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Exchange rates
U.K. - £ .40 = $AUS 1.00
U.K. - £1.00 = 250 pesetas
Spain - 100 pesetas = $AUS 1.00 approx
The plan was to take the train to London and there meet with Morag's sister Alison, then catch a flight to Alicante. We had booked ourselves in at a friend's apartment at the seaside resort of Torrevieja, half an hour south of Alicante. We planned to tour the Costa Blanca and sample some tapas and vino tinto.
First day of holidays - yippee.
Caught the 11am train to London. Our carriage was full of Greek university students busy chatting on their mobiles, making lots of noise, standing in the aisles and generally being a pain. Carriage also contained one noisy whinging child. Very happy when we arrived in London and caught the tube 'round to South Kensington, where we'd planned to meet up with Morag's old workmates and with Alison.
This we did before retiring to a local wine bar where we all drank far too much before catching a train to Gatwick and then a cab to Gatwick Travelodge, where we'd booked a room for the night. Well, despite us having paid for the room and Morag having phoned the night before to tell them we wouldn't arrive until 10pm, they'd 'released' our room. However, as a big favour for us they made the effort to find us another room, but we would have to pay again as they hadn't yet received the payment from Thomas Cook.
Such a rude bunch of people I haven't come across in a long time. I doubt that Gatwick Travelodge will ever see our custom again.
We had an early flight so our alarms went off at 4am - it was democratically agreed that we all felt awful. An airline breakfast has never been so welcome. We shared the flight with a rugby club on their annual outing. Fortunately they were pretty quiet on the flight, but while waiting for our baggage at Alicante, Alison heard one of them telling another passenger that they were off to Benidorm for the week. They planned to spend Saturday evening touring the bars wearing only thongs ('the type that fit up your crack, not the type that you wear on your feet') and having then wrapped themselves in Clingfilm (Gladwrap to youse in Oz). Bags I not go to Benidorm on Saturday night.
Picked up our hire car - a Citroen Xsara and managed to drive on right side of road (literally) to Torrevieja and found the flat. We got ourselves settled-in then went to the local super for the making of a picnicky lunch. Then had a badly needed siesta.
That evening we caught the local bus into town for first Tapas Tour of Torrevieja. For those not familiar with tapas, you find a bar and order drinks which come with nibbles (in Torrevieja mixed nuts seemed to be in fashion). There are then various nibbles behind the bar which you can order small plates of and share. Common items are seafoody stuff like fresh anchovies (boquerones), all varieties of squid (calamaris) and octopus (pulpo), also thick cut chips (patatas bravas), artichoke hearts etc etc.
Yum.
Slept in a bit, had breakfast then hit the road to Alicante. On the drive between Torrevieja and Alicante is one of the features which gives the Costa Blanca (White Coast) its name, the slat flats. There were two huge mounds of salt near the road and large area of shallow water (presumably very salty). You could almost smell the salt in the air. This probably also explains the local terrain near the coast, very low shrubs only - very dry and dusty looking.
Alicante has a fine castle on a hill overlooking a large harbour. There's a lift to the top of the hill but we couldn't find the entrance so we walked up the dusty backroads to the castle (makes you feel less guilty about pigging out on tapas). Many doors in the castle grounds were shut but great views over the town, harbour and coastline.
The weather on this day and every other day of our holiday was pretty much like this. Dry and very sunny with high about 20 celsius. In the evening it got chilly and down to about 10 celsius at night. About the only change was that it was slightly breezy these first few days and nights, the breeze died away later in the week.
Drove back south to Orihuela, a small town with old churches, etc. These turned out to be all closed on Sunday afternoon (or maybe it was just siesta time, but we enjoyed walking around the old quarter.
Decided to have dinner in beachfront restaurant near the flat - paella and a coupla bottles of local vino tinto while everyone else in the joint watched Real Madrid play football on the TV. It seems that almost everyone in Spain supports Real Madrid - perhaps because they usually win.
Me coming down with cold. Alison and Mo went into town shopping. Both bought shoes, which are very good value in Spain.
I stayed home and read a book that was in the flat - 'Notes from a Small Island' by Bill Bryson, which I would recommend to anyone who has spent some time in Britain but is not actually British.
Headed into town for another tapas tour for dinner. Found one particular place which became our favourite, partly because it was good value (65pesetas for a glass of vino) and partly because of the barbecued octopus - a big hit with Morag and Alison (I can take it or leave it - especially if it's chewy, which this wasn't). << Morag -- The lassie would get them out of the big earthenware dish on the counter - already bbq'd, and then chop then up with scissors, zap them in the microwave for a couple of minutes, then pepper them and pour olive oil over them -YUMMMMO…..>>
Drove southward to explore the coastline down to the Mar Menor - a small area of seawater protected by thin peninsulas. Lots of serious boating etc goes on in the Mar Menor our guidebook says. Not very developed along the coast until southern end of Mar Menor. We drove right round the southernmost of these peninsulas and discovered they were a lot wider than we thought. Wide enough for lots of development - high rise flats on both sides.
