Where's Bertie? He's in a big dirt car park at the end of a Via Verde on the edge of the town of Alcoy (Exact location: 38.68662, -0.49511). He spent the middle of the day in a shopping centre car park in Alicante (approx location: 38.35481, -0.47232)
Weather: Some rain overnight, and mainly overcast during the day, but dry. Temperature struggling to reach the mid-teens in Alicante and just 12 degrees in Alcoy (which is at a higher altitude).
The reason for our positioning yesterday was so as to be relatively near to Alicante today. I can't now remember why we've not been to Alicante before, but having received a recommendation from Simon & Debbie when we saw them a few days ago, we added it to our list of places to go.
Our visit didn't get off to the best of starts, with Bertie doing an impression of Goldilocks. The first car park felt too dodgy; the second was tiny and full; the third had such overgrown trees that we couldn't fit Bertie into a space. With the accommodation in the city being flats, and it being a Sunday, all of the street parking was full.
By this point Mick was ready to give up on Alicante, but as we'd gone out of our way to be there, my vote was to give one more place a try. I'd found mention of an underground car park that has a 3m height limit. We would have to pay to park there, but that seemed worthwhile for big-enough spaces and a sense of security.
Mick had just turned right onto the street when I noticed that the car park just to the left across the road also had a 3m height limit. An about-turn was performed and in we pulled to what we assumed would be a pay car park. But, no, it turned out to be a shopping centre that is, of course, closed on a Sunday. The only reason the car park is open is because the place houses one business with Sunday hours: a pharmacy. We thus felt happy abandoning Bertie there for a few hours (I say 'happy' but there was some nervous checking of Google for opening hours; we didn't want to come back to find the pharmacy, and thus the car park, closed at noon!).
Once we'd finally found a pedestrian way out of the car park, it was to the modern art museum we headed. Our out-of-date guidebook described it as the 'Museo de Arte Moderno' and made it sound like at least some of it would be up our street. When we got there we found it is now called the 'Museo d'Arte Contemporari de Alacant'. Fortunately, entry was free, because its contents were not such that we would have found any entrance fee to be value for money. Convinced that we must have been in the wrong place, I've just checked the address in the guide book; it seems the direction and emphasis of the place must have changed over the last decade.
On the plus side, if we hadn't gone there, we wouldn't have found ourselves having a pleasant walk along a street with a good view down onto the seafront promenade.
The castle was the only other place I was keen for us to visit whilst we were in the city. Goodness, even as a hill-bagger, that was a long and steep pull to get there; I can see why taking the lift is a popular option.
This doesn't do justice to how high up the castle is
Taken from half way down the other side. This doesn't do it justice either.
I think our experience of the castle (which is a sizeable place) would have been different had we been there on a week day. On a Sunday afternoon it was heaving with people and I think that contributed to my feeling that I wasn't getting a clear overall impression as to the layout and history of the place. It's not that it was a bad visit, but it could have been better.
If you know where to look (and zoom in accordingly), Bertie is in this snap.
Weather: Some rain overnight, and mainly overcast during the day, but dry. Temperature struggling to reach the mid-teens in Alicante and just 12 degrees in Alcoy (which is at a higher altitude).
The reason for our positioning yesterday was so as to be relatively near to Alicante today. I can't now remember why we've not been to Alicante before, but having received a recommendation from Simon & Debbie when we saw them a few days ago, we added it to our list of places to go.
Our visit didn't get off to the best of starts, with Bertie doing an impression of Goldilocks. The first car park felt too dodgy; the second was tiny and full; the third had such overgrown trees that we couldn't fit Bertie into a space. With the accommodation in the city being flats, and it being a Sunday, all of the street parking was full.
By this point Mick was ready to give up on Alicante, but as we'd gone out of our way to be there, my vote was to give one more place a try. I'd found mention of an underground car park that has a 3m height limit. We would have to pay to park there, but that seemed worthwhile for big-enough spaces and a sense of security.
Mick had just turned right onto the street when I noticed that the car park just to the left across the road also had a 3m height limit. An about-turn was performed and in we pulled to what we assumed would be a pay car park. But, no, it turned out to be a shopping centre that is, of course, closed on a Sunday. The only reason the car park is open is because the place houses one business with Sunday hours: a pharmacy. We thus felt happy abandoning Bertie there for a few hours (I say 'happy' but there was some nervous checking of Google for opening hours; we didn't want to come back to find the pharmacy, and thus the car park, closed at noon!).
Once we'd finally found a pedestrian way out of the car park, it was to the modern art museum we headed. Our out-of-date guidebook described it as the 'Museo de Arte Moderno' and made it sound like at least some of it would be up our street. When we got there we found it is now called the 'Museo d'Arte Contemporari de Alacant'. Fortunately, entry was free, because its contents were not such that we would have found any entrance fee to be value for money. Convinced that we must have been in the wrong place, I've just checked the address in the guide book; it seems the direction and emphasis of the place must have changed over the last decade.
On the plus side, if we hadn't gone there, we wouldn't have found ourselves having a pleasant walk along a street with a good view down onto the seafront promenade.
The castle was the only other place I was keen for us to visit whilst we were in the city. Goodness, even as a hill-bagger, that was a long and steep pull to get there; I can see why taking the lift is a popular option.
I think our experience of the castle (which is a sizeable place) would have been different had we been there on a week day. On a Sunday afternoon it was heaving with people and I think that contributed to my feeling that I wasn't getting a clear overall impression as to the layout and history of the place. It's not that it was a bad visit, but it could have been better.
We made no effort to see anything else in the city, instead making our way back to Bertie for a quick late lunch before driving the 50 minutes or so NE to Alcoy.
Sunday is market day in Alcoy, a fact we only know because we drove around a barrier in the road on the way to this car park and found ourselves in the market square. Fortunately, the stalls were in the final stages of being disassembled, so a quick u-turn and exit was achieved without embarrassment.
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