{"id":4536,"date":"2024-12-31T08:30:24","date_gmt":"2024-12-31T07:30:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.fotocycle.dk\/paws\/?page_id=4536"},"modified":"2024-12-31T08:59:43","modified_gmt":"2024-12-31T07:59:43","slug":"week-51-christmas-in-alicante","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/www.fotocycle.dk\/paws\/?page_id=4536","title":{"rendered":"Week 51: Christmas in Alicante"},"content":{"rendered":"

This was the last full week of 2024. I was not working anymore, so there was plenty of time for cycling and walking around, and then we celebrated Christmas at home and got together with friends on Boxing Day.<\/p>\n

51_1<\/strong>
\nOn the morning of the 22nd, I walked down to the beach to see the first sunrise after the solstice. While waiting for the sun, I looked at a man and his dog at the water’s edge:
\n\"DSF3216\"<\/p>\n

51_2<\/strong>
\nStretching:
\n\"DSF3220\"<\/p>\n

51_3<\/strong>
\nThe sun appears, and I feel a tiny bit pagan:
\n\"DSF3226\"<\/p>\n

51_4<\/strong>
\nAnother way to see the rays of the rising sun, looking at the small details:
\n\"DSF3229\"<\/p>\n

51_5<\/strong>
\nOr looking at the grand vista:
\n\"DSF3230\"<\/p>\n

51_6<\/strong>
\nLater that morning, I cycled north to Villajoyosa, stopping at a small beach just south of the town, Playa Bol Nou. I like the view of Alicante in the distance:
\n\"1040658\"<\/p>\n

51_7<\/strong>
\nIt may be late December, but a few people still enjoy the beach. Playa Bol Nou is mostly used by people who live in the immediate vicinity:
\n\"1040659\"<\/p>\n

51_8<\/strong>
\nA big rock formation separates Playa Bpl Nou from the larger beaches closer to the town:
\n\"1040655\"<\/p>\n

51_9<\/strong>
\nIn the afternoon, my wife and I went for lunch at a local restaurant (5 minutes walk from our house) called Casa Segis. It is am amazing deal. For 37 EUR you get a great menu with several appetisers like this one, followed by a paella of your choice, with unlimited beer and soft drinks:
\n\"R000734\"<\/p>\n

51_10<\/strong>
\nOur rice with lamb and artichokes was excellent:
\n\"R000735\"<\/p>\n

51_11<\/strong>
\nOn Monday I met up for lunch with my former trainee Romy, who is now studying at the College of Europe in Bruges but was back in Alicante, spending the holidays with her parents here. As always, Romy was more than happy to pose for an informal portrait:
\n\"DSF3233\"<\/p>\n

51_12<\/strong>
\nOn Tuesday I started the day with another bike ride, stopping in Verdeg\u00c3\u00a1s to say hello to the cats there:
\n\"1040672\"<\/p>\n

51_13<\/strong>
\nIn the afternoon I went to the centre for some last-minute Christmas shopping. The city was crowded, many other people had the same idea:
\n\"DSF3243\"<\/p>\n

51_14<\/strong>
\nHaving done my shopping, I settled down for a beer at Malatesta to deal with the trauma:
\n\"DSF3244\"<\/p>\n

51_15<\/strong>
\nOther people did the same:
\n\"DSF3249\"<\/p>\n

51_16<\/strong>
\nThen Christmas morning arrived, and the presents were under the tree:
\n\"R000739\"<\/p>\n

51_17<\/strong>
\nOur daughter has been to Barcelona a couple of times this year, and she contributed a Catalan feature to our tree, a t\u00c3\u00ado de nadal<\/a>:
\n\"R000740\"<\/p>\n

51_18<\/strong>
\nGifts were exchanged:
\n\"R000741\"<\/p>\n

51_19<\/strong>
\nAfter the gift exchange, I put the camera on self-timer and we made this year’s official cheesy family portrait:
\n\"R000751\"<\/p>\n

