\nWe came back from Marrakesh late on Boxing Day. This year, instead of exchanging Christmas presents and all that, we decided to give each other time, and spent a wonderful 3 days in Morocco. But the day after we came back, our daughter still found something under the tree:
\n
![\"DSF3493\"](\"uploads\/2023\/52_1.jpg\")
<\/p>\n52_2<\/strong> 52_3<\/strong> 52_4<\/strong> 52_5<\/strong> 52_6<\/strong> 52_7<\/strong> 52_8<\/strong> 52_9<\/strong> 52_10<\/strong> 52_11<\/strong> The art at MACA is somewhat disorganised, and there is a lot of empty wall space. But I did look at some engaging pieces, and in the following images I reproduce the captions as written by the gallery.<\/p>\n 52_12<\/strong> 52_13<\/strong> 52_14<\/strong> 52_15<\/strong> 52_16<\/strong> 52_17<\/strong> 52_18<\/strong> 52_19<\/strong> 52_20<\/strong> 52_21<\/strong> 52_22<\/strong> 52_23<\/strong> 52_24<\/strong> 52_25<\/strong> 52_26<\/strong> 52_27<\/strong> 52_28<\/strong> 52_29<\/strong> And this concludes my last weekly blog of 2023, the 23rd year of doing Photos of the Week.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The last week of 2023 was mainly about our trip to Morocco during the Christmas days. That will be the subject of a separate gallery. But before and after the short trip, I engaged in my usual activities of cycling, walking around the city, and enjoying the time off (our office is closed between Christmas […]<\/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\/4201"}],"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=4201"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/www.fotocycle.dk\/paws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4201\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4204,"href":"http:\/\/www.fotocycle.dk\/paws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4201\/revisions\/4204"}],"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=4201"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nIt was some sort of super hair dryer, in her words, the Porsche of hair dryers. And of course she has the hair that needs it, while my hair (such as it is) is fine with air drying:
\n![\"DSF3495\"](\"uploads\/2023\/52_2.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\nLater in the morning, I cycled to Verdeg\u00c3\u00a1s and checked on my feline friends:
\n![\"1030816\"](\"uploads\/2023\/52_3.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\n![\"1030817\"](\"uploads\/2023\/52_4.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\n![\"1030818\"](\"uploads\/2023\/52_5.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\nOn Friday morning, I walked down to the beach before going to the bakery for the morning baguette. The pre-dawn sky was gorgeous, and there were people on the beach waiting for the sunrise:
\n![\"DSF3497\"](\"uploads\/2023\/52_6.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\n![\"DSF3501\"](\"uploads\/2023\/52_7.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\nThen I went on my bike ride to Busot, stopping to enjoy the view of the town from the road above:
\n![\"1030824\"](\"uploads\/2023\/52_8.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\nA view of the highest point in the village, with the Moorish castle ruin, and the cemetery, also on a hill:
\n![\"1030826\"](\"uploads\/2023\/52_9.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\nA closer view of the cemetery:
\n![\"1030825\"](\"uploads\/2023\/52_10.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\nOn Friday afternoon, I went to the centre of Alicante to visit our local modern art museum and take in some of the pre-NYE spirit. MACA, as the museum is called (it stands for Museo de Arte Contempor\u00c3\u00a1neo de Alicante), is a nice exhibition space, very centrally located:
\n![\"DSF3526\"](\"uploads\/2023\/52_11.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\nKurt Schwitters, Plastische merzzeichnung<\/em>, 1931. Schwitters was a German artist whose work was deemed “degenerate” by the Nazis after their takeover in 1933, and he fled to England where he lived until his death in 1948:
\n![\"DSF3503\"](\"uploads\/2023\/52_12.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\nAlberto S\u00c3\u00a1nchez (1895-1962), Mujer con bandera<\/em> (“Woman with flag”), 1976:
\n![\"DSF3507\"](\"uploads\/2023\/52_13.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\nRafael Canogar (1935-), El Arresto II<\/em>, 1972. I find this piece very engaging, probably the best artwork in the MACA collection:
\n![\"DSF3509\"](\"uploads\/2023\/52_14.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\nJuana Franc\u00c3\u00a9s (1924-1990), Jefe Contable<\/em>, 1966:
\n![\"DSF3513\"](\"uploads\/2023\/52_15.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\nVictor Vasarely (Hungarian, 1908-1997), Kroa B<\/em>, 1971:
\n![\"DSF3517\"](\"uploads\/2023\/52_16.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\nEquipo Cr\u00c3\u00b3nica (partnership of Rafael Solbes, 1940-1981 and Manolo Vald\u00c3\u00a9s, 1942-), Vamp<\/em>, 1972:
\n![\"DSF3522\"](\"uploads\/2023\/52_17.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\nVictoria Civera (1955-), Mal de Hem<\/em>, 2004:
\n![\"DSF3524\"](\"uploads\/2023\/52_18.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\nFerr\u00c3\u00a1n Garc\u00c3\u00ada Sevilla (1949-), RUC 21<\/em>, 1997:
\n![\"DSF3527\"](\"uploads\/2023\/52_19.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\nInvited work by Greek sculptor Panayoitis Vassilakis (Takis), (1925-2019). He often used magnets as key elements in his sculptures, here to hold suspended needles in place:
\n![\"DSF3516\"](\"uploads\/2023\/52_20.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\nAfter my visit to MACA, I walked to the nearby Plaza del Ayuntamiento to have a look at the crowds milling around there:
\n![\"DSF3532\"](\"uploads\/2023\/52_21.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\nThe main reason the people come to the square is to look at the giant nativity scene:
\n![\"DSF3534\"](\"uploads\/2023\/52_22.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\n![\"DSF3536\"](\"uploads\/2023\/52_23.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\nI then sat down for a beer at the Irish bar on the Esplanada:
\n![\"DSF3538\"](\"uploads\/2023\/52_24.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\nI wanted to finish the year with some solid cycling, so on Saturday morning, I did an 82 km ride down to Elche and Santa Pola. On the way, I passed the beach at Urbanova, just south of Alicante. At that early hour there were not many people, but I saw a couple sitting in the sand with Alicante in the morning haze as the background:
\n![\"1030828\"](\"uploads\/2023\/52_25.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\nIn Santa Pola, all the fishing boats were in the harbour, and the nets were laid out to dry on the promenade:
\n![\"1030833\"](\"uploads\/2023\/52_26.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\nThe only fishing taking place was of the recreational variety:
\n![\"1030836\"](\"uploads\/2023\/52_27.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\nThe crew of one of the boats, relaxing:
\n![\"1030834\"](\"uploads\/2023\/52_28.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\nAnd a cat was looking around for discarded fish:
\n![\"1030832\"](\"uploads\/2023\/52_29.jpg\")
<\/p>\n