Amerys Travels 2009- From the mountains of Costa Blanca, Spain

It’s not all about sun and sea here, as this area of Spain is very mountainous indeed, and you don’t have to go far inland to find dramatic mountain views and pretty little villages. A relaxed day trip from Calpe through Callosa de Serria and Tarbena (try the Fox Venta (roadhouse/pub) as we did, and meet the very friendly three legged cat. Onward through Jalon, Benissa and Teulada, and your mountain tour could include the locally famous Algar falls, with their swimming holes, and the very pretty (but a bit touristy) Guadalest village (see photos) and castle- quaint cobbled streets and just amazing views over the reservoir and surrounding countryside.

But all good things come to an end, and after two weeks here, we needed to move on.

We had a six hour drive down to our shared apartment near Puerto Banus where we replaced our view from the house of Penon Ifach with our rather distant but similar view of Gibraltar (well, from the roof terrace on a clear day!)

Here we have spent just ten nights this winter, including a week with friends, and now we have just returned to New Zealand via a night in London and a night in Kuala Lumpur. In case you are wondering why we are only away for half the usual amount of time this year, it’s because Christine’s mother is not as well as she used to be and we didn’t feel that we should be away for too long- we are just thankful we have been able to get away at all.

As this area of Spain has been covered so thoroughly in our travel journal over the last seven years, we will leave it at that for this year.

Bye for now,

Richard (and of course Christine)

Amerys Travels 2009- Costa Blanca, Spain- local places around this coast

Sorry about the break in this journal- now for a catch up!

Exploring the coast to the north of Moraira, first decent sized place we came to was El Arenal, a lovely beach of good sand between rocky headlands, and backed by shops and cafes. At the southern end we were much taken with the cafés and bars close to the water beside the beach. Four of the first ten photos are of this town.

A little further north of here, Javea is more of a residential area than just a beach, and we liked the historical town centre a couple of KM’s inland very much- lots of character. The port has some nice big fishing boats, so serious fishing is done here, and the prime spot we found for a fishy lunch (see two photos) was almost over the fish market- right beside the port and upstairs, with nice views over the port and over the rather unexciting and rocky town beach and promenade.

Here we found our first so called “crisis menu” with menu of the day prices well down, from €14 to €7. Due to the collapse of the UK pound against the Euro, Spain seems very quiet to us this year, and we are picking up the impression that visitor numbers are down by around 25%.

The next town north and over the mountain is Denia (photo of beach and castle) which we found rather unattractive and there was little to admire, except perhaps the castle. Had we been staying here we would have been tempted to jump on a ferry and relocate to Ibiza, as the ferries leave from here.

There are some very nice places to the south of Moraira, and only 30 minutes away is Calpe, where the very striking and impressive Gibraltar like rock Penon Ifach punctuates this coast. Calpe is partly up on a cliff and partly set on two lovely beaches, to the north with an impressive promenade, and to the south, beside the very much working port, more cove like and prettier. You can walk around the rock, or to the top, but my knees told me to wait until they have been fixed.

Between the two beaches, the hard times and intense competition between a dozen or so restaurants clustered together make for some amazing value three course lunches at around €8.50, (NZ$18) including main course examples of Swordfish and grilled Sole. As you walk along comparing the menus you are offered free sangria and nibbles to encourage you to sit in their restaurant- something we have never seen elsewhere.
Needless to say, Calpe is a great lunch or beach destination!

We didn’t get time to explore further south towards Benidorm, but we understand it would be well worthwhile next time we find ourselves in this area.

More from us very soon,
Richard and Christine

Amerys Travels 2009- From Valencia, Spain

Valencia is around 90 minutes from us, and on arrival, following the advice of our hosts, Geoff and Paula, we parked when we got to the city centre and took the open top double-decker bus tour, which enabled us to see (and hear about) as much of the city as we could in the one day we had available. One day is nowhere near enough.

The city is built on flat land around a river, with many nice bridges, but it has a bizarre quality about it, as the river was completely diverted to solve the massive flooding problems Valencia used to experience, and the dried up river bed now holds gardens. Imagine the Thames replaced by gardens!

We would have thought they could have retained at least a small river and diverted most of the water instead.

