10-24 The Granddaughters Arrive!

 This is the third set of visitors to our El Campello apartment.  First, out niece, RM from Madrid came to visit during the Moors and Christians Festival, then granddaughter Jojo also living in Madrid, came for a short weekend and now granddaughters, Lia and Natasha who live in Sweden are here.  

We have managed to avoid driving at night our entire Spain trip, but it was unavoidable for their 8:30pm arrival at the Alicante airport.  It was a bit stressful as several of the roads had no street lamps.  Michael managed the journey just fine.  As the girls were traveling as unaccompanied minors - they had to wait until everyone else got off the plane before the agent led them to us in the arrivals area.  They were hungry when we got home - so Michael whipped up some omelets for them.  They quickly adjusted to "Spanish" time and stayed up late.

Saturday morning we walked to the beach restaurant of Valor - for hot chocolate and churros.  The hot chocolate is very thick and chocolaty - you eat it with a small spoon.  The churros are not sweetened, but you can dip them in the provided sugar.  Then off to the Mercadona for foodstuffs and snacks.  After we left the store we realized we had no sun block - so I went back to find it.  In Spanish it is translated as protector solar - I asked a couple of people before I was sent off in the right direction.  It was 4 euros 20 for 100 ml tube.

For our late lunch we took them to Lami for their pizza.  Michael ordered a fish meal and also an appetizer of several kinds of patis.  It came with lots of focaccia to put the pate on.  I was full after we finished that!  And I was not the only one. So we ended up with a lot of left over pizza in the freezer.  The girls and I spent at least an hour by the pool.  They in the pool and me sitting beside it.  Sunday they are threatening rain and cooler temperatures.

Sunday the 26th turned out rainy and cool.  We saw some surfers head out to the water - but even they did not last long.  I had asked the girls to bring some games in anticipation of a rainy day -  so we kept ourselves busy.  We have made plans for two day trips Monday and Tuesday - if the weather cooperates.

In anticipation of the rain, last evening's sunset was very foggy.

It is so foggy you can barely see the line between ocean and sky.

I was wondering if there would be any color in the sky because of the fog.

The sunset is very muted.

But there was a little color.

And finally darkness covers the city.

2025 10-24 Sunrise

 Thursday night I did a deep dive into researching how to capture better sunrise and sunset photos.  So this morning I tried to take what I had learned to the sunset. When I looked at my photos the first time around I was very pleased.  But when I started to edit them, I noticed some strange rather large red dots in my photos.  Then I remembered - I had taken off the lens cap and then the lens hood and put them on the table.  I had totally forgotten about lens flare - caused by shooting into the sun and not shading your camera lens. This causes what is called a lens flare - or large red dots on your photos.  

So the next thing I researched was how to get rid of the large red dots.  I tried my old method of getting rid of them by manually using the band aid - healing tool.  It is not very good in Lightroom.  But there was a new tool under this same setting that used AI.  I tried to use it by just figuring it out myself - not successful.  But you can ask Google anything right?  I watched a couple of you tube videos and was flabbergasted by the improvement.

Once I knew what I was doing - it worked like a charm.  Now I know how to get rid of all kinds of unwanted elements in my photos.  Why didn't I learn this earlier!

Minutes before the sun rises.  All photos taken from our 20th story apartment windows.

The sky right by the sun was not very exciting - but if I opened up my lens and included more in my photos - the sky was very dramatic.

A total sky photo.

And what about a totally different angle - even more dramatic.

But now the sun is close to rising - so I focus on that.

The small black spot on this photo is a bird.  It would have been fantastic if a large flock of birds would have flown into the scene, but that didn't happen.

The sun keeps rising higher.

So I go back to including more of the sky.

Next time I will remember to keep the lens hood on the camera and avoid having to make all these corrections.  But I am glad it happened because I learned something new - that I will continue to use a lot.  Part of the AI tool is that it can recognize people and you can delete any strangers who inadvertently walk into you frame.  I am excited to keep learning.

2025 10-22 Orihuela part 3

 Continued:

On the other side of Old Town we visited the Cathedral of the Savior and St. Mary.  This is a Gothic church built in the 13th - 14th centuries.

On the ground of the small plaza in front of the church is this design.

I love seeing the elaborate organs in these old cathedrals.  They are works of art in themselves.

In this cathedral every little section is encased in iron bar cages - all with elaborate designs.

Even the choir section.  I poked my camera lens through the bars to get this photo.

Except for this small more modern chapel - no bars here.

I love stained glass windows.  

And once again the picture of Jesus in a dress.

The dome.

The gold and glittery.

The story board.

More things behind bars.

Crusader type images in iron.

Front of the organ.

This one looks like a courting couple.

Across the small plaza in front of the church we saw more of the woven window shades positioned for better airflow into the home.

More birds on lampposts.

Michael had found a bar/cafe close to where we had parked. So we headed back that way.

It wasn't yet 2pm - a little early for lunch so we found a small park with these elaborate benches.  No one else was sitting on any of them.  As we got close we could see why - the seats were covered in small seed like black pellets.  I took out a Kleenex and cleaned the bench off.  We sat down and started discussing what we should do after lunch.  OUCH - The wind had come up and we were being pelted with the little black seeds!  After a few minutes of this, we decided it was close enough to 2pm and sauntered off to the restaurant.

We got the Menu de Dia.  My cream of vegetable soup with a sunny side up egg - so delicious

Murcia salad for Michael.  (Tuna, tomato, olive, egg)

My braised beef with vegetables and fries.  Wonderful!

Michael's chicken with potato wedges - also good.

Desserts - all the choices were some flan like thing - like the one below.  I don't care for the texture of it.  The only other dessert options translated to "Tub of Ice cream".  Which turned out to be a commercially prepared vanilla ice cream with a little chocolate sauce.  This is a sure disappointment if you were hoping for Helado store quality ice cream.

After eating all that food - the decision was easy - time to head home.  My left foot hurts a little bit more each day - but so far is still manageable.