I must say, I am finally sitting down with a nice martini and running the "Hike Of The Day" through my mind, or should I say the hike I really don't want to do again tomorrow. Our destination today was Finestrat, a wonderful hill village about 5 miles above us at the mid point in the mountains that protects Benidorm from a lot of the mountain rains. We immediately started up hill from our condo and it didn't quit until we arrived in Finestrat and even in the village it seemed to be up hill from every path you took walking the "streets" (non-vehicle of course). About half way up we came upon "The Bull" that seems to guard all the hill villages of Spain. Finally we see Finestrat through the "Round-about" sitting even higher and further than we thought we would find. Finestrat is exactly what you would expect a hill village should be...absolutely wonderful. We were really surprised to find all the fruit trees in full bloom and even on our "trail" we had a few blooming flowers. We have also found it amazing to see all of these rock terraced planting areas that date back to the early 15/1600's.
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I just want to thank ALL of you for the Birthday wishes... I must admit, I really don't feel any older than I did yesterday... it must be the water (in reality it's the Spanish wine)... Thanks again, Love you all
This morning we woke to blaring music indicating another bike race, right under our deck...Get set, ready, GOOOOO... Well seeing as how it was February 2nd, and MY BIRTHDAY, Louise pushed me out of the door for a 10 mile hike to "The Benidorm Cross"... All I can say is, she suffered as much as I did and it made the whole day worth it... At one point we selected a stair case of over 400 steps thinking it a "shortcut", well we have a lot to learn about shortcuts it seems... Even the sidewalks/streets were 10 percent plus grades up to the "Cross". Great city and surrounding hill/town vistas and another look down and into Xiao's casita, his mine and the/plateau-ed garden areas we saw on another hike out to one of the watch towers... Once down and back into the city, we headed over to our favorite Chinese restaurant for Lunch/dinner which we throughly enjoyed. Not only did we enjoy it once, we'll enjoy it at least once more from our "take home bag"...
Woke this morning to the WIND blowing sand and sea EVERYWHERE ... This 1st picture was a good looking young lady with makeup until the sand did its job... We were thinking of having lunch at "Peggy Sues American Food" but got thinking that it is NEVER a good idea to eat at restaurants with the names like "Moms", "Sisters", and "Peggy Sues American Food", so we found this little beachfront place that would allow us to park our "Electric Buggies" at the front door...we didn't want to walk very far although we did accomplish 17,000+ steps for the day.
11.5 miles of beautiful coastline and a little bit of town/city walking... Destination today was Villajoyosa (Happy town) and offers as one of it's draws, the VALOR Chocolate Factory. Unfortunately we didn't make to the Chocolate Factory...but "We Will Be Back". Our hike took us out of Benidorm and quickly UP and into the coastal hills that offered up some great Mediterranean Sea and territorial views. We entered Villajoyosa at the marina and followed the boardwalk looking for something to eat and a place to "rest our footsies". Then as you can see from one of our photos we had a hike up some long-ass stairs to get into the town and find our way to the returning tram.
In the last week we have found the beaches all "plowed up" and have wondered "why"? Last night we heard this commotion out in front of us and this is what was happening... After "Google-ing" this morning we found out it is to "soften" up the sand...we thought it pretty soft as it was, but we're just tourists
We decided that today we would walk the beach into town. Our condo is the one with the palm tree in front on the 4th floor. The group along the beach walls are one of two large groups that get together each morning for senior exercises (Louise and I have noticed that we are FAR in the majority age wise on this particular beach area of Spain). Again, the "singing groups" are entertaining the locals on the boardwalk. Now, I've been WANTING a good meal of mussels and today was it...mmmmm good !!! Doris not Jauncho, the bottle wall reminded us of all the work and BEAUTIFUL results you enjoyed at your home.
This group of pictures trace the route we took today. The BIG new condo project that seems to have fallen on its nose and sits empty...The school with the graffiti paintings all well done, and one looking like "Mr. White" (or Doug Rohrer)... The gathering of some locals at the beach in front of the marina enjoying a sing-along... The "Seafarers church and monument... the "American Bar"...the "plowed beach sand" (and why, who knows)
22 January ’06, Sunday. Yesterday morning we left Benidorm and headed north. Our calculations told us we would most likely land close to Barcelona for the night. Our drive was uneventful with the exception of a little rain in the first hour. We stopped just outside of Benidorm, for a replenishment of groceries at Lidl (Liidle), a little butter, wine, and some bread…does that sound familiar???. Then it was onto Barcelona. About 4, we pulled into Vilanova I la Geltru, and our campground for the night. This put us about 25 km short of Barcelona, but at a very large and nice campground. This morning after my shower, I went up to the camp store and bought a couple of nice “sweet rolls” to go with our coffee. After packing, we pulled out of our pitch, but found we were heading into a dead-end street. Stopping, I put “Bumble Bee” into reverse and immediately turned into a stone wall. Upset over that, I pulled forward, put her in reverse again and backed into a Palm tree. This time I did some damage…I broke out the back window and put a big enough dent into the back door that it won’t open….S___ . Glass everywhere and I wasn’t a “HAPPY CAMPER” !!! Not only that, I did it in front of someone…why weren’t they still in bed??? Louise and I got out and started picking up all the glass from the ground and around the window frame…sure enough, we both ended up with blood dripping from our fingers, and a lot of smoke from my mouth…I was pissed !!! Here we are, after traveling through a ton of different countries, thousands of roads and back ally-ways, countless campgrounds, and finally heading “home” we back into a damn palm tree… what more can I say??? Now we are behind “schedule”, so we head out towards our “new” destination…Toulouse, France, and it is after 10:30 in the morning. We are looking for our next highway C-31. C-32 is a “Toll” road, so we want C-31…a non-toll. Finding C-31, we motor on towards Barcelona and then to the French border. Funny thing, as we get onto C-31, it all of a sudden becomes a very narrow, winding and twisting, edge hugging, bicycling, little “ole lady”, “Sunday morning”, sightseeing roadway…I need SPEED!!! We were stuck…for just about 1 hour we were on this wonderful (for those that didn’t have a care in the world) road, and couldn’t get off. Finally, after entering Barcelona, we had a chance to jump to the “Big Man’s” highway, and motor on at our fast clip of 100km (60 MPH). What a morning !!! Now we only had 2 more slight inconveniences…we only had $20 Euros in cash, we needed gas, and we were about ready to pay some heavy duty “highway tolls”. Gas would take up to $50 Euro, and the tolls, about $30 before we could leave Spain. Once on the “toll” road we couldn’t get off to get to a cash machine, so we had to hope that one of the “convenient” service/restaurant stops had one. On our 3rd attempt we found one, but they wanted to charge us a $2 Euro service charge…OK, TAKE IT, JUST GIVE ME MY MONEY !!! Escaping into France, taking a last glance into Spain (which we really liked), we headed off to Narbonne. Turning right toward Carcassonne and Toulouse we were heading into “new territory”. We had wanted to find a way to take this route, but we hadn’t found enough campgrounds open to be able to. Finally, after examining some more campground information, we found what we needed…a campground in Toulouse and Limoges that were open year around. Now we had a different route to Paris and some additional sites in France to see…all is good. We arrived in Toulouse about 4:30, set up, and feeling like Don Quixote and Poncho Sanchez, we had some very good Champagne and snacks to drown our sorrows. A hell of day !!! |
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