It has been a quiet couple of days here for us. We have been taking it easy and resting up and enjoying the beautiful weather. Daily walks and overall relaxation have been the norm these past few days. We sit out on the balcony in the mornings and enjoy the view of the sea. I didn’t realize just how much the view can change of the sea depending on the temperature and clouds. Each morning the view of the sea is slightly different.
Calm day on the seaSun set viewEarly morning
Tomorrow we head into Alicante business area to arrange for the gas, electricity and water for our new apartment. I am curious how that will work out because the bureaucracy here is apparently a challenge. I guess we will find out tomorrow.
The internet in our apartment continues to be inconsistent and not very good at times. This has made it tough for us to do research or even maintain the blog. Most times the internet improves late at night when the bandwidth isn’t being accessed by as many users. Well, that is about it for now. “Adios y que tenga un gran dais”
It was a beautiful day today so we went for a nice long walk. We headed down the road and never thought about where we were going. After about a Kilometer or so we came across a religious alter with candles burning.
A little further on our walk we found a hiking trail called “Glot de Galvany”. We decided to take the trail and see where we end up. We did not plan for a hike in the hills and didn’t have any water or sun screen but we went anyway.
Along the trail
We walked along the trail for about two hours looking at the unique fauna and the palm trees.
The trail had many different paths and we could have easily gone for the full day. We met some hikers along the way but for the most part it was quiet and serene. We came across a small pond area and there were several people looking at the ducks. They seemed to be very impressed by the ducks. I guess they don’t see many ducks around here. We just walked on by, being Canadian we have seen more than our share of ducks.
We decided to turn back and maybe come back another day, prepared and then we will make it a full day hike through the hills of Alicante.
Today we went back to Santa Pola but on an early bus. We managed to attend the museo de la sel (Salt museum). It was converted into a museum when they stopped using the factory. Santa Pola is known for the salt it produces. There are salt evaporation ponds known as salines which produces salt even today. We found the museum somewhat interesting considering the topic. You have to take what they displayed with a grain of salt… Sorry just couldn’t help it.
There were pink flamingos in the abandoned salt pond at the museum which was a nice surprise. (unfortunately all I could get was a far away picture)
We then went to the local aquarium which had a small but interesting collection of fish and other water creatures. Now I know what my future food will look like before it is served to me.
Finally we finished our day by stopping at the Marcado in Gran Alicant a small town on the way home. We picked up groceries and headed home. I thought I would share the grocery bill with you. Can you figure out what we bought and the cost compared to Canada. If you do let me know what you think. Well that’s about it for today.
Today we decided to go to Santa Pola which is a town about 15 kilometres away from us. We took the bus and arrived around 11:30 am. We walked around the town and wanted to take in a few of the museums. We went to the Castillo Fortaleza museum with the plan or touring the castle and then heading to the salt museum. We arrived at around 1:15 pm and the museum was closed until 4 pm. In Spain they have siestas in the afternoon and most places close except for some of the bars. So we were only able to see the main entrance and courtyard for the castle.
After the castle we stopped and had a beverage and some tapas at a local outdoor patio. After our tapas and drink we took a walk to the “Parquet Palmeral” a park which has beautiful palm trees. The park has assorted palm trees throughout with walking paths.
We enjoyed the walk in the park and came across an archaeological ruin. These roman ruins were fenced off and preserved for viewing. The ruins were from a noble roman villa build in the IV century AD. There was 7 rooms and had decorated geometrical mosaic tiles on the floor. We found it quite interesting.
We learned a valuable lesson today. We need to plan our day trips keeping in mind the Spain hours. The siesta time is followed here and most stores and facilities are closed from about 1pm to 4 or 5 pm during the week. Although we didn’t get to see any museums today we did have a good day in Santa Pola.
Today we headed into the city centre of Alicante to try to get some information on the hook ups we need for our new apartment. We took the bus and got off in the business section of town. There is a major business section with numerous stores, shops and malls. We decided to go in to the store called “El Corte Ingles” The store is massive with 7 floors in total. They have everything you could imagine, except for internet, cell phones and cable TV services. We took the escalator onto every level of the floor and walked around. It is quite impressive. Once we were done touring the store we headed to the mall just down the street. This mall was huge and had numerous stores. We explored this mall and found the main internet, cell phone and TV providers there. After doing some research we managed to get the services we wanted. The challenge was speaking spanish, fortunately the clerk who served us could speak a little english, so between us we managed to achieve our goal.
Today we got a land line for the apartment, TV service, unlimited internet with fibre optics and monthly packages for our two cell phones. It was a very rewarding day because we did not think we would achieve so much in one day.
On the way back to the bus station we decided to stop in a quaint little cafe shop/bar and have a drink. We each ordered a small beer (8 ounces) which also came with some olives as our tapa. So we had our beer ate our olives and enjoyed the day. We had two beer each and the bill was $4 euros. The day just keeps getting better and better. That is it for today, “lo siento no hay fotos de hoy” – I’m sorry no photos today.
We enjoyed the walk in the park and came across an archaeological ruin. These roman ruins were fenced off and preserved for viewing. The ruins were from a noble roman villa build in the IV century AD. There was 7 rooms and had decorated geometrical mosaic tiles on the floor. We found it quite interesting.
You must be logged in to post a comment.