The Spanish Coast

The time we spent along the coast after we left Màlaga turned out to be a study in flexibility and moving to Plans B, C and beyond.  We didn't have this leg of the trip planned out to the level of detail the first 5-6 weeks had been.  We had a rough schedule but intended to firm up details as we went.

The first change in plans came when I thought I booked a hotel in Almeria town, when I really booked one in the town of Roquetas del Mar in the province of Almeria.  Val wrote about that in an earlier post. After that night we decided that we really didn't like that area and we wanted to  move on.  So we cancelled our plans in Alicante and drove up the coast.  As we were driving, we saw this intriguing sight.  There was one town that had an inordinate number of high rises for the size of town it was.  What was the deal with all those 10 to 20-story buildings, we wondered. So we took the next exit to investigate.  That's how we found the seaside town of Benidorm. We drove around on narrow side streets and decided we'd find a cafe with wifi and do some quick online research to find a place to stay there. Well, once we were online looking at the million options for lodging in that small resort town (how hard could it be to find a place to stay, right?  Except that we wanted the perfect place for the least amount of money so we kept looking at "just one more listing" and just ended up confused!), two hours went by.

Two hours later (if you want to see steam come out of Val's ears bring up how much time we wasted on a couple occasions spending time on the iPad looking for lodging), we walked to our car and found an invitation from the local Benidorm police to donate 90 euros to their You-weren't-suppose-to-park-here Fund.  That did not set well with a certain driver who shall remain nameless.  So, we got in the car and headed out to find the hotel we finally landed on after two hours of searching. And couldn't find it.  The GPS just wasn't helping. Frustrated and tired, we found a (valid) parking place and set off on foot to find this darn hotel.  As we walked past this nice place just a half a block off the beach, I said let's see how much this place is. Knowing it was outside our budget, but hoping anyway, we walked in and asked "What is your best price for two weary travelers?"  The front desk clerk gave us a pretty good price, but still outside the amount we'd planned for.  So we left. Got halfway down the block and turned around to go back. We decided to treat ourselves.  In the grand scheme of things would the 30-euro difference really matter?  And then that wonderful desk clerk went one better - she gave us a 6th floor room with an ocean view! Fabulous!  We went to sleep that night with the sound of the waves crashing on the shore.

Along the boardwalk at Benidorm; artists spend a week or more shoveling sand and building - in this case - an actual sand castle.  All for spare euros that passersby toss into their tip jars.

Some of the high rises that intrigued us enough to take that exit to Benidorm.  This resort town has the most high rise buildings per capita in the world. The population is only about 72,000 but the skyline is such that people call it the "Manhattan of Spain."

We walked along the coastline on this concrete path.

Photo of shoreline #107 - it seemed we couldn't take enough pictures, trying to ensure we would be able to remember just how beautiful it was.

Another piece of good news was that we found out the parking ticket was unenforceable, given out by the local "parking police" with  no real jurisdiction.   Just ignore it, we were told (we'll let you know how that one turns out). We had the best experiences as we stayed along the coast.  We were going to spend four days in a town south of Barcelona called Sitges, but we spent one night there and decided we weren't impressed. So we actually drove past Barcelona and spent four days in a small resort village called Roses north of the city. This is a wonderful place! It's only about 15 miles from France so there was as much French spoken as Spanish.  And most everyone spoke English.  We found a good hotel across from the beach and really enjoyed our morning runs along the boardwalk.  The price for the hotel included  a nice breakfast so we felt like we got our money's worth.  Especially when I discreetly placed some extra fruit, ham and cheese into my day pack.  We bought a loaf of bread and made yummy sandwiches to take with us each day.  We had such a good time.  There was a lot to do in the area so we planned out what we wanted to do when and set out.

One day we drove to Cadeques, a quaint, picturesque fishing village that Salvador Dali used to spend time in and then a short drive to Port lligat to tour Dali's house.  We got to the entrance to the house only to find out when we got there that we needed to reserve space on the tour.  So, we regrouped and decided that instead we'd drive to Figueros to go the the Dali museum and come back on Saturday to tour the house.  Then we'd head to the Barcelona airport to return our rental car and take the train and metro to our host's home.

Cadeques - Sometimes only the panoramic shot could capture the beauty.

The view from an old building turned into a restaurant, adjacent to the Dali house and museum.  Not a bad place to wait to learn if there had been any cancellations and we could take the tour that day or if we'd have to make reservations and come back that Saturday.  As it turned out, we had to come back. Not a problem.

We also did an easy hike around Roses.  The 10-mile route took us through neighborhoods with costal villas that we dreamed about living in, through a national park, on a road that wound around farmland and vineyards, to a trail that brought us to a pasture with cattle grazing high on a hillside overlooking the mountains and the sea.  Honest to Pete, I don't think I've ever seen a place more beautiful. We could've stayed a week in Roses, but on Saturday we spent our last day there walking through their annual Festival of Roses, a fun market with crafts, jewelry, good eats and beautiful roses, of course,  before we drove back to Dali's house, and then on to Barcelona.

A beautiful day for a hike. 

A local vineyard. Unfortunately, we didn't have the time to tour a winery, just enjoyed the products and the views!

Just can't get more peaceful than this.  The bulls were off to the right of this group of cows and while they meandered over our way to see what we were up to as we walked through on the trail, they kept their distance.  Me, too - from them!

The number of stone fences we saw all over Spain was incredible. To realize that each stone in the literally miles and miles of fences were placed there by hand over the centuries was impressive.

One of the rooms in Dali's house.  The swans you see are Dali's swans which he had stuffed and mounted when they died.  The tour guide said he loved the swans, which swam in the sea and in his pool.  There was also a huge stuffed bear in the entry way - a place to hang one's hat, I guess.

A view from Dali's courtyard.

A part of the swimming pool at the back of the house.

It was at this point in the trip that we started to count down the days.  Just six days from today, we said, we have to leave to go home.  I started to make room for thoughts of family, and Buddy. :).  I think I didn't let myself think of what we'd left behind during the seven weeks we'd been gone and to my surprise didn't experience any homesickness like I thought I would.  And of course it helped that we spoke to Dick and my mom every once in awhile and  emailed them more often.  Now, thoughts of them, of work, of our normal life started to creep in. We found ourselves both wishing for more time and looking forward to being HOME.   Six more days, though.  Barcelona awaits!