May 26, 2017

Another beautiful day in the Mediterranean!  We have never been to Alicante so we decided to do a highlights tour.

Here’s the view as we sailed in – lots of hills! We visited the fort you see on this hill.

Juan was our tour guide. Alicante area has been inhabited for over 7000 years.  It was founded by the Romans and then dominated by the Arabs in the second half of the 8th century. The population today is 340,000.

Tourism is the main industry here and it is one of the most important ports in Spain for cruises, with 72 calls to port bringing some 80,000 passengers and 30,000 crew to the city each year. 

Here are some of the views of the city as we drove through.

The Volvo Ocean race starts from here in October and there are lots of banners – the Pirates of the Caribbean boat was a gift to the city from Disney.

One of our stops was the beautiful 18th century baroque style town hall.

Here are the doors and the keys to the doors!

The symbol on the steps near the Dali statue indicates the top level of the sea!

We visited the Concatedral de Saint Nicholas de Bari which was built in the 17th century and is considered one of the finest examples of Spanish Religious Baroque.

Our walking tour continued and we had about an hour of free time to roam around the town. We loved the cafes, the shops and the charm of the city.

The esplanade, a major walkway, is made up of more than 6 million small red, black and cream tiles and it is one of the enduring images of Alicante.

And of course, there is the occasional unfortunate wardrobe choice!

The last stop was to the Castell de Santa Barbara, atop Mount Benacantil – the main landmark that we saw from the ship. The views were just amazing – lots of beautiful beaches and landscapes, including the populated city.  The castle has remnants dating back to the 11th century and parts were added in the 16th and 18th century.

This is a wall in the small museum area with parts of old pottery.  And Suzanne, our artist in residence, is fighting another day!  What a lovely location – we could have stayed there all day.

Here is a shot of the bull fighting ring and you can see that the shops capitalize on it!

Tomorrow we head to Almeria, Spain.  Loving the Mediterranean food and weather.