We recently had some visitors
and rented a car to show them some of the surroundings of our hometown.
We headed inland towards Albacete to visit the spectacular town of Alcalá
del Jucár in an amazing gorge and ventured up the coast with its
romantic villages and picturesque bays... We even saw a yacht cruising the streets of Jávea. |
In an impulsive decision we rented a vehicle to explore more of Spain and left Alicante in the late afternoon. We headed north into the mountains of the Sierra de Salinas and enjoyed ... to read more click here |
San Juan, June
25, is one of the biggest holidays in Alicante. Certainly, it is the most
celebrated. This year, 1 million visitors were expected and it certainly
felt like every one of them showed up.
For an entire week, the city vibrates with the hustle and bustle of music, marching bands and firecrackers. Party tents are erected all over town, children and adults stay up all night and those who don't like to party still don't get any sleep. With astonishing sadism, marching bands accompanied by firecracker-throwing maniacs walk up and down the city at 8am the next morning to awaken everyone to another day of madness. The highlight is the "Cremá", when the 100+ figures positioned all over town are burned ceremoniously at midnight. These "hogueras", some as high as a three-story building, are built in a painstaking process throughout the previous year just to be burned to the ground to the cheers of the appreciative crowd. Check out the pictures what this looked like.... |
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Taking advantage
of another long weekend, we drove to Granada, approximately 3 hours south
of Alicante, to visit its famous Alhambra,
the Moorish palace and fortress from the 13th century. Granada is a wonderful
city full of history and amazing architecture. Unfortunately, the unusually
wet weather followed us around and so we had to scrap our plans to visit
the Sierra Nevada and continued to the coast instead. In the area around
Almería, countless greenhouses cover the hillside almost seamlessly.
The natural park of Cabo de Gata offers beautiful vistas of a rugged coastline
and secluded coves. A beautiful neck of Spain to which we hope to return
under blue skies one day!
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In Spain Easter
is the biggest holiday with parades and all kinds of fiestas. We visited
friends in Madrid and checked out the city since we hadn't been there
before. On Friday we drove to Toledo to see the famous parades in the
amazing setting of this old town. Unfortunately, due to the rain, everything
was cancelled at the last minute and we had spent the afternoon getting
wet without reward. :-(
However, we enjoyed our time in the capital of Spain. Click on the photo on the right to see what you missed... |
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In the last few days we rented
a car and explored the surroundings of Alicante. We drove north to Villajoyosa
with its colored buildings, Guadalest with its spectacular fortress
on the ridge of a gigantic rock fin and Altea with its picturesque narrow
streets. |
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January 6th,
Epiphany, is a major holiday in Spain. It's the day that children receive
their gifts, delivered by the Three Wise Men from the Orient. Most cities
will host a parade the night before to celebrate the arrival of the Kings
and their consorts. Some of these parades comprise more than a thousand
participants and the floats are very elaborate. Needless to say, this
spectacle draws huge crowds. Enjoy!
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Some general
pics we shot of Alicante.
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