not been able to practice as much as he would like during the past few weeks. So we did a couple of training rides in the hills around here:
\n\"1020996\"<\/p>\n

2_35<\/strong>
\n\"IMG3802\"<\/p>\n

2_36<\/strong>
\nBrother and sister during lunch at a local restaurant:
\n\"R007624\"<\/p>\n

2_37<\/strong>
\nThe big day arrived; on Saturday morning Moses and I cycled to a nearby bar, the starting point of the brevet, and by 8 a.m. we were on our way:
\n\"IMG3803\"<\/p>\n

2_38<\/strong>
\nOur first brief stop, after some 30 km. The route involved a lot of climbing the first 60-70 km, so frequent hydration was required:
\n\"1030003\"<\/p>\n

2_39<\/strong>
\nThis was our only stop specifically to take a picture. At this spot we have cycled about 100 km, the climbing is largely behind us, and we are descending to the town Crevillent, where we were going to have lunch:
\n\"1030006\"<\/p>\n

2_40<\/strong>
\nLooking at the landscape is one of the pleasures of long-distance cycling:
\n\"1030007\"<\/p>\n

2_41<\/strong>
\nA few minutes later, a very welcome lunch at a kebab place in Crevillent and a chance to get off the bike for half an hour:
\n\"IMG3805\"<\/p>\n

2_42<\/strong>
\nDuring a brevet, there are several controls, places along the route that you have to prove passing through. This is done either by getting the route card stamped at a petrol station or convenience store, or, like here, taking a photo in a recognisable location. This is our last control before arrival, at this point we have cycled 180 km:
\n\"IMG0701\"<\/p>\n

2_43<\/strong>
\nFinally, around 7 p.m., we arrived back at Ristorante Simone, 11 hours and 200 km later. After handing in our completed route cards, we sat down for a well-deserved beer:
\n\"IMG3811\"<\/p>\n

2_44<\/strong>
\nAnd then home, to a shower and a wonderful dinner prepared by my wife, a Polish dish called go\u00c5\u201a\u00c4\u2026bki<\/em> (literally it means “little pigeons”, a name that makes no sense given that the dish is basically a cabbage leaf wrapped around a meat or vegeterian filling):
\n\"R007625\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The second week of January was about one thing and one thing only: our son was coming to visit us for a week. I had not seen him since I visited him in New Jersey in early May, and my wife had not seen him since early January. So we were obviously very much looking […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":3855,"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\/3867"}],"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=3867"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"http:\/\/www.fotocycle.dk\/paws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3867\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3873,"href":"http:\/\/www.fotocycle.dk\/paws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3867\/revisions\/3873"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.fotocycle.dk\/paws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3855"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.fotocycle.dk\/paws\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3867"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}