Altea y Guadalest

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So the past week we have gone on various little excursions to places in and around the Alicante area. Last Saturday we took a day trip to Guadalest and Altea. We started off with a tour of Guadalest which is a quaint little village up in the mountains inland from the coast. It was a little bit touristy but cute all the same. The old town is accessible only through a tunnel carved into the rock (good for defense back in the day I guess). An old castle sit on top of the mountain and the views are absolutely stunning. After doing the whole take a tour, snap photos every two seconds deal, we had time for lunch and I decided to walk around the town little bit on my own because I can only take so much of the big group of Americans with the tour bus mentality. I walked into a mini park type place with benches and trees to find two cats sprawled out enjoying the sun. The entire time I was there they stared me down and never took their eyes off of me. I tried to talk nice to them but they just sat there and gave me the evil stare. I think I was trespassing on their territory.
After Guadalest we traveled back to the coast to the town of Altea. Although a vacation destination, Altea does not have the same mass tourism, package beach deal feeling like some of the other towns in the area. It was very relaxing, with gorgeous and uncrowded white sand beaches. A few of the kids went swimming but because the beach there is all pebbles in the water, everyone came out bloody and bruised. A couple of people even had little sea urchins spikes in their feet which they had to go get removed with the help of the lifeguard. After swimming we walked up to the old section of town which is all whitewashed houses and narrow, winding streets. (Interesting fact: in the old sections of Spanish towns and cities you can tell which sections were the Christian quarters and which were the Muslim quarters by the streets. Narrow and winding streets with no balconies or windows in the houses is typical of a Muslim section whereas the Christian streets are wide and straight with lots of patios and balconies overlooking the street) Apparently Altea is a fairly upscale town so there are a lot of fancy, expensive restaurants. The views were great and the old church had beautiful blue tiling on its dome. It almost felt like we were on a small island in Greece. All in all it was a fun day, nothing too exciting in the way of stories but I definitely got some good pictures.

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Photos

Old cemetery in Guadalest
Every single townsperson for the past 600 years has been buried in this cemetery (can't see the oldest part in this picture)

Different View of the Tower
The town is located within the rock that this tower sits on.

Nasty Cat
Unlike the Spaniards, this cat did not like me invading his personal space

More Altea
This was taken from the top of the hill in the old part of town looking down at the sea.

Resevoir in the Valley
Lots of lime in the water.

Comments

[Catherine]

omg it is sooo pretty out there, u better take me on trip someday to some place like that! i made varsity btw! miss you and see you in 3 months! ~Catherine~