Valencia to Gibraltar Day 5: Valencia to Alicante

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Well, today we are moving on from Valencia to Alicante. We had bought the tickets for the train last night, but still we weren't sure of everything. We'd had the hotel order a taxi at 12:10, but we were up and ready to go by 10am or so, so we walked to the shopping center just up the street from our hotel. After browsing around, we returned to the hotel, finished packing our stuff and went downstairs to turn in the key card. The taxi showed up right on time and took us to the Alfafar station, where we bought 2 more tickets to Estacion del Norte. We were there quite early, so after confirming that our tickets to Alicante were valid, we looked for a place to eat lunch and relax. We ended up eating at the stations cafeteria. Manoli had a tortilla and ham, and I had a sort of pita. Finally, Alicante showed up on outgoing manifest, so we finished up and got in line. By the time we got there, the line was already quite long, and doubled by the time we started boarding. We had no assigned seats, so we hurried towards the back of the train and found 2 seats.

The train left pretty much on time, and we were on our way to Alicante, about a 2 hour trip. There were no food or drinks on the train, but there was a nice modern bathroom just next to us. We pulled into Alicante and went outside looking for a taxi to our "room". We found a taxi who knew where it was, by the address, not the name of the place. After paying him, we started looking for not 48, the number of our building. Less than a block up we found, and that is when the "fun" began. Apparently our room was in the building somewhere, but we had no idea where. We asked a guy who came out of the locked building and he helped us out as much as possible, calling the number on our receipt, but didn't get any answer. Manoli decided to use the "emergency" procedures and turn off airplane mode so she could call the place, which cost us $10 for the day. When she did, she found she'd recieved an email sometime before, telling us to use the lockbox key she could get with code they gave us, so she finally found the lockbox, used the code, and pulled out a set of 3 keys. We were on the 4th floor, door A, room C. One key opened the outside building door, another opened the 4th floor door, and the last key opened our room. The room was nothing special, with a double bed, 2 small night stands, a small closet and a chest of drawers. The was also a small fan next to the door, and a small window to the side. There was a series of 7 rooms, with 2 bathrooms and a nice kitchen and balcony.

After we unpacked, we went downstairs and headed towards the beach to find a tourist information spot. We'd already figured out from the map that the street we were on, Las Ramblas, went straight to the beach someone told us there was an information center there. The walk to the beach was along a pleasant street, without too much traffic and a lot of restaurants and stores. Finally we found the tourist spot and got a briefing on what there was to see in Alicante. We'd come here mainly to meet the couple I'd hiked my first Camino with, Silvia and Eduardo. She had told us in an email that she and her husband had to work both days we'd be there, but that we could come to her work and meet her. The things that caught our eye was the old part of town and the Castle of Santa Barbara. The guy told us we could catch a bus just outside that went up to the castle, or we could walk up on a very long, very steep trail. We opted quite quickly for the bus, but that would have to wait until tomorrow morning, so we decided to check out the old town. The walk up wasn't that bad and the area was quite quaint. We saw an interesting restaurant called La Fabrica and since it was well past dinner we decided to eat there. I ordered a cappuccino and Manoli ordered a cafe con leche. Manoli ordered some croquetas and I ordered pimientos padron, a sort of fried peppers you pop in your mouth. I was so excited about the cappuccino I forget to photograph the rest of the meal. After dinner we headed back to the room, stopping for a couple of cokes for the night, and next morning.

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Photos

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Manoli and I having lunch in the Estacion del Norte

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The small square just up from our room in Alicante

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The building our room is in

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The door of our room, on the 4th floor

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Our room, bed, nightstands, fan and closet

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The kitchen and balcony

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The balcony and our view below

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A statue of Quan Han on the beach promenade of Alicante

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La Fabrica in old Alicante where we ate dinner

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My cappuccino at La Fabrica

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A look down one of the walking streets in Alicante

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