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)