Wednesday 19th April 2023

My 13th annual work anniverary at the wind company.

And ehre we are in Spain.

We are, indeed, on our holibobs.

We lay in to half seven, get up and have showers before putting on our finest summer perambulating dress and then heading down to the first floor for breakfast of fruit and fresh bread rolls and sweet pastries. And lashings of strong coffee.

Many nations represented in the breakfast bar, we ate well, then left for a walk.

It was a glorious day, clear blue skies and already getting warmer that would nudge into hot later. Best get out and enjoy the day before it gets too warm. Or hot.

The city is split by a long, sunken green park which was once the bed of the river, but that has now diverted and now is a great community green space., and our plan was to walk eastwards to the complex of modern buildings, and take lots of photos..

Even once outside the hotel it felt hot, the sun reflecting off the pavement, so we wanted to get to the park ASAP to take shelter under the trees which offered shade.

We found a ramp leading from the streets down to the shaded park, and along paths past people doing early morning yoga and keep fit classes, and birds doing it is what birds do at this time of year.

We stop at regular intervals, making the walk seem longer than it was. There's a children's play area in the shape of Gulliver, so the kids would play on his body turned into an adventure area.

Under two bridges, now over the park, and while there was some street art, mostly it was as intended when built.

It was as warm as a summer's day back home, but still only mid-morning, so we took took time in our ramblings, past faux classical columns and ornamental lakes to the Centre for the Arts, like a giant marrooned Armadillo in the centre of a large lake.

After the classical Spanish design of the houses and hotels, it is quite the shock, but there is a guiding design of that, the sunken Hemesphere cinema, the Natural History museum and other buildings of the zoo beyond. Even the bridges are of a similar design.

It is quite breathtaking.

And big.

It must contain a concert hall, and is as striking as the Sydney Opera House, it looks like a cross between a space ship and a huge egg opening, lines and layers everywhere.

More so that there were so few people about, so we got fine shots of the buildings starkly contrasting against the deep blue sky behind.

The Centre for the Arts is like a space ship, marrooned in a lake, all sweeping lines in a modern off white colour, though it as the Restaurant wasn't yet open for the thirsty photographers.

Over a walkway and through the Hemesphere to the Museum beyond, we find a kiosk selling beers, sodas and snacks. Even though it wasn't quite half ten, a beer was called for, and olive oil flavoured crisps.

Once we had drunk, we walked to the other side of the museum, under the bridge, and round the other side, where the water was filled with the young in rowing boats and on electrical floats, with the males on the electrical floats showing how manly they are by trying to sink the females of the species in the rowing boats. And somehow the species survives.

With the mobile phone, we were able to find a place to eat, at the base of a condo the other side of the main road, and a small bar offered tapas and wines. We ordered "several" tapas and a bottle of rose wine, the food kept coming until it almost became unfunny. All the food was fabulous, and we made the wine vanish.

We could have walked home, but instead found the taxi ranks and so caught a cab for the five minute drive to the hotel, so we could snooze through the siesta.

In the room we slept for a couple of hours, then refreshed, went out to walk around the neighbourhood and end up in the Irish bar where a pint of Budvar and a small bottle of Chimay blue was made to vanish too.

Cheers.

Next to the hotel was a small snack bar that did slices of pizza, so we had one of those each before retiring to the room to follow the football.