On The Boardwalk(Dick Haymes) - The 8km Mata Beach,Torrejievo Walk and Lunch on the Beach - 4th May 2016

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We had decided to stay south of Alicante as it didn’t seem to offer us much to sightsee, at least nothing new that we haven’t already experienced, and a day at the beachside sounded more like what we would enjoy.

Today started out partly cloudy with a light but persistent breeze and it turned out a day that keeping a hat on just a little difficult.

We had to take a space between showering as the hot water in Spain’s smallest shower cubicle (probably equated to one we had in our hotel in Istanbul on the BBA V1) ran out just as I was finished. Luckily it was one of those fast fill and heat cylinders.

My experience in the shower wasn’t enhanced by the water that rose to my ankles and I found out after I squeezed out sideways through the narrow opening of the doors that there had been a plug over the waste drain. Gretchen said later she had read that an earlier guest had put the plug over the drain to try and stop the pervading smell of the drain. They do seem to have problems with drainage in Spain and by the look of some of the constructions it is no wonder they do have problems. We are sure many buildings here wouldn’t meet earthquake standards back in NZ, and they do sometimes have earthquakes here!

Anyway the plug was replaced over the drain and seemed to reduce the particular smell that came from the drain.

We got up to date with the admin things in the morning, washing etc and even got in a Skype call with Leigh and the two boys. She is home alone at the moment with Cormac off in Sydney and finding work and looking after 2 boys a good challenge.

The morning rolled on and after we finished our admin tasks we headed off down the hill towards the beach.

Despite the breeze and partly cloudy sky there were a number of holidaymakers down on the beach making the most of their time on holiday.

The beach stretched off into the distance and we made a target of what looked like campervans in the distance to walk to.

There was a wide boardwalk that kept us close to the sand and we strode along into the light breeze which every so often caught my hat necessitating a quick grab before it ended up rolling back from where we had walked. A cap would have been a better idea.

With lunch in mind we checked each of the cafes on the boardwalk for what they had on their menus so we could make a choice for the return journey. We haven’t tried a tostada or churros yet and so those cafes with these on the menu went to the top of the list. And there were many cafes to choose from along the 3.5km boardwalk before we got to where we had spotted the campervans which actually turned out to be vans belonging to stall holders in a huge market that was going on.

The market was too good to ignore so we strolled up between the stalls which seemed to be selling just about anything a holidaymaker might want. One of two of the stalls looked like they were starting to pack up and then we remembered that business comes to a halt in Spain from around 1pm until late afternoon for siesta time and the same was applying to this market.

Gretchen made the buy of the century purchasing a pair of comfy walking shoes for €15 that she had seen at a local shoe store in Tauranga for 5 times that amount in NZ currency! She was delighted with her buy and really couldn’t believe the price checking three times that she had been sold two left feet just in case it was a con or something!

By the end of the boardwalk we had chosen our cafe for lunch. The only problem was for our empty stomachs it was back near the start of the walk.

With the light breeze behind us and the thought of a pint of cold beer, we picked up the pace on the return 3.5km to ‘Kiosk Blondi’ which was a temporary cafe set up right on the beach below the boardwalk. You couldn’t get more beachfront that this.

We ordered our Tostada’s with a side of patatas which also came with ketchup, mayo (the owner had worked out we weren’t locals although neither are we Brits!) plus of course the beer followed by the churros. Unfortunately we forgot to add the chocolate sauce to our order and ended up with a fine sugar to scatter over the fried dough pastries. They were still delicious and all for €12.50, another bargain. We are going to miss being able to order a cold beer at a cafe when we return home to NZ as most of the ones in Tauranga are not licensed to sell alcohol which does not seem to be a requirement in Spain. In fact alcohol in moderation is just part of life in Spain.

We watched the African vendors selling everything from sunglasses to silly small umbrellas you wear on your head(makes you look a dork!).We would love to know just who these African immigrants work for as it has to be organised by someone or some organisation as it is difficult to imagine that these people would have the money to set themselves up.They have a stretch of beach which is theirs and they patrol up and down on their strip eking out whatever living they can.You have to admire them for their persistance and it is probably a better life in terms of the money they can earn from the the home country they have come from.

The walk up the hill was a slow trip but it had been a good workout with about 8km covered walking and we don’t think the beer and food at lunch undid the good of the walk(that’s our story and we are sticking to it!)

So it had been a fairly quiet day but one we enjoyed and we don’t have to be seeing the historical sites every day.

Tomorrow we continue further north up the eastern Spanish coast.

PS.I almost gave this blog the same title as a previous one so hence the obscure title which still matches our day

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