Spanish Gems - off the beaten track -half an hour from Alicante.

---

Dear all

I have actually been back home a few days but didn't get a chance to do my blog on the latest trip away- so it's retrospective - but I know everyone likes to see my photos and know what I have been up to- so here it comes.....

Many people fly into Alicante’s new airport and then whizz off to the coastal resorts like nearby Benidorm and Torevieja…. But visiting my lovely cousin, Marilyn, and her husband,Terry, they pick me up and whizz me inland across the mountains to the valley where they live between two villages Frailes and Hondon de las Nieves.

Almonds blossoms were out and vines are cut right back to stumps, orange and lemon trees are laden with fruits and we pass many olive trees some ancient and some newly planted. So that paints a picture of walks we took locally and on a Monday I joined in with their group of hashers, all wearing orange. Thanks to this lovely friendly group making me welcome and offering their hospitality.

It was lovely sunny weather and warm in the sunshine but cool at nights. M+T have been exploring the area since they moved there 2 years ago and always know just the places to take me. And such a place was a small unprepossessing town, Novelda, about 15 mins from where they live.

On the outskirts of the town up high was the most wonderful Sanctuary of Mary Magdalene – a most unusual church and with an organ still being built of marble( I think) with 700 pipes. The interior was simple with most beautiful glass windows and the caretaker put on some music Pachobel Canon – a piece of music Michael and I loved and was played at our wedding – happy memories and very emotional. One thing about Spanish churches is there are no real candles to light – they have a stand of little electric candles and when you put many in the box one of the bulbs lights up – I prefer the real thing. More gems in Novelda – next to the Sanctuary was an ancient ruined Moorish fort and in the town another beautiful traditional church – with amazing domed ceiling.

But the icing on the cake there is hidden down a street in town - the Casa, Museo Modernista. Built at the beginning of 1900 and owned by a bourgeois family this house is an absolute gem of Art Nouveau. “Gob smacked” is hardly the word to describe this place – I could hardly contain myself moving from room to room with oohs and aaahs and exclaiming “look at the lamps, look at the walls, look at the wood work and metal work etc”. So look at the photos and enjoy as I did.

Next part of the journey took us on a drive to the Costa del Sol… coming soon.

---