Overnight tour to Lorca

Last weekend seven of us took off in rather chilly and windy weather for the city of Lorca in the province of Murcia.  It was a relatively flat ride under blue skies, skirting the Sierra de Espuna and its accompanying range.

Lunch break in a sunlit square, out of the wind could only be improved upon by having a beer and a Murciano, or pastel de carne.  On the way back we stopped in Murcia at Zaher, a bakery/bar which I'm told was the originator of the meat-filled pastry.  The other six had never had the delicacy and were very pleased with it.

With time to kill before we could check in at the hotel, we explored the city center, climbing the hill to the castle and the cathedral which was damaged by the 2010 earthquake.  All around the area were many ancient buildings shored up with and reinforced by steel girders.  It's a beautiful area, nevertheless.

And then there was dinner with the accompanying delicious house wine.  We started with calamari, patatas brava, jamon serrano y juevos and gambas al ajillo and never made it to the main course; having filled up on lots of accompanying bread and at least eight bottles of red.  What a feast!

And then Petter realized we had to get on the bikes in a few hours.

And so we raced home on Sunday

11/11/13 Update

It's been almost a month since we got back to Algorfa, and it's been BUSY.  Two days after landing, we were off to Valencia to attend a competition by the three regional champion bands at the Palau des Artes Reina Sophia.  Our friend Roberto Teruel plays saxophone for the Albatera band who came out on

top in our province of Alicante.  The concert pitted the best bands from Castellon, Alicante and Valencia.  Our local band won, so the next step is the nationals in Madrid.  Anyway, we had a fun trip and got to listen to some great music in an iconic concert hall.  I can't decide whether it looks like a space ship or a fish.

 A couple of days after the concert we picked up the keys to the new house and started moving in.  This, after packing up, storing  and shipping a ton of stuff in Westbrook.
 So last Friday we're in the new place, having a housewarming for 24 guests and I'm sitting down for a break and  a bite when the doorbell rings.  It turns out that the shipment of stuff from Westbrook, which I'd been told would arrive on Monday, is here-all twenty two boxes and a table.  It's all unpacked, put away and we're into cleaning and shining up the old place so it can be photographed and put on the market next week. In the meantime, I've got to do my cycling, do some more paintings for the exhibition in April and get into some of the relaxation and chilling I've been bragging about.  More about that when it happens.  Saludos!