{"id":4234,"date":"2024-02-07T06:31:34","date_gmt":"2024-02-07T05:31:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.fotocycle.dk\/paws\/?page_id=4234"},"modified":"2024-02-07T07:00:42","modified_gmt":"2024-02-07T06:00:42","slug":"week-05-moros-y-cristianos-in-agost-eris-dinner-volta-de-la-comunitat-valenciana","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/www.fotocycle.dk\/paws\/?page_id=4234","title":{"rendered":"Week 05: Moros y Cristianos in Agost, Eri’s dinner, Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana"},"content":{"rendered":"

The two main events of this week both relate to cycling, but in different ways. The first half of the blog is about the Moros y Cristianos celebration that I came across during my Sunday bike ride. And towards the end of the week, I went to see the pros: the 4th stage of the Vuelta a la Comunidad Valenciana bicycle race passed a town about 45 km from here, and I went to see it. There were also some nice social activities during the week.<\/p>\n

5_1<\/strong>
\nOn Sunday morning, I cycled to Agost, as I often do, a nice little town 26 km away, making it a relatively easy medium-length ride. I found the main street of the town closed to traffic, and immediately the reason became obvious. The Moros y Cristinos celebration was beginning, and a parade was taking place, with the conquering Moors marching towards the main square:
\n\"1030956\"<\/p>\n

5_2<\/strong>
\nThe non-very-fearsome head of the Moorish contingent:
\n\"1030955\"<\/p>\n

5_3<\/strong>
\nAlongside the route, the terraces of the bars and caf\u00c3\u00a9s and the sidewalk were full of people looking on, many of them ladies of a certain age who have seen many such parades before and probably marched in them when they were young:
\n\"1030959\"<\/p>\n

5_4<\/strong>
\nCommenting on the young ones’ performance:
\n\"1030958\"<\/p>\n

5_5<\/strong>
\nSpanish children start young:
\n\"1030960\"<\/p>\n

5_6<\/strong>
\nMany of the Moors were young women:
\n\"1030961\"<\/p>\n

5_7<\/strong>
\n\"1030962\"<\/p>\n

5_8<\/strong>
\nApplause:
\n\"1030964\"<\/p>\n

5_9<\/strong>
\nSkulls and bones:
\n\"1030969\"<\/p>\n

5_10<\/strong>
\nThere were some heavy duty Moorish men too:
\n\"1030968\"<\/p>\n

5_11<\/strong>
\nAnd then came the band, starting with the percussion:
\n\"1030970\"<\/p>\n

5_12<\/strong>
\n\"1030971\"<\/p>\n

5_13<\/strong>
\nThe trumpet:
\n\"1030973\"<\/p>\n

5_14<\/strong>
\nThe big brass guy, looking for the music:
\n\"1030975\"<\/p>\n

5_15<\/strong>
\nHe found it:
\n\"1030974\"<\/p>\n

5_16<\/strong>
\nIn the afternoon, I went for a beer at 100 Montaditos, the beach bar. There is also an ice cream parlour, quite popular on a balmy winter afternoon:
\n\"DSF3707\"<\/p>\n

5_17<\/strong>
\nMother and child:
\n\"DSF3706\"<\/p>\n

5_18<\/strong>
\nChildren playing:
\n\"DSF3709\"<\/p>\n

5_19<\/strong>
\nThen Monday arrived, back to work. But with a twist. We had our monthly department meeting, and a new tradition has recently been implemented–to have a drink in the city after work on the days when we have these meetings. This time it was in a wine shop\/bar in the centre, called Osiris. It is run by this lady, here explaining some of the bottles. I chatted with her a bit. She opened the shop in October 2019, just a few months before Covid shut everything down. It is amazing that the business survived, but I am glad it did. Osiris is a nice place, selling good wine at good prices, and you can also have some by the glass and some cheese and other munchies to go along with it:
\n\"DSF3724\"<\/p>\n

5_20<\/strong>
\nInmaculada, a colleague from Seville (she goes by Inma) and Ziga, a Slovak co-worker, chatting with two of our trainees:
\n\"DSF3712\"<\/p>\n

5_21<\/strong>
\nB\u00c3\u00a9reng\u00c3\u00a8re, a relatively recent arrival from France, talking and laughing with Ben from Sweden:
\n\"DSF3726\"<\/p>\n

5_22<\/strong>
\n\"DSF3718\"<\/p>\n

5_23<\/strong>
\nOn Friday evening, Eri had invited the junta<\/em> of the art club for dinner at her place. I wanted to contribute something, so in the morning I drove to Tibi buy some of Lili’s goat cheese. Outside her small shop I could see that there was another customer inside:
\n\"DSF7773\"<\/p>\n

5_24<\/strong>
\nInside, Lili serving the customer whose bicycle was outside:
\n\"DSF7775\"<\/p>\n

5_25<\/strong>
\nBesides her own goat cheeses, Lili also sells Appenzeller from her native Switzerland. The round white cheese in the background turned out fantastic:
\n\"DSF7776\"<\/p>\n

5_26<\/strong>
\nLili poses with the cheese I have bought lined up on the counter:
\n\"DSF7778\"<\/p>\n

5_27<\/strong>
\nIn the evening, we gathered in Eri’s apartment. The neighbourhood is not particularly posh, but the apartment is nice, and she has a fabulous view of the Castillo Santa B\u00c3\u00a1rbara, a medieval castle on a hill overlooking Alicante:
\n\"DSF7782\"<\/p>\n

5_28<\/strong>
\nThe goat cheeses I brought, joined on the table by Greek salad and Greek sausage:
\n\"DSF7787\"<\/p>\n

5_29<\/strong>
\nEri had ordered Greek takeout from a place she has found recently, run by a guy from Athens. The order included these large gyros. Christophe and Caroline are taken aback by the size (there was one for each):
\n\"DSF7783\"<\/p>\n

5_30<\/strong>
\nEri demonstrates the correct technique:
\n\"DSF7789\"<\/p>\n

5_31<\/strong>
\nDuring the evening, we were briefly joined by Eri’s daughter who lives in London:
\n\"DSF7794\"<\/p>\n

5_32<\/strong>
\nOn Saturday morning, I went for a walk on the beach. There were several people awaiting the sunrise:
\n\"DSF7798\"<\/p>\n

5_33<\/strong>
\n\"DSF7797\"<\/p>\n

5_34<\/strong>
\n\"DSF7802\"<\/p>\n

5_35<\/strong>
\n\"DSF7799\"<\/p>\n

5_36<\/strong>
\nIn the afternoon, I drove to the town of La Nuc\u00c3\u00ada to watch the 4th stage of the Vuelta a la Comunidad Valenciana bicycle race, one of the first professional events on the cycling calendar. I chose a vantage point where the riders would be coming up from a small town called Polop and beginning one of the hard climbs of the route. While I waited, I enjoyed the view of Polop:
\n\"DSF7808\"<\/p>\n

5_37<\/strong>
\nI had timed my arrival well, and after about 10-15 minutes, the riders appeared:
\n\"DSF7813\"<\/p>\n

More photos from the bicycle race can be seen here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The two main events of this week both relate to cycling, but in different ways. The first half of the blog is about the Moros y Cristianos celebration that I came across during my Sunday bike ride. And towards the end of the week, I went to see the pros: the 4th stage of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":4205,"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\/4234"}],"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=4234"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"http:\/\/www.fotocycle.dk\/paws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4234\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4240,"href":"http:\/\/www.fotocycle.dk\/paws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4234\/revisions\/4240"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.fotocycle.dk\/paws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4205"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.fotocycle.dk\/paws\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4234"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}