51_20<\/strong>
\nWe had the Christmas lunch at the house of our friends Eliot and Assumpta. My wife contributed this creation to the table, an edible Christmas tree:
\n\"DSF3253\"<\/p>\n

51_21<\/strong>
\nMy wife with Eliot, who put a goofy hairpiece:
\n\"DSF3266\"<\/p>\n

51_22<\/strong>
\nBalu looking for tummy rubs:
\n\"DSF3265\"<\/p>\n

51_23<\/strong>
\nOn Boxing Day I cycled to Jijona. I had noticed this embellished road sign during previous rides, but this time I stopped to photograph it:
\n\"1040676\"<\/p>\n

51_24<\/strong>
\nAlong the road to Jijona there is a large vegetable farm. The crops are varied, but here is a large field of artichokes:
\n\"1040678\"<\/p>\n

51_25<\/strong>
\n\"1040677\"<\/p>\n

51_26<\/strong>
\nOn my way back, I stopped to photograph something else that I had noticed before but never stopped to photograph. The road on which I cycled passed under a motorway, and someone has painted the supporting columns. The murals are quite elaborate, well beyond the usual tagging, and I have no idea how they came about:
\n\"1040692\"<\/p>\n

51_27<\/strong>
\n\"1040694\"<\/p>\n

51_28<\/strong>
\n\"1040697\"<\/p>\n

51_29<\/strong>
\n\"1040696\"<\/p>\n

51_30<\/strong>
\nInspired by our upcoming trip to Puerto Rico, my wife decided to make pasteles, a traditional Puerto Rican dish that is very labour intensive. Her mother used to make it when we visit, but does not do it anymore:
\n\"DSF3277\"<\/p>\n

51_31<\/strong>
\nThe filling is finely chopped pork, cooked in oil and a sofrito<\/em> made from garlic, cilantro and other good things:
\n\"DSF3278\"<\/p>\n

51_32<\/strong>
\nThe base is a mix of \u00c3\u00b1ame (yam) and plaintains, finely ground, everything placed on a banana leaf:
\n\"DSF3275\"<\/p>\n

51_33<\/strong>
\nThe banana leaf is folded to create the pasteles:
\n\"DSF3276\"<\/p>\n

51_34<\/strong>
\nThe pasteles are tied with string and then boiled:
\n\"DSF3279\"<\/p>\n

51_35<\/strong>
\nA couple of random images from my walks. A guy outside Malatesta with a different Santa outfit:
\n\"DSF3268\"<\/p>\n

51_36<\/strong>
\nA father playing with his children on the beach wall:
\n\"DSF3283\"<\/p>\n

51_37<\/strong>
\nI finished the week with a long ride south to Elche and Santa Pola, passing Alicante airport. I stopped to take a picture of a Transavia plane taking off. This brought memories of my year in Seville in 2003-2004, when I commuted between Amsterdam and Seville on a weekly basis, most of the time on this airline, a low-cost subsidiary of KLM:
\n\"1040702\"<\/p>\n

51_38<\/strong>
\nThe southern-most point of my ride, the fishing harbour of Santa Pola:
\n\"1040706\"<\/p>\n

51_39<\/strong>
\nI was being watched from the top of the fishermen’s association building:
\n\"1040707\"<\/p>\n

51_40<\/strong>
\nOn my way home, I cycled along the small coastal road, and looked up at the subdivisions in the hills above. The people living there certainly have a nice view:
\n\"1040712\"<\/p>\n

And so ends the 24th year of posting weekly pictures.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This was the last full week of 2024. I was not working anymore, so there was plenty of time for cycling and walking around, and then we celebrated Christmas at home and got together with friends on Boxing Day. 51_1 On the morning of the 22nd, I walked down to the beach to see 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\/4536"}],"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=4536"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/www.fotocycle.dk\/paws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4536\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4541,"href":"http:\/\/www.fotocycle.dk\/paws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4536\/revisions\/4541"}],"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=4536"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}