{"id":970,"date":"2013-04-08T19:37:12","date_gmt":"2013-04-08T18:37:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.fotocycle.dk\/paws\/?page_id=970"},"modified":"2013-04-08T19:42:36","modified_gmt":"2013-04-08T18:42:36","slug":"week-14-semana-santa-and-spring","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/www.fotocycle.dk\/paws\/?page_id=970","title":{"rendered":"Week 14: Semana Santa and spring"},"content":{"rendered":"

Another four-day week because of Easter Monday. The spring is a good time for holidays around here. This year, we are having a cold, windy spring by Spanish standards. Normally by early April the afternoon highs should be approaching 25-30 degrees C, but this year it has been more like 20, and with lots of wind. March also has been more rainy than usual, at least it felt this way. <\/p>\n

14_1<\/strong>
\nI start with a couple of cycling pictures. The harbour in Santa Pola is one of my usual places for a 5 minute break:
\n\"_1000930\"<\/p>\n

14_2<\/strong>
\nDuring the same ride, the wind was really blowing:
\n\"_1000935\"<\/p>\n

This year, I did not get to see much of Semana Santa, partly because we spent several days leading up to Easter away in the mountains. But my son and I did go to the centre on Easter Sunday to have a look at the culmination of the celebrations.<\/p>\n

14_3<\/strong>
\nEaster Sunday is of course the celebration of the resurrection, and there are two processions that day, one with the resurrected Jesus:
\n\"L1009252\"<\/p>\n

14_4<\/strong>
\nFrom another church comes the procession of the Virgin Mary celebrating the resurrection, Virgen de la Alegr\u00c3\u00ada<\/em>:
\n\"L1009269\"<\/p>\n

14_5<\/strong>
\nThe two processions meet in front of Alicante’s city hall, while the local dignitaries shower the crowds below with handbills with pictures of saints and the like:
\n\"L1009259\"<\/p>\n

14_6<\/strong>
\nEspecially children try to catch the papers:
\n\"L1009268\"<\/p>\n

14_7<\/strong>
\nAfter some bla-bla from the balcony of the city hall, the two processions return to their respective churches. I like the Semana Santa because you get really close to the costaleros<\/em>:
\n\"L1009270\"<\/p>\n

14_8<\/strong>
\nOne of the things I admire about these processions is the discipline, coordination and planning that is required to carry the heavy statues in the narrow streets, among crowds. And the costaleros and not just men:
\n\"L1009273\"<\/p>\n

14_9<\/strong>
\nThere are also marching bands, of course:
\n\"L1009275\"<\/p>\n

14_10<\/strong>
\nAs is clear from this image, the weather was not the best this Easter Sunday:
\n\"L1009278\"<\/p>\n

14_11<\/strong>
\nMy son enjoyed his last week of vacation here. We spent a lot of time watching football together with Taco:
\n\"DSF1445\"<\/p>\n

14_12<\/strong>
\nIn mid-week, my son and I went to have lunch at Hostal Maruja south of Santa Pola, the place for some of the best seafood in the region:
\n\"L1009281\"<\/p>\n

14_13<\/strong>
\nOne of the attraction of eating at Hostal Maruja is that you are basically sitting on the beach. The good weather was enjoyed by the young…:
\n\"L1009283\"<\/p>\n

14_14<\/strong>
\n…and not so young:
\n\"L1009286\"<\/p>\n

14_15<\/strong>
\nTowards the end of the week, we had some more rain:
\n\"L1009305\"<\/p>\n

14_16<\/strong>
\nWhen we have stormy weather, various poultry from the golf course seeks shelter in our subdivision. The birds are actually a nuisance, since they shit all over the place:
\n\"L1009293\"<\/p>\n

14_17<\/strong>
\nBut after the storm comes the rainbow:
\n\"L1009301\"<\/p>\n

14_18<\/strong>
\nOn Saturday morning, my son and I went to the Mercado Central to buy some tuna steaks and other supplies. While waiting our turn, I watched the fishmonger filet a fish for a customer. This is the way to buy seafood. Not synthetic plastic-wrapped filets of uncertain provenance, but proper fish:
\n\"L1009315\"<\/p>\n

14_19<\/strong>
\nAfter we bought our fish, we went for the veggies:
\n\"L1009310\"<\/p>\n

14_20<\/strong>
\nAnd finally, we bought some flowers for my wife:
\n\"L1009317\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Another four-day week because of Easter Monday. The spring is a good time for holidays around here. This year, we are having a cold, windy spring by Spanish standards. Normally by early April the afternoon highs should be approaching 25-30 degrees C, but this year it has been more like 20, and with lots of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":877,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.fotocycle.dk\/paws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/970"}],"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=970"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/www.fotocycle.dk\/paws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/970\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":972,"href":"http:\/\/www.fotocycle.dk\/paws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/970\/revisions\/972"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.fotocycle.dk\/paws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/877"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.fotocycle.dk\/paws\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=970"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}