Some excursions

Whilst in Altea, you have Albir right next door, a simple and gentle walk along the sea front away. Just past Albir is a rather pleasant walk out to a lighthouse that the Toddlers had done many times during their visits to the area and they told us we should follow in their footsteps. We obeyed and were glad that we did:

Some nice views back to the towns from the walk as you wind your way towards the headland and lighthouse:

and up to the old Lighthouse building too - although it did look like a long way off and up which seemed to put off a few walkers:

Whilst we were enjoying blue skies and kind temperatures, we spared a thought for folks who might be on the ferries from Spain to the UK / Ireland. This was the wave height forecast:

Not something we would contemplate tackling in a huge ferry, let alone in our Nordhavn. Fortunately our home berth is pretty well sheltered and any ripples on the surface of the marina are not too significant.

Walking along the breakwater at Altea you get to see what is a pretty small and very very busy marina there. We needed our boat fix:

The pesky cloud things you can see in the picture were a brief aberration luckily and normal service was resumed the next day.

Although Altea is lovely and we spent many happy hours walking the waterfront and sampling the local cafes, we felt the urge to try out a few interesting local towns too. Guadalest was the first pick, strongly recommended by the lovely lady who owned our rental apartment.  The drive up the scenic winding road gave some wonderful views, as did the walk up to the castle:

with the castle, church and some buildings perched at the top of an impressive hill:

From there, you get to view the lake come reservoir rather nicely:

The local school children had their artwork on display in the school window. This was pretty typical of the offerings (please excuse the reflection of the serious looking captain, we could not avoid that grim bit of the image):

One child's handiwork really stood out amongst all the others:

and we do worry about him a little bit. The parents must be so proud.

The only disappointment of the trip was that most of the café places had a very bad Google rating and they lived down to it as well. Sad how touristy places don't need to try very hard. However, the little town itself was lovely apart from one shopkeeper. We wandered into the shop through the open door for the crew to look at some tops. Place was empty. Then Mr Shopkeeper came in from the street and in Spanish told us to "bugger off as he was closed". Not sure if that is an exact translation but the way it was said suggested those words. Proper sales prevention guy.

On the way back to the coast, we were kind to the car and stopped to wash off the dust using a pressure wash facility in a garage. It cost less than 20% of the equivalent time and service here in the UK. Depressing really.

Back on the coast, the crew found a new canine friend in Albir:

We felt that he would be cheap to feed but the grooming might be a challenge. He stayed where he was. 

All in all, a great stay and a most chilled time. We were getting the hang of Spanish life, if not the language.