Well the best laid plans can and will change, and unfortunately our plans to walk the Camino del Santigo was taken away from us because of the flu..., we are arranging return tickets in the morning. Thanks everyone for all your support.
 It's a wonderful way to finish a great walk into town, the smell of new flowers blooming, a comfortable sidewalk cafe for lunch and a glass of vino... Cheers  Alicante..... we were up early to catch a bus that would take us up to the "train" that would take us to the BIG city of Alicante. The only thing was, we didn't have the EXACT CHANGE for the bus so we "just had to" stop for Cafe Con Lache {to get change of course...} and then catch the bus. Well unknown to us {and the lack of understanding for what the bus driver was trying to tell us} we could only get about half way to the train this morning BECAUSE, a 1/2 mile section of our route was closed because of a street market that seems to accure every Friday...well why not??? So we went as far as we could and then hoofed it the rest of the way to catch our train. The train followed the coastline south for just over an hour and then headed deep into a tunnel to deliver us at our destination...Alicante Centro... After flying into Medrid, and then catching the high-speed train to Alicante, "I: thought "I" knew exactly where we were and where we were going this time...ha ha ha...no not quite. I wasn't to far off but I wasn't right either. Today we wanted to see the Castillo de Santa Barbara, the "Old City of Alicante", and the Cathedral of St. Nicolas. In trying to find our way to the castle we also found the marina with the tall ships, the beautiful "Esplanada" {boardwalk}, and again some wonderful architecture along the marina. At the far end of the marina we found the entrance into the old town and the "Tourist Information" center that we had been looking for... The architecture and the colors in the old city were enjoyable to see. Of course the narrow lanes between the buildings, and the hidden business everywhere. We also stumbled onto another church, lots and lots of plazas filled with table and chairs all calling our names for a place to sit and enjoy another glass of wine or cervaza, and believe it or not, even Elvis playing his guitar and singing his heart out for tips...amazing but true.... The Castle of Santa Barbara was pretty close to total dis-repair before the city got it together about 20 years ago and rebuilt it. It sits high on the hill guarding the sea and the city from intruders. Fortunately they have installed an elevator that will take you to the castle walls to that you too can enjoy the vistas... A wonderful way for a city to spend some extra Euro... After about an hour we found our way back to the elevator and headed to the Cathedral of St Nicolas... What is about all the churches locking their doors and not letting anyone in anymore ??? Pretty sad for us that can only visit once or maybe twice... Well it's been a long day, find the train, get the bus, and "let's" relax at home with a little music and a glass of vino....  Ahaaaa, let's take a slow walk into Benidorm, get a haircut, something to eat (starting with scones & cream with cherry jam), an "American Hamburger " at "Peggy Sue's" (see, I told you it wasn't going to be like home...), and then a walk through the park that runs from the beach through the town and up the hill for ever... On the way we came upon this display of costumes that has represented "Carnival " for the last 20 years... All the designers were men, that's surprising to me. Oh ya, did you notice the check envelope that we got at PS's? That was pretty neat. Then of course, Louise always has to check out the kids clothes...  Louise and I finally enjoyed getting out for the day after being "holed-up" for 5 days with this flu (as Louise called it). We had previously signed up for another bus tour and thought a couple of days ago we would just have to pass on it, we'll couple of days did make a big difference as to how we physically felt..."we're going, we've just got to get out. This ride took us into the mountains again with our first stop in Finistat were we picked oranges...I know, kind of corny but we did and we're able to bring the bounty back with us. A couple more stops with coffee, wine and cakes being served and we found ourselves at the train platform in Altea. We would now leave the bus and travel by train (tram) for about 40 minutes north along the coast to Benissa. Fortunately we got a great seat to see some wonderful views along this winding and twisting coastline of the Mediterranean. Our bus was there waiting as we stepped off the train to continue our tour. We were now going back south (towards Benidorm) to the city of Calp. This whole trip we had been thinking we would get into some wet weather but fortunately it stayed just outside of were we where. We thought we had seen a lot of growth and change in Benidorm, but the change and growth here was shocking... After a short walk around the warf and another break for fried fish and muscatel (sp) Louise and I left by ourselves to explore around the rock of Calpe. Just as we got to the base we met this group of three young men coming down. It just so happened that they were students from "MU" (Missouri University) and they were spending a semester of study here in Alicante. They told us that their hike to the top of Cape was much more dangerous than they had expected and they advised us not to take it....OK...I guess we'll pass. As we casually walked back to the bus we found that they had been "graciously waiting just for us"...those ugly Americans...damn.  You think you have everything you need UNTIL you find out you don't... This morning I found out that "I" had left a power cord for Lou's camera charger...S___t. Last Saturday we gave some thought about renting a car for a few days to see some of the villages deep into the mountain areas and a trip up to Valencia (about 85 miles up the coast) BUT, we decided to take a few bus tours instead. Our first one was yesterday. Altea with the church known as Dome of the Mediterranean with its two blue domes, La Nucia with the waterfall you drink directly from (and for a special treat, they give your glass of water a shot of Anis liquor). Polop, known as "The Oasis of Casa Blanca" and features The Plaza de los Chorros with 221 water spouts for the locals to fill their bottles of sweet clear water... Polop is also home to an amazing Miniature Museum which everything was hand made by one of the local men. I'm not usually taken with miniatures but this was exceptional. At the source of the Alga River is the waterfalls at Callaosa d'En Sarria. To get to the falls we had a 3km walk back up river to see this perfectly clear water flow over these falls. Tarbena..., waaayyy up into the mountains to eat at this "funkie" restaurant. Tarbena is also the village were paellea was first made AND the original did not use any seafood but only meats and rice...it was delicious!!! Our host was quite a character and made sure we had all we could eat and drink. If your wine bottle emptied you were to bang it on the table and another would arrive. He also made the rounds with a sheep's skin with a homemade Moscato. Our last stop for the day was a winery waaayyy down in the valley. Our bus driver was AMAZING in handling the roads we traveled...very steep up and down and curves...you wouldn't believe them. Well, we had such a good time and saw so many amazing things and places we signed up for 3 more over the next 3 weeks...  Moving day..... yep, we had to move. There is some good to this move and there is some bad. The bad is we lost our "in-house" Internet and we moved down in size some, BUT the good is it's costing us almost $200 Euro less AND we have HEAT. Fact is all utilities are included. We are still right on the beach, the 5th floor instead the 4th, and about 10 minutes closer to town. This building is much newer and almost makes you feel like your entering a high end Manhattan condo except there us no door man to open the huge doors at the entry. We do have a Mexican restaurant right next door. Fact is, we had dinner there today...it's not Los Claroes but it will do just fine, besides they have "Free Wi-Fi" (or as they call it here in Spain...WEE-FEE). Whatever they want to call it I'll take it with a Thank You... After unpacking and putting all our belongings away we wondered out to the deck just in time to watch a commercial being shot on the boardwalk below us. It was either for a new car or a much smaller Segway type of personal scooter. I've yet to check Google to determine just what it was. They had a personalized license plate and one other sign that read RinSpeed or something like that. By the way, I just noticed that I had one more picture here...while shopping at the grocery store we noticed this wonderful loaf of white bread...it even had ALL the crust already cut off....mmmmm good...  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. |
