Alicante visit (14/11)

 After a pretty rubbish sleep I contemplated not going to ALicante today, thankfully I kicked my own butt and headed off bright and early.  Got to Alicante in plenty of time for my bike tour however….. no parking, and the parking there was for cars, my van wouldn’t fit (low entrances).  Finally I found somewhere, tiny spaces but it did the job.

Walked to the meet up location and got there with a few minutes to spare, I shouldn’t have stressed, I wasnt last to arrive and they took ages to get ready.  I did wonder what id let myself in for when 1 person complained as the brakes made a noise when she engaged them and another didnt want to have to pedal, wanted an e-bike, but one that did all the work, not just part.  I decided to take a step away and leave them all to it.

My bike for the tour

So finally off we went, I was naughty and lot out a laugh at the woman who didn’t want to pedal, she was very amusing.

First stop was the Basilica, some history on it regarding it previously being a Mosque, many hundreds of years ago, seems a good upgrade to me….😈.  The tour didnt include entry, so I did that afterwards, only €6 which overall was pretty good.

Then on we cycled to a nice bit that howled the edge of the castle quite well, more history regarding myths around the “face” in the rocks, all very interesting stuff.

The tour lasted almost three hours, took in various sites including the very impressive beach, town hall, foot of castle and then the pretty incredible market. If you ever go to Alicante make sure and spend some time in the market, ive seen nothing like it in the UK.  The array of foods, wines etc for sale was endless.

A few photos from the tour

These trees were amazing, they have air pockets/lining inside which causes this type of growth

Photo over the port into town

From the port towards the town / castle

Then it was back, drop off the bike and I headed to the Basilica first.  TBH it was more of the same but nowhere near as impressive as the one in Girona.  After that I headed to the castle…

Phew, what a walk, temperatures were going between 24-26 degrees, the castle is pretty high up, lots of steps and climbs, a LOT of taxis went by me 😂.

The people who got taxis to the top missed out on lovely little streets like this

I stopped off at one point for a drink, this was the view

The castle of Santa Barbara was pretty cool, busy, lots of school kids being herded around by stressed teachers.  Some building work going on b it as still a good visit.

A few photos

The entrance to the actual castle, a bit underwhelming

From the ramparts - Alicante and Benidorm in the distance

Alicante that you dont see n the brochures

As I was leaving I took this, quite liked the outline

Then it was a walk back to the van, stopped off for an espresso and just to watch the bustle, was nice to have a seat.

Decided on a stop of to Elche, not much to say on that unfortunately, drove by the castle, some big gardens that I had no interest in and then headed back to campsite, unfortunately I was pretty exhausted.

Campsite - setup for the weekend and looking forward to my next campsite on Monday