{"id":4176,"date":"2023-12-07T20:33:09","date_gmt":"2023-12-07T19:33:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.fotocycle.dk\/paws\/?page_id=4176"},"modified":"2023-12-07T21:01:35","modified_gmt":"2023-12-07T20:01:35","slug":"week-48-les-8-salopards-and-jijona-nativity-display","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/www.fotocycle.dk\/paws\/?page_id=4176","title":{"rendered":"Week 48: Les 8 salopards and Jijona nativity display"},"content":{"rendered":"

Two main themes this week: eating and drinking with friends, and looking at the impressive open-air nativity display in the nearby town of Jijona, a sure sign that Christmas is upon us.<\/p>\n

48_1<\/strong>
\nWe started the week with lunch at our friends Eliot and Assumpta:
\n\"DSF3430\"<\/p>\n

48_2<\/strong>
\nIn the kitchen, a very interested onlooker:
\n\"DSF3421\"<\/p>\n

48_3<\/strong>
\nAnd this is the activity that Balu was following with such interest:
\n\"DSF3420\"<\/p>\n

48_4<\/strong>
\nWhen we have lunch at Eliot and Assumpta’s, usually grilled meat, lots of it, is involved (Eliot is from Argentina). But on this occasion Assumpta had made delicious grilled corvina:
\n\"DSF3427\"<\/p>\n

48_5<\/strong>
\nBalu is one of the sweetest dogs I know. He is a child of the pandemic, born just before Covid hit us in early 2020:
\n\"DSF3424\"<\/p>\n

48_6<\/strong>
\nDuring one of my morning bike rides the sunrise was truly beautiful, and I stopped to take a couple of pictures. These two people were sitting in the sand, waiting for sun to appear over the horizon:
\n\"1030731\"<\/p>\n

48_7<\/strong>
\nThis man was combining two pleasures, fishing and watching the sunrise:
\n\"1030735\"<\/p>\n

Then I return to the “eating with friends” theme. A couple of months ago, the men in our circle of friends decided to meet for lunch without our wives\/partners once a month, taking turns to select the restaurant. Because many of them are Spanish-French bilingual, the name of the group is French: “Les 8 salopards” which can loosely be translated as “the 8 assholes”. The first time the group met was in late October, while I was in Denmark, so this week was my first opportunity to participate. The chosen location was a Polish restaurant in Benidorm which I had never heard of. Given my background (and my love of Polish food) I was looking forward to it, and I was not disappointed. The food was delicious and 100% authentic.<\/p>\n

48_8<\/strong>
\nThe view of our table. The restaurant is not fancy, and the bill per head ended up at a modest 30 Euro, with drinks and tip:
\n\"DSF3439\"<\/p>\n

48_9<\/strong>
\nThe waitress explaining some of the dishes to my friends. She was indeed Polish:
\n\"DSF3436\"<\/p>\n

48_10<\/strong>
\nI chose pierogi<\/em> for my main dish:
\n\"DSF3440\"<\/p>\n

48_11<\/strong>
\nSome of my friends chose golonka<\/em>, a pork shank that is also widely eaten in Germany. Roberto looks positively scared when confronted with the size of the dish:
\n\"DSF3442\"<\/p>\n

48_12<\/strong>
\nI\u00c3\u00b1aki also ordered this dish and applied himself:
\n\"DSF3441\"<\/p>\n

48_13<\/strong>
\nWe spent about 3 hours in the restaurant, talking and laughing a lot besides eating, and of course this is the real purpose of these get-togethers:
\n\"DSF3445\"<\/p>\n

48_14<\/strong>
\nAs usual, I finished the week on the bicycle, this time in Jijona, the town about 25 km from here famous for its turr\u00c3\u00b3n<\/em>, but also well known for its outdoor nativity display, a sure sign that Christmas is upon us. The life-size figures are placed in a natural setting, and people come to see it from all over Alicante province:
\n\"1030749\"<\/p>\n

48_15<\/strong>
\nAbove the rock there is a footpath:
\n\"1030751\"<\/p>\n

48_16<\/strong>
\nThe central characters:
\n\"1030737\"<\/p>\n

48_17<\/strong>
\nThe supporting players:
\n\"1030741\"<\/p>\n

48_18<\/strong>
\n\"1030740\"<\/p>\n

48_19<\/strong>
\n\"1030738\"<\/p>\n

48_20<\/strong>
\n\"1030739\"<\/p>\n

48_21<\/strong>
\nThe Three Kings are there too:
\n\"1030743\"<\/p>\n

48_22<\/strong>
\nAnd yes, that is my bicycle in the background:
\n\"1030750\"<\/p>\n

48_23<\/strong>
\nThere was a steady stream of locals coming by to have a look:
\n\"1030745\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Two main themes this week: eating and drinking with friends, and looking at the impressive open-air nativity display in the nearby town of Jijona, a sure sign that Christmas is upon us. 48_1 We started the week with lunch at our friends Eliot and Assumpta: 48_2 In the kitchen, a very interested onlooker: 48_3 And […]<\/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\/4176"}],"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=4176"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/www.fotocycle.dk\/paws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4176\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4180,"href":"http:\/\/www.fotocycle.dk\/paws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4176\/revisions\/4180"}],"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=4176"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}