Oldies On Tour

The tourist town of Guadalest.

Thursday 15th October 

Today we headed out to El Castell de Guadalest, better known as just “Guadalest”,a Valencian village high up in the mountains located near

Amazing views

the 1500-metre Serra d’Aitana. Guadalest has an area of 16 km² and, according to the 2002 census, a total population of 189 inhabitants.

This morning the sun was shining with clear blue skies so back into shorts today and after  some discussion agreed we shouldn’t go the conventional route; duel carriages and motorway, but straight across the mountains, half the distance but twice as much time.  Not long after leaving Alcalali we hit the mountain pass, narrow road, extremely twisty, big drops but beautiful scenery and fortunately not too much traffic other than cyclists to bother us.   This was just as well as Christine was hanging onto the

More views

door handle and safety belt so hard her knuckles were quite white, add traffic into the mix, well we would probably have to turnaround!!!!  

At the top of the pass we stopped for a few minutes at the viewing place to take in the panoramic vista, mountains with the Mediterranean Sea in the distance but we didn’t stay too long as it was rather cold, we should have thought about that when we put our shorts on!!!!!  

Such a lovely area

Heading back down the other side we passed orange, lemon, olive and almond trees, different from Alcalali where wine grapes are grown.

We eventually arrived in Guadalest, parked and again the first thing was to find the loos but due to Covid the public ones were locked up so, oh dear, we’ll have to go to a bar which means we had to have the usual.

The village is split into two.  The lower part with its attractive narrow, pedestrian, cobbled streets with tourist shops selling their wares and a few ally’s connecting the two main streets.   The higher part accessed up a lot of steps and through an arch naturally formed by rocks with buildings on top.  Once through this arch we still were walking up the hilly cobbled street to the top where there was a nice square and a path running round the mountain for people to take in the magnificent views, including the lake below which turned out to be a reservoir, filled by the Guadalest River.  

Tourists to Guadalest probably outnumber the inhabitants several times over and apart from this village being small and high up in the mountains there are 9-museums to be visited, but we only went into one.   The house was laid out as it was in the 18th century including an olive oil and a flour press; interesting but small, in fact all the museums seem very small but they are very varied.  On fact is is definite, there in no way it is a wheelchair friendly place.

Returning down into the lower part of the village we stopped for a light lunch; tapas with a drink overlooking the Guadalest valley with the Mediterranean in the background and the sun shining.    Once through this arch we still were walking up the hilly cobbled street to the top where there was a nice square and a path running round the mountain for people to take in the magnificent views, including the lake below which turned out to be a reservoir, filled by the Guadalest River.  

Tourists to Guadalest probably outnumber the inhabitants several times over and apart from this village being small and high up in the mountains there are 9-museums to be visited, but we only went into one.   The house was laid out as it was in the 18th century including an olive oil and a flour press; interesting but small, in fact all the

Lovely restaurant with superb views

museums seem very small but they are very varied.  On fact is is definite, there in no way it is a wheelchair friendly place.

Returning down into the lower part of the village we stopped for a light lunch; tapas with a drink overlooking the Guadalest

Entrance to castle

valley with the Mediterranean in the background and the sun shining.   It was even warm enough to take our fleeces off!!!!   

Early afternoon and we headed back but this time decided to return on “normal” roads, and to ensure I didn’t take a “wrong turning!!!!”  Christine suggested we went via the seaside town of El Albir to ensure I didn’t.   El Aldir ran into