Alicante, Castles and a Smooth Vibe on the Costa Blanca

One point of our roving retirement trip to Spain is to decide which towns we might like to visit for a longer time in the future. So far, we have really liked every town we have visited except Tarragona. Alicante is no exception. This town sits between two castles. Castell de Santa Barbara and Castello de San Fernando and has both a port and a big long beach. As we have been traveling, we have entertained ourselves by determining which “Costa” the current city is on. Alicante is on the Costa Blanca.

Where We Stayed

We stayed in the old town, Barrio de la Santa Cruz, in a pedestrian area right by the harbor and the beach. Our room at the Casa Alberola was in an old Palacio built for the Alberola family. Our room was round with three large doors with Juliet balconies looking at the sea and the beach-side promenade. Unfortunately, the hotel was a little too close to a nightclub broadcasting their bass to the neighborhood. This was the first time I had to sleep with earplugs. But the room was cool and had the ubiquitous shutters to block the light on the inside.

Town Vibe

Alicante didn’t seem like just a beach town. Here, the area near the beach was much more low-key than places like Salou. But, like everywhere else in Spain by 10 pm the streets are packed with people and all of the tables at the restaurants were full. There was also a big, wide esplanade with a beautiful mosaic path along the beach providing plenty of room for families and holidaymakers to promenade well into the night.

In every town we visit, we try to go to the town’s Central Market. The buildings are usually beautiful and tell you a bit about the history of the town. There are usually three different sections, one for meat, one for fish, and one for vegetables and fruit. The cheese, spices, and tapas bars are scattered between those sections. I like to see what is in season and Mike likes to compare meat prices. In Alicante, the market building was old and beautiful and I have never seen so many types of shrimp. The rarest ones, some really red shrimp seemed to be the most expensive. In these markets, you really get to see what you are eating, even the ugly stuff like Rape (Monkfish). Looking at the fish might have affected my ability to order it in the future.

Food

Our hotel was on the edge of the old town so we were able to walk for dinner every evening. We got some great recommendations from the hotel staff. So we had some great meals. I’ve included just a few here. I’m pretty sure I haven’t ordered monkfish since I found out what it looked like. “Giggles”

Bull Ring

We trekked from the market to the La Plaza de Toros de Alicant because it was close and this was the first bullring in Spain that we could get to easily. We were able to visit the museum in the bullring and even get into the stands. These days the bullrings are also used for concerts and other community events. Our understanding is that bullfighting is now illegal in Barcelona and may become illegal in other areas of Spain soon.

The history is really interesting because both the bulls and the matadors were revered and you can see this from the commentary in the museum. The heads of bulls are mounted on the walls with little plaques giving the bull’s name and the matador that killed it, similar to the first bullfighting museum we saw in Ronda about 20-something years ago. The specifics I won’t remember, but I will remember that the bulls were respected by the audience and the bullfighter.

Castle de Santa Barbara

Of the two castles in town, we visited Castell de Santa Barbara. This castle was actually far enough from the old town that we were told to drive, but the climb from the car park was pretty strenuous, especially on a hot day. I do have to admit that Mike dropped me off higher up on the hill, so he was the only one that climbed the hill to the castle entrance. We have learned that you can’t have a Spanish coastal town without at least one castle and a port. Like many of the other castles we have visited, there were gardens, stone walls, and sweeping views but other than a few strategically placed iron canon, that was about it.

Visiting the Palms in Elche

I had read about a town called Elche near Alicante that was famous for its many palm trees originally brought to the region by the Moors. The town now claims to have 200k-300k trees in the area in and around the town. So we decided to take a drive and visit the botanical garden called Huerto del Cura.

The garden was fairly small and originally created by a priest as his sanctuary. There were peaceful ponds with ducks, fish, and turtles, and all of the plants were marked. We even saw two white peacocks, a male, and a female with some chicks so we followed them around for a while. Our visit turned out to be a pleasant way to spend an afternoon.

Peniscola

Between Valencia and Alicante lies Peniscola, another appealing beach town with a landmark castle. The cool part about this castle is that it is sitting at the end of a very short 1000 meter peninsula that is about 200 meters across. Needless to say, you could see water on both sides of the peninsula from where we parked our car. The way the castle crawled up this high outcrop really reminded me of Le Mont St. Michele, so I was anxious to see it.

After a fortifying lunch, we started the walk up the hill to the castle and the promised views of the beaches and the sea. You can tell we were a little castled out by this point because after climbing all the way up the village to the castle, we decided not to go in. But we did get the great views and we wandered around the quaint and really old village on the way back down to the car.

Overall, by the time we had hung out in Alicante for a few days I was certainly ready to return here to hang out like a local. The pace of life is quite pleasant.

How does Alicante strike you, would you want to visit?