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 Well, here we are in sunny Alicante Spain! We arrived on Sunday, 15 October, 2001 to 70 degrees, blue skies and sunshine. The picture below was taken near the hotel we stayed in when we first arrived, looking towards the North East showing the harbor. This area in town is not dominated by high-rise buildings.
The first order of business was to get ourselves enrolled in Spanish language courses at the local university and find a place to live. We explored the town and the surrounding suburban areas and decided that we really are not interested in the sprawl associated with the high-rise mania that dominates the beach and town areas. We found a place with a garage not far from the Mediterranean. Thanks to the Internet, we found a place owned by a British couple and settled. It was nice to have shelter for the bikes in the form of a garage and we had a nice view of the Mediterranean from our windows! The house is in a barrio called Cala D’Or which is part of a town to the north of Alicante, Campello. The picture at left was our “casa”.
Unfortunately we did not have the whole house. Our portion was the bit to the left of the gate and above the garage. It is small, three rooms, two of which are the kitchen and bath.
The area above our quarters which is bounded by the white bit atop the structure is a huge patio which is adjacent to the pool. The house is named Villa Delfin and the bottom of the pool contains a mosaic of a dolphin. The patio area is just to the left of the pool in the picture above right.
The pool is quite nice but the weather was not really warm enough to take advantage of it. It seems that every house in the area has a pool of its own.
There is also a nice garden in the area of the pool which is behind the house. Almost all of the houses have been built such that they have a view of the Mediterranean. Most do not have much of a yard, and what they have is usually tiled (very low maintenance). Seems strange but all of the construction here is done with concrete and stone. Tile work is very abundant. In the summer we suspect that the stone works well at keeping the temperature inside the houses fairly low. Electricity is not cheap in these parts so air conditioning is a real luxury and we’ve only seen about a half dozen houses that have it.
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The view from the patio is quite beautiful. This is where we sat on sunny afternoons, studying our Spanish. This view is looking north toward Altea and “Tacky Town”, Benidorm.
Verna really likes all of the flora and fauna surrounding the pool area at the rear of the house. There are lots of tropical plants such as palms, banana, and this bougainvillea which has bloomed this profusely as long as we have been here. The geraniums and snapdragons have been blooming nonstop as well, providing some beautiful color. In early December, a few narcissus stared to bloom as well.
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Cala d’Oro is full of large residences (chalets as they are referred to here) mostly owned by foreigners, though there are some Spanish here as well. We lived here for five months. The majority of the houses are vacant in the winter as they are used as summertime vacation homes. They are a handful of full-time residents, all of which have at least one large dog, usually 2 or 3, whose favorite pastime is to bark ferociously every time someone comes walking by. There is a Swiss couple living across the street from us, Spanish next to them, French next door to us, and German across the street from them.
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The picture below left was taken from the Alicante Marina looking towards the North. At the top of the hill behind the high-rise hotel is the Castillo de Santa Barbara, a 16th century fortress overlooking the city.
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In our travels, we found one area that has a housing development on a golf course that is outside the main part of the city and is quiet and picturesque. It seems that the rental office for the housing tract is accustomed to dealing with people on holiday wanting short term (a few weeks) stays. We walked in and told them we wanted to stay five months. They had never had anyone do that and did not know how to deal with us. So, “come back Thursday and we will have an answer for you”.
This place was really interesting because it appears to be surrounded by a rather interesting agribusiness. Acres and acres of plastic greenhouses growing tomatoes. Go figure. We decided that the owner must be a golf nut so he built a golf course in the middle of his acreage and to pay for it has started a housing project that lines the fairways. The entrepreneurial spirit is alive and well in Spain.
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We enrolled at the Universidad de Alicante in a Spanish Language classes. Money, pictures, forms - you know - all the usual bureaucracy. Classes are offered in three or four hour per day sessions with the four hour sessions including instruction of Spanish history, etc. The morning classes are from 9 AM to 12 or 1 PM and the afternoon classes are from 3 PM to 6 or 7 PM. We will opted for the morning session and got into a three hour class that meets daily for one month, then followed that with the next two courses for a total of 3 months.
The bikes needed their 6000 mile service and we found the local BMW dealer. The first day we went into his shop we were not able to communicate at all. He speaks no English and our Spanish was so poor that we could not understand a word he said. The lad who runs the desk at the hotel was kind enough to act as an interpreter via a phone call and thanks to him we were able to get the bikes into the shop for service. After three months of class Jim is now able to walk into the shop and successfully purchase parts and service.
The temperatures varied: 50-70 degrees, so it is quite pleasant for outdoor eating. Almost all of the restaurants have a “Menu del dia” or menu of the day, usually for around 1000 pesetas (about US $5). The menu usually starts off with a salad (though sometimes you get a choice of gazpacho or plate of ham), as well as a basket of bread. You also have a choice of soda, water, wine or beer. The first plate is then served, normally a paella. By this time we are usually full and haven’t even gotten to the main course yet. The main course, or 2nd plate, is a piece of meat and some fries, sometimes a veg. Sometimes you have a choice, sometimes not. And now that you are thoroughly stuffed, you get your choice of dessert. Ice cream is almost always available, sometimes fruit, flan, or cake.
