Everyday in Spain is an adventure, but Saturday my group had an amazing adventure as we toured two smaller towns in the Alicante Provincia. We first toured Guadalest a very small mountain town, then Altea a beautiful coastal town a bit north of Alicante. We took off in the morning and it was about a two hour drive to our first town, Guadalest.
Guadalest
The town of Guadalest is very small, and from what I could see, much of the economy centers around tourism to visit the remains of the castle that was perched on a mountain for many years before it was destroyed by the earthquake. With only remains left atop the mountain, a small town has developed there as well as a large home formerly owned by one of the richest families in the land. I took nearly 50 pictures while at Guadalest, the beautiful valley surrounded by mountains and the castle remains proved to be very picturesque. Here are some of them I wanted to share:
The town of Guadalest outside the castle walls.
The bell tower and castle walls.
The bell tow and castle tower from above, looking over the valley and east toward the sea.
The valley looking west.
The houses on the mountaintop and the lake below.
More towers and levels of the castle.
From the highest level.
Looking out of the castle.
Oh wait, this may be higher. Literally have 20 pictures of this.
Castle from the back, overlooking the town.
My professora, Irene, is originally from Guadalest. Here father works at the castle and served as a guide for us. He gave us a great tour with all kinds of information about the old castle and the house and town on the mountaintop. After our tour, we took a short walk to his house where he hosted us for lunch. We had a picnic on a large blue tarp and ate paella. Now, paella is a traditional Spanish dish that is very popular here in the Valencia region. It can be made many different ways, Guadalest is famous for its meat paella with a mix of lamb and seafood. Paella is one of my favorite foods here in Spain and mi madre makes very good seafood paella for lunch sometimes. For lunch we had paella provided by a local restaurant, one veggie and one their original creation only found in Guadalest. Irene's father arrived and pulled two GIANT pans of paella out of his trunk, they were nearly as large as the tables we had for them.
Grapes outside the house.
Big as the table!
Specialty of Guadalest.
Close up on the veggie, beautiful colors!
My meal on our blue picnic tarp.
The paella was amazing! It is my favorite meal here and this was definitely the best I have had. We had the perfect lunch overlooking the valley and after we all took a short siesta on the tarp and had melon for dessert- I love meal time in Spain!
Altea
It was only a short ride from Guadalest to Altea, I am not sure on the exact time as I slept the entire way. Altea is a small, beautiful coastal town. It sits overlooking the Mediterranean Sea with white buildings and a beautiful church. It started raining while we were there, so we stopped and had helado (ice cream) outside under the umbrellas of a cute little cafe in the center of town. We walked around the town, seeing the different streets covered in flowers and bright artwork.
White buildings of Altea.
The church.
Overlooking the sea.
More Altea, with Benidorm in the distance.
Streets.
Church.
Little cafe where we sat outside having helado.
More colorful streets.
Many of the buildings had these beautiful paintings hanging off them.
The sea.
We left Altea as the sun was reemerging. And drove back to Alicante. The cities around Alicante are each unique and beautiful. This was such a great chance to see two of them and get some time out of the city. I can't wait to see more of the region around Alicante.
Hasta Luego!
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