Altea - March 20

Yesterday was an off day where we mostly stayed in the apartment except for a late afternoon walk around town.

Today was another great day. We hopped on the tram towards Benidorm which is the end of the line 1. We then transferred to another line to arrive in Altea at noon. They checked the tickets a couple of times in a 2-hour ride. Many days nobody even checks to see if you have a ticket. We arrived just as it began to rain.  Again, it didn't last long but it was cloudy most of the day, just about until it was time to come home. Then the sun came out. It would have made much nicer pictures if it had been sunny, but we can't complain because in the 5 weeks that we have been here, this is only the 3rd day that it hasn't been sunny all day. And for sure they need all the rain they can get even if is only for half an hour.

Altea is a beautiful town with the old part being up a hill just like every old town that we have seen. I love these old towns with the narrow cobbled stone streets that zigzag uphill. Everyone seems to have a couple of pots of flowers or plants on their window sill or on the side of the house. The church is always at the very top. I wonder why that is.

Jacques has been wanting to eat sardines since we've been here so mid afternoon we stopped at a small bar. He had the sardines and I opted for a plate of tapas. 7 tapas and a beer for 9.50. I think he regretted his choice even if he said that his sardines were very good. I did let him have a bite of the tapas that we had not had before.

The food in this area seems to be very salty, maybe it's because we don't salt very much at home. I can literally taste the salt in everything we eat. We have never seen a pepper shaker though in any restaurant yet. In this particular bar, the food didn't taste as salty but was flavorful just the same. One of our best meals in fact.

Today was a sightseeing day, I didn't even open my GPS but Jacques did find 3, one of them an earth cache.

Altea was the last town on our list of must-see places. We will continue to go somewhere every couple of days, but they will probably be repeat places that have geocaches. The next one on the list is Isleta, where we had finished our hike at the end of the stations of the cross.

Altea at beach level. Some sand with lots of pebbles.

On the left, one of many fountains providing drinking water.

Very small back yards.

Laundry day.

Lots of steps.

One of many interesting doors on our walk.

Not certain what kind of food they serve here.

Interesting artwork on the patio.

Very narrow streets.

Water fill-up time.

Entrance to the square.

Square leading to the Church of Our Lady of Consuelo

 

Old bread oven, now located in a store.

Steps leading to the church

Some more interesting artwork on the walkway.

Church of Our Lady of Consuelo

Sorry André, you cannot come in. Ice-cream not permitted inside.

Cat guarding the oranges.

Interesting chess set in the restaurant where we had lunch.

Tapas platter. 7 tapas and 1 beer for 9.50 euros.

Finally got my plate of sardines. Better than what I remembered..

Rain's coming. Fortunately, it did not last long.

Company producing gelatin.

Do not know what kind of fishing is done with these boats. 4 large lights on each boat.

Outside a ceramics store.

Sky is clearing up on our way back to the apartment. Some clouds still in the mountains.