Alicante, Spain
This morning we left the hotel and went to see what Cartagena is all about. In a few hours, that's all it should take to reveal its secrets to us. Sure.
Went downtown in a heavy rain, big drops splashing off the hood and windshield. Heavy traffic, and pedestrians taking chances they shouldn't as they hold umbrellas that block their vision and then leap off the curbs to dodge the lake-sized puddles covering the blocked drains. We managed to dodge pedestrians, dogs, cars, and double parked delivery trucks all the way to the underground parking at the city center, by the harbor's edge. Exited the parking lot and looked around at a lovely natural harbor, with castles and defensive fortifications lining the high hillsides at the edge of the seaport's edge. One of the first things we saw was a submarine, an old one. Pre-WWII perhaps? Yes, definitely, our tourist literature claims that the sub was invented in 1884 by Isaac Peral and built in 1888 in Cadiz. Don't know if it ever sailed in anger, or sunk anything. Note the propellers on the bottom to propell it upward, they sure didn't lack brave sailors back in the old days.
Wandered the city a bit, cameras in hand, buying postcards, went into McDonalds to buy some milk for our coffee thermos. Jan had made some great coffee this morning before we left the room, but I'm still a pussy and don't like to drink it black if I have a choice. Saw more sights, took pictures of statues and monuments, then went for lunch as us tourists do. Everyone loves us, big smiles when we show up, glad-handing us to the table, 'What would you like?'. Because we are so lovable, right? So handsome, pretty, nice, gifted, etc. Right? Wrong. Because we have money, and the local service industry wants it. Today, they earned it. We had a superb Paella, the best we've had in Spain so far, plus excellent coffees and service. What a win, an excellent lunch.
During lunch the rain has stopped, so we hiked about a bit more around the marina. There's a big statue of Atlas all hunched over, looking down between his legs. So many ways you could draw that cartoon, so many captions possible for the thought-balloon above his head. The obvious one would be wrong however, Jan stepped between his legs and took a picture. He is anatomically correct, and large as life. Then, several hours into the day, mid afternoon now, we are on the road to Alicante. But it is only 92 Kilometers away, the first sign we see tells us. At my 130 Kph speed, our destination is considerably less than an hour away. I'm driving like a European now, passing everything in sight, the big green Mercedes no longer ashamed of being passed by Puegeots and Renaults, and hiding its face.
Road Notes: We pay quite a bit in tolls here in Spain, and in Portugal too. Most of the roads we drive are toll roads, and we have made that choice. In the areas between the toll roads, the traffic is thick and there are a lot of trucks. The tolls cut out any who don't have to travel that way, or who don't really want to, and a lot of the truck traffic. We are happy to pay extra to travel quickly and safely, and the roads are well serviced by Gas Stations along the way, about every 20 kilometers, complete with washrooms, snacks, and restaurants. Very nice, and worth it as I have time to look around at the scenery too and Jan gets to relax a bit. The other half of the day's journey we are on the public roads, and those are the tense times.
The weather is a bit iff'y at this time of year, for sure. so why do we choose to travel now, why not the summer? Well, we're in Europe because the girls are in London and we came to spend Christmas with them. We were at one of their homes or the other from Dec 10 until Jan 21, then came to the European continent when the snow stopped. So far we have not had to drive while it has been snowing, but we have driven with snow on the ground, once in Calais and once on the road from Granada to Cartagena. It has been rainy a couple of times but that's all, check the pictures. And then there's days like today with rain in the morning and nice in the afternoon. The big deal for us though is that there are no crowds. Never any question about room in any hotel we choose, and very little competition when seeing the sights and taking pictures. Granada, at Alhambra, was the only exception and that was because it was a Sunday, Valentine's Day, and a lot of the crowd was couples and almost all were locals. So even then we got lucky. Much better than summer, with the grumpy tourists, though we are even happier on this journey when the sun comes out. Got here to Alicante too late in the day to go and see Hermann's photography exhibit, so we'll do that tomorrow. Dinner tonight in the hotel, very nice.
