Topping up that European glow!

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After the tomato fest that Valencia was, it was time for a road trip for a couple of days with Claire and Neill to the next coastal town on the map... Alicante!.. and our main purpose here is to do nothing but enjoy the beach!

Situated about 2 hours south of Valencia, Alicante is a decent sized town with the main street called, La Rambla (like many main streets in the cities of Spain) that has many bars selling tapas & sangria, no shortage of gelari and crepes and little stalls that come out at night set up down closer to the beach offering many cheap bargains, from sunglasses to cds to handbags...... almost certainly from the streets of Bangkok!

There are massive seaside apartment blocks on the oceanfront, the sand is a dirty brown colour, very course and has many tyre marks through the main sections - must be for beach patrols or something... the water is very warm and beautifully blue in colour... there are the occasional rocky bays where the water looks a turquoise green from the road but the rocks aren't that comfortable for sunbathing... so we opted for the beaches to top up our European glow. And..... I love that the Spanish people can spend hours on end at the beach.... and why not in a sun that you don't turn red after 10 mins!.. and that they pack everything for their daily outing!....not just buckets & spades & a towel, but a pack of cards and other games as time wasters, sun shelters, umbrellas, tables, eskies, chairs, blow up boats, banana lounges.. and there is that sweet smell of coconut oil always present in the air!

It was great to spend more time with Claire and meet Neill over these few days as well as seeing a little more of the Spanish coast south of Valencia... but this is as far as I went as I had to get back up to Barcelona for a scheduled flight to cold London! ......

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Photos

blue skies & calm waters...
looks quite idylic from this angle....and easy to imagine that it would be lovely to hire a boat and explore the more hard to reach bays!

shot of the coastline
Taken from a little cove out of the centre of town...where we found a more quieter stretch of sand... Alicante is sort of on the otherside of that hill..

set for the day!
a family that has packed almost everything!..(they probably own one of the boats in the bay).. but it was funny watching them with arms full heading along the beach to get settled