Known to New Zealanders as the new home for the America’s Cup yachting trophy we used to hold, we looked forward to seeing the port, and expected a lively waterfront lined with bars, but it all seemed pretty deserted and a bit boring.
The nearby beach area seemed to have all the bars and cafés (where we had lunch) set back from the widest beach of nice sand we have ever seen. We never saw the water’s edge- it would have taken ten to fifteen minutes to walk to the water from the promenade, and although the sand was nice and fine, it’s not our kind of beach- we found it just to big and open and characterless. We would always prefer a small cove between rocks any day.

What was truly delightful was the city centre itself- the old historical centre full of the most splendid buildings, including the cathedral and the pretty Plaza de la Virgen with it’s fountain and statues of the eight virgins.

What was even more impressive, however, was the district full of modern architecture, and it was simply staggering. We used to think the Sydney Opera House was dramatic, but not any longer. As you can see, some is pretty, some is ugly, but all of it is very impressive. It includes an Arts and sciences museum, performance spaces, and Europe’s largest aquarium complex.

Would have loved to have a closer look, and to explore some of the parks, but we will just have to come back.
More from us soon,
Richard

Amerys Travels 2009- Costa Blanca, Spain- Benidorm

We had heard so much negative comment about beer swilling lager louts in Benidorm over the years since it first became popular in the 60’s for British package holidays, that we have been dreading going to look for ourselves, but at the same time knowing that a visit to Costa Blanca must include the good with the bad.

We expected a flat, featureless coastal plain beside a good beach covered with ugly high rise 60’s concrete tower blocks, and where there were rows of cafés offering Full English Breakfast, Fish and Chips and Real English Ale to a badly sunburnt clientele who all had a knotted handkerchief on their heads and wore socks with sandals. We didn’t see it as a “must see’ attraction on this coast, but thought it was worth having a meal there on the way back from dropping Brother Bill and Polly off at Alicante airport.

What we found was an attractive city of some ugly and some stylish high rise, including and surrounded by hills, beside three good beaches, each separated by hilly headlands, with thousands of palm trees lining the streets. Yes, about half of the café’s could have easily been found in Blackpool, but the rest served mainly Spanish food- or at least what passes for tourist Spanish food up and down the Costas. However, some were very authentic, and we were amazed by the high quality shops alongside the bucket and spade ones.

What surprised us most of all was how few English people there were around, and most we saw were the (as usual) very stylish Spanish families out for their evening stroll- grandparents through to babies all together, and all dressed up. Maybe most of the English package holidays have dinner included, and so they were absent from the streets in the evenings?

The extreme south of the city seems to be the new area, full of classy stylish new developments behind a nice beach, and then over the headland is what looks like the 1960’s developments of high rise apartments beside a huge beach of perfect sand, lined with palm trees, but unlike the very similar Miami Beach and Surfers Paradise beaches, the high accommodation towers did not take the sun off the beach in the evening.

Separating what we have been told is the northern-most Spanish beach (more high rise on a nice beach) from the main beach and a lovely little cove (see photo) is a small promontory, and as you can see, this has been made into a huge and attractive terrace with lovely views out to sea and down over both main beaches. Like the Balcon de Europe at Nerja, for those who have been there, but much bigger and more impressive.

This promontory marks the old town behind it, narrow marble lanes with many boutiques and touristy shops, along with all sorts of eating places. It was as nice as any Spanish “old town” and better than many, and this is were we had our evening meal.

Maybe the town is in a new ascendancy after some years of neglect (as happened to Torremolinos) but all in all we were very impressed and agreed that we could easily spend a week there, especially with places like Calpe, Moraira and the mountain villages close by.

And more about the mountain villages next time.

Richard and Christine
PS: SIXT car rental are clever enough to trace their name on blog sites- see their comment. We also thought they were very clever when they texted us as we got off the plane at Terminal 2 to tell us exactly where to wait for the shuttle bus, and then we only found by asking around that their bus only went to Terminal 1, so we had to catch an airport shuttle to the other terminal. And that’s where we (and another couple with the same directions) waited for one hour before spotting the bus on another part of the arrivals area and stopping it! (The driver said they were no longer allowed to stop where we had been directed)

Amerys Travels 2009- Costa Blanca, Spain- The Moros i Cristians

This whole area seems to be obsessed with celebrating the invasion of their coast by the Moors in the 8th century (“Moros”) and the subsequent driving out of the Moros again by the Cristians (no, I am not spelling it wrong) in the 15th century, and many towns hold huge elaborate re-enactments of the struggles, two of which we were able to see some of, in Moraira and Benissa.