From there we headed to a largish town called Cartagena - another big harbour and a very well preserved old-quarter. Up the hill to the old church and castle and there's a pretty substantial Roman theatre half-way up the hill - they only discovered it about 10 years ago. On our way back down the hill we bought some pastries for lunch and sat and ate them at the harbour--only after we decided to head out of town to the 'viewpoint' overlooking the city…. Which we never found, so drove back to the harbour and demolished the goodies. This one's a working harbour with naval ships etc., unlike Alicante which just seemed to have leisure craft (some very big ones at that).
We then headed to a little town called Fortuna, which really is in the middle of nowhere but has a hot water spring which has had a couple of hotels with swimming pools built on top of it. Morag and Alison were interested in the possibility of a thermal soak but at 10ukp per swim it's a bit steep. You can pay extra for special services such as a Jet Shower - which seemed to consist of standing in the corner of the washroom in the nuddie and having someone spray you with a hose--and that 'pleasure' cost about 20ukp!! In some countries that's torture.
On the way back home we stopped at Orihuela to look inside churches which had been shut. In particular we were looking for a statue of a she-devil that a guide book in the flat mentioned. Couldn't find it in the main church, the church museum - anywhere. (Turns out it's in the new Easter Museum).
Another tapas tour for dinner. We'd often seen some Swedes on the bus to and from town in the evening and we sort of chatted with them a bit (middle-aged men on a golfing holiday). Unusually none of them could speak much English, so they are probably unaware that when they got off the bus a Brit. was getting off behind them, turned to us and said 'Oh no, I've got to get off here with these Jerrys'. When are the English going to understand that not every fair-haired European is a German and that not every German is a fully paid-up member of the SS?
We'd heard that the most interesting parts of the Costa Blanca were north of Alicante, so we headed back through Alicante. Our first stop was a small fishing village called 'la Vila Joiosa' where the fishermen painted the fronts of their houses bright colours - reportedly so that they could identify their own place while out at sea. Unfortunately the brightly coloured houses now jostle for position on the waterfront with the hotels and bars - but it's still a pleasant little village.
Then on to Benidorm. Morag and Alison had expressed an interest in stopping at a café in Benidorm for a coffee and watch the tourists - we drove in past many high-rise hotels and once in the centre of town it was quite dark as the sun is blocked out by the hotels. And it's so crowded that there was no hope of getting a park anywhere. It was unanimously agreed that we didn't want to get out of the car so we headed back to the main road to go further north.
Not far from Benidorm is the nice seaside town of Calpe, and just off-shore there is a giant volcanic rock called the 'Penyal d'Ilfac'. Apparently you don't need to be particularly athletic to climb it, we'll never know for sure. Further north along the road with some pleasant scenery is the town of Javea - where we had a picnic lunch by the seaside before heading home to Torrevieja.
By the time we got home and got ready to go out it was the 8pm bus into town. Had a brief tapas tour which consisted of 2 brief stops in other places before hitting our favourite spot. Then home on the 10pm bus.
Drove northward again this time to explore the inland area north of Alicante. Dry and desolate landscape, very hilly (ie. the landscape looks like huge piles of dirt with a thin covering of scrub). There's some quite spectacular scenery here, in a desolate sort of way.
Further north there are cherry and almond orchards in the valleys - these were in blossom and very pretty. It was a long day's drive and by the time we got home we were in time for the 8:30 bus into town and straight to the favourite tapas spot for a speedy pig-out.
Our Swedish friends were on the bus home again and we could make ourselves understood just enough to tease them about Spain having beaten Sweden 3 - 0 in the soccer a few nights ago. The reply - 'but we are very good at ice-hockey'.
Last day in Spain and provisions to be bought. Went back into Torrevieja for lunch and some shopping. A restaurant (ie. an outdoor café) in town had been on Morag and Alison's 'must-try' list all week but is only open at lunchtime, so here was the chance. They had the speciality - grilled sardines, I had some nice tuna (can't be bothered extracting all those sardine bones, and as it turned out, guts as well).
Most of the afternoon was spent at the big super looking for tonight's dinner and some provisions to take home (ie. booze), and also just looking at the stuff they have that we don't. As well as fish for tonight, and booze, we bought some turron, a local speciality of nougat with chocolate or almonds - made in the desolate hills that we drove through the day before (and aren't those factories on the nose!). And would you believe it - our Swedish mates were in there as well stocking up on the booze to take home.
Cooked dinner at home, a couple of Salmon steaks for Alison and I, some other type of fish (like a trevally) for Morag. Cleaned up the flat and packed for tomorrow.
Handed car back and caught 10:30am flight back to Gatwick. Said goodbye to Alison there (she to overnight at a friend's in Luton before catching flight to Guernsey the next day) and caught train to London Bridge where Lesley picked us up. Checked out her new flat at Surrey Quays, had a walk around the recently developed docklands, then went to restaurant at local pub for Thai meal. Twas a wonderful spring day in London - sunshine and no wind - but it gave us a false sense of what to expect up north - (cos its been wind and rain ever since we got home)
The Thais had packed up and gone so it was pizzas at Lesley's, and too much wine (again).
Caught 11am train back to Edinburgh - back to the rain. Thankfully the train wasn't full so we could spread out and read the weekend papers, and have a wee snooze. Absolutely shattered but by the time we sorted things time for bed. Slept soundly.
Back to work :-(
The End