After a weekend of individual arrivals in Spain, on Monday finally the complete group was in Alcoi. We all looked forward to our project here and now it shall start. On Monday morning we were greeted nicely by the staff of the UPV. Together we learned about Campus Alcoi, what kind of studies are taught here and had a tour around the very modern facilities. We were shown our two Labs were we can work freely and independent since we are the only ones using it. This will help us because we can spread every idea all over the walls and whiteboard.
A nice extra for us was the electric scooter manufactured by a local company called Xkuty. It is a light weight vehicle for one person which we could try out shortly on the campus plaza and furthermore during the next weeks all over Alcoi. The range and power is quite enough to drive around this beautiful town with its steep heels. Being battery powered the acceleration is one of the best features about it and makes it a lot of fun to cruise around. We will give it a good test and give feedback and tips for improvement to the UPV at the end of our stay.
After a small lunch break we, together with our partners at UPV, walked over to the town hall to be welcomed by the municipality. We got some insight of the traditions of the city of Alcoi and met more important partners that will support us if we need help. Those are for example the head of the local police and members of the city council responsible for the infrastructure.
In the afternoon we got a long city tour from Isabel, our local team member who lives in Aloci, to get to know the city. She has prepared a nice walking tour for us in which she addressed some problems with the infrastructure which bother her since a while. The rest of us listened carefully, asked questions and discussed certain topics right on the spot to get a quick feeling about the city and its mobility issues. We were also happy about the nice scenery which surrounds the city with its many mountains and blue skies.
Through this long city walk we had a very fast overview of some of the problems the town is facing and we already had productive sessions in which we created early concepts and appreciate the feedback we received via Skype from the group working in Turku.
We look forward to the next days and hope to make life in this area a little better than it is already is.
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