After a meal like that, your only choice is to go home and take a nap! The stores remain closed and all traffic virtually stops. Then, miraculously, at 5pm the place comes to life again. People are out on the streets, the shops are open, and traffic flows continuously. It remains like this until about 9 or 10 when the restaurants open back up for dinner. We rarely have dinner that late - after the big lunch, a snack of cheese & crackers or fruit is enough for us. Sometimes we’ll share a plate of calamare which is available at almost every cafe or restaurant.
Along the coast, both north and south, are the huge high-rise complexes built for the British, Irish, and German visitors. These apartments are owned by the visitors, but they only come here in July and August. So now, many of these look like ghost towns.
One of these areas is the town of Benadorm (about 1/2 hours north of here) which has been label by the Lonely Planet as “Tacky Town”. They describe the town as, “...a jungle of concrete high-rise, and its streets are thronged with pasty tourists toting plastic beach toys”. Actually, it didn’t look too bad during the off season, but we wouldn’t want to be there in the summer! Again, it is a collection of high-rise condos, but this time they are 30 stories high, with many new, modern, glitzy ones. Evidently this is where the Belgians and Dutch congregate, but there are probably many English as well. There are water parks and theme parks nearby to entertain all those bored kids on holiday. All we could think of was the number of people that would be there if all those condos were full!
We also drove south along the coast to Torrevieja which the Lonely Plant describes as, “A heavily developed but not completely repugnant resort...”. We think that their reviewers are not impressed with the areas the sun seeking holiday crowd populate. Tremendous construction going on in the area and as a result the dust generated in this extremely arid climate had cut visibility to about one to two miles for a 25 mile radius. We were totally surprised by the pollution when when we gave it some thought it is understandable.
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The terrain around here is very much like southern California. It is dry with scrub-brush natural vegetation. It has a very light-colored, rocky soil. There are huge arroyos which we imagine fill quickly with water when it rains (which is not very often). A few large, rocky mountains circle the area. A lot of orange, lemon, olive and pomegranate groves have been planted, giving the area a greener view. Around buildings and in inhabited areas the hibiscus, verbena, morning glories and bougainvillea are blooming profusely, along side of ficus, palm, eucalyptus and rubber trees (it obviously doesn’t freeze here!). The streets are lined with Jacaranda trees still in bloom. There are huge nurseries of mature palm and olive trees, waiting to be transplanted in newly built-up areas.
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In town, there are large plazas created just for strolling. Many have benches or chairs for those who choose to sit and relax. The largest, Esplanada de Espana, runs along the port of Alicante. The plaza is a wide strip, perhaps 2 driving lanes wide, all tiled for close to a half kilometer. Large trees and bushes are planted along the sides, providing much-needed shade during the hottest part of the day, as well as screening the area from the road traffic. The next esplanada is a dry dirt walkway with huge banyon trees that totally block the sun. The area is more garden-like with planter boxes and benches long the way. There is also a large playground for the children.
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We spent a couple of days getting registered at the university (below) for Spanish classes. Luckily we got here just before the new term, so our timing was right. We were in class for 3 hours each morning, 5 days a week. It turned out that everyone in our class spoke English except the professor. By the end of our 3 month program, we had completed the Beginning level and came out fairly conversant with a limited vocabulary. We were very motivated going in as it was embarrassing to try and get anything done. By the time we left, we had no trouble ordering food, could get our bikes worked on without an interpreter and can carry on short but descriptive conversations with people we meet.
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The university itself is very nice and relatively new. It is outside of town, to the west, next to a smaller town. We feel really old walking around with all these young kids and get stared at a lot. Oh well. We had use of the library, computers, book store, etc. which was convenient. At first we checked out the cafeteria - the food was even cheaper there! Our first day we didn’t want to stand in line at the cafeteria, so went into the small restaurant. Had the menu del dia for 840 pesetas (a little over US $4). What a deal. And the food is very good. The next day we did the cafeteria and we each got a salad and a main dish and drink - it was US $7 total and was more than enough food. We made the cafeteria an everyday event during our 3 month stay and usually ate for less than US $5 a meal. Now that’s a meal deal!
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In our classes we met lots of nice people from all over - Sweden, Iran, Russia, Holland, Hungary, China, and a few from the US. At right is a picture of Petr from Russia who was with us for all three months.
We also found the main market in town. On one of the main streets, it is a huge structure with stalls inside selling fresh meat, fish, eggs, cheese, fruits and vegetables.
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During this time of year, many are not open, but there are still enough that you can find everything you need here - and lots of variety, too. When we first arrived, shopping in a place like this was difficult as we had trouble hearing correctly the prices, but by the time we left it was pretty easy.
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Just before we left, we finally got around to visiting the Palm Garden, a lovely garden with hundreds of palm trees, a pond, several fountains and a waterfall. At left is Jim in by the large pond. The place was just made for strolling or letting the kids unwind a bit in the playground areas. We thought the tire “swing” was a great upgrade to the old standard - this one was on a cable with some type of pulley inside and slid back and forth from one end to the other, with additional tires at either end to absorb the shock. The young lad seemed to be enjoying himself as well (right). Then, all the way to one end, we came upon a great cycle-cross course for the off-road bicycles - and no one was using it! It had several jumps and whoop-dee-doos (that’s a very technical term for lots of little ups & downs) as well as high-sided banked turns. Looked like a great place for the kids.
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