Prowling my world, camera in hand

8 April 2013

Week 14: Semana Santa and spring

Filed under: — Administrator @ 19:37

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.

14_1
I start with a couple of cycling pictures. The harbour in Santa Pola is one of my usual places for a 5 minute break:
_1000930

14_2
During the same ride, the wind was really blowing:
_1000935

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.

14_3
Easter Sunday is of course the celebration of the resurrection, and there are two processions that day, one with the resurrected Jesus:
L1009252

14_4
From another church comes the procession of the Virgin Mary celebrating the resurrection, Virgen de la Alegría:
L1009269

14_5
The 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:
L1009259

14_6
Especially children try to catch the papers:
L1009268

14_7
After 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:
L1009270

14_8
One 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:
L1009273

14_9
There are also marching bands, of course:
L1009275

14_10
As is clear from this image, the weather was not the best this Easter Sunday:
L1009278

14_11
My son enjoyed his last week of vacation here. We spent a lot of time watching football together with Taco:
DSF1445

14_12
In 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:
L1009281

14_13
One 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…:
L1009283

14_14
…and not so young:
L1009286

14_15
Towards the end of the week, we had some more rain:
L1009305

14_16
When 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:
L1009293

14_17
But after the storm comes the rainbow:
L1009301

14_18
On 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:
L1009315

14_19
After we bought our fish, we went for the veggies:
L1009310

14_20
And finally, we bought some flowers for my wife:
L1009317

1 Comment »

  1. As usual, your collections are never boring.

    Comment by Herb — 12 April 2013 @ 05:27

RSS feed for comments on this post.

Leave a comment

Powered by WordPress