Be here in the second half of June if you would like to be thrilled by the exotic scene and deafened by the firing of many what look like ancient black powder blunderbusses- but wear ear plugs, as the noise is horrific in the narrow streets. We can’t understand how the local townsfolk have been doing this for hundreds of years and are not yet stone deaf.

Teams of Cristians, Moros and Pirates with elaborate costumes and weapons supported by their bands (not sure how the pirates fit into the history here, but they are very colourful) storm the castle in turns and then have a great big party (seemingly to demonstrate that they are really all friends) and of course you can’t have any fiesta in Spain without heaps of fireworks.

There is a photo of the most impressive float in the Moraira parade- the pirate ship with the huge skeleton at the back, which reared up and down and stretched out to try to grab the pirate captain.

If you want to learn more about the 8th to the 15th Century Moros I Cristians, go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moros_y_cristianos

By for now,

Richard

Amerys Travels 2009- Gran Canaria- the north of the island.

We will start with the furthest point we visited, Playa de las Nieves in the North West, noted for it’s fish restaurants, the ferry to Tenerife, the pretty little chapel called Ermita de las Nieves, and the almost impossibility to find a car park, even now in what is the quiet season for the Canary Islands. Heaven help you if you visit November to April (high season) or July and August (summer school holidays)



The bigger town of Agate nearby was reputed to have some nice buildings, but after going round and round the tiny one way streets of the old town, we gave up on it due to our inability to park.

Parking seems to be the Gran Canaria Achilles heel, except in central Palma and parts of the most modern of the southern tourist resorts – and smaller towns particularly need to do something about it if they want us tourists to visit and spend money.

Not too bad for parking in Santa Maria de Guia, a pleasant little town famous for it’s Queso de Flor (cheese of flowers) made from sheep and goats cheese and the flowers of the cardoon thistle. Not nice enough to be worth the trip, in our opinion.
Next stop was Galdar, a very pretty town (again car parking difficult) noted for the famous (at least in Gran Canaria) Cueva Pintada, or painted cave- geometric designs placed there by the aboriginal Guanche people who were here before the Spanish came. Not up to the caves found elsewhere in terms of wall paintings, France, for example) but some interesting stone age village remains of houses, and the house recreation in the photo.


More interesting, we felt, was the Guanche people’s Cenobio de valeron (convent of the valley) which is a collection of 300 caves hollowed out of the rock, mostly within a big sheltering cave. For hundreds of years They have been thought to be the cells of eharimaguadas- the young virgins of the island- who were sent there under the care of the nuns to protect their purity until they were old enough to marry.

You can just picture the young men of the island clambering up the steep slope (see picture of Christine) to the caves in the dead of night, intent on a liaison with one of the young virgins, and being beaten back by the protective nuns, while the girls watched on, giggling with excitement.

What a shame that the less than romantic modern historians have now decided that they were merely grain storage caves!

Another town in the North-east we liked was Teror, with it’s many nice traditional Canarian balconies.

We have also included with this posting some pictures of the famous Cave Restaurante Togoror, and, just down the road, a cave church.

And now time we moved on- all in all, Gran Canaria is a nice size island for a couple of week’s holiday at any time of the year, but best in May or June when it’s quieter and it’s easier to park. It seems you can expect around 30c most of the time with little or no rain (at least in the South) but it can be very hot at times.

An amusing note, now we have finished with Gran Canaria and flown 1,000 miles north to Moraira, on the Costa Blanca in mainland Spain.
I was having a haircut this morning, and bemoaned to the hairdresser that after seven yearly holidays in mainland Spain we still have not found Letche-letche, which is very common in all the Canary islands. After I explained that it was half an inch of condensed milk in a small glass topped up with strong black coffee (you stir up as much of the milk as you wish) she said ‘oh, you mean a Bon-Bon- any bar will do it here!”

Needless to say, our next instalment will be from Moraira.

Richard (and of course Christine)