We left on Friday morning and headed to Gatwick (another disadvantage of Ryan Air – much further from Oxford). On the flight, Kent studied and I brushed up on my Spanish. We arrived around 3pm and were able to feebly communicate to the taxi driver. On our way to the hotel, we saw that the rocky landscape was more like desert, but right on the beautiful, blue ocean. The sun was shining and the air was WARM compared to England and the snow we've had recently. Highs around 65F.The hotel looked really nice online, and we were not disappointed! The bed was so comfortable (with nice sheets) and it had a rain shower...ahhhh. The only thing that we would have changed was the fact that the water in this city was super chlorinated! We couldn’t even drink from the faucet, and after taking a shower we had the slight smell of a swimming pool. I had flashbacks to swim practice. The hotel was located right in the middle of the old town, a block from la Explanada de España, a mosaic paved pathway with huge palm trees and flowers that parallels the puerto. This first pic with Kent is a view from our balcony out to the street below with the main attraction of the town in the background – el Castillo de Santa Bárbara.
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riday evening we went out to stroll around the peurto, in search of some tapas. It was about 6pm and absolutely no restaurants were open! It was that time between the late Spanish lunch and the late Spanish dinner that everything was closed. We found one bar open and stopped for a glass of vino y aceitunas (olives) overlooking the yachts and sailboats. We continued our walk around town, stopped for a mojito and caipirinha. Our waitress there recommended a good tapas restaurant, and we headed over there around about 9:30-10pm. Really, the streets were just starting to come alive at this time – we were amazed at how late things get started here in Spain. We had a great snack of Basque-style tapas (more bread, I think) with various mixtures of seafood, sausage, ham, and veggies as the toppings. Yum! Our night continued at a few different bars/dance clubs, just checking out the Spanish scene! Lots of people our age or younger out and about on a Friday night (and they love their techno/house music).
Saturday morning we had a nice snooze and an even better breakfast at the hotel. It was so fancy, and the cafe con leche was SO GOOD! Saturday we planned to hike up to the top of the mountain and see the castle. It was quite a long and steep hike, but we didn't mind the exercise and it was a really gorgeous day. We started by just meandering through the city streets, going up alleys and stairs, past cafes and apartments with colourful potted plants. We found the entrance to the park and started
climbing, up and up! The views were so pretty...the sea all around and the colourful city below. The park was really well done, with benches and nice paved paths. We made it to the top and explored the castle – parts of it dating from the 9th century and the most recent attack in the late 1800s. Our hike and exploration took the entire afternoon, and it started getting a little chilly as we sat and enjoyed a drink at the top of the castle. We hiked back down and wandered back towards the hotel....
The concierge had tracked down a nice restaurant for a Valentine’s dinner for us – at the last minute I think she did pretty good. It was called "TK" - very modern and gourmet (sorry I couldn't find a web site for you). We took after the Spanish custom and had a little siesta before getting ready for dinner. Our reservation wasn’t until 9:00pm....that was when they opened! We were literally the very first couple to arrive in the small restaurant (maybe 10 tables) but our waitress welcomed us in and was very friendly. They were only serving a set menu that night, which turned out to be super fancy and really delicious. Each of the 5 courses was so artfully presented and expertly cooked – such a treat. This in no way does justice to the meal, but a small description: apertivo (a bite each of a prawn and anchovy with a strawberry and roe), salad (with raw tuna and edible flowers), a cherry gazpacho soup, a salmon course (with beet puree and barley grain), a beef course (with maize cake and garbanzo puree) and finally the "la pasión de chocolate." I must say that my favourite was the dessert (surprise, surpise) with it's 5 types of chocolate. They were all small but we were so stuffed. Needless to say, we took a really long walk home. Again, the city was just coming to life and couples were just starting their valentine’s dinners. It would take me a while to get used to the timing!
Sunday we slept in (Kent’s catching up from some late night study sessions) and enjoyed the wonderful breakfast again. I really don’t think I ever need to eat again after this weekend! We had the whole day until our flight at 6:30pm so we went on another long walk around the city, this time down to the beach and out on a walkway over the jetty. Everyone was out after church walking their dogs and just enjoying the brisk day (we saw a really cute pug!). We walked to the end of the beach and back around the Explanda, checking out the street vendors with their fake brand name hangbags, sunglasses, and watches. We found one little sweets shop that was open where we found our souvenier that my friend Anita suggested - turron. It's a type of nougat candy. So sweet I think my teeth hurt just thinking about it. :-) We took tons more pictures, but still need to sort through and I’ll send out at Ofoto album. Let me know if you want to see all of the pics! We loved Alicante and definitely want to go back to Spain on another vacation...love the food, drinks, and laid back lifestyle. I even think both of our Spanish skills improved in just 3 days.
Yes, we took a picture of the food. :-) This is la pasión de chocolate with 5 types of chocolate:
It's SO gorgeous!!!
ReplyDeletesounds like a wonderfully relaxing weekend!
ReplyDelete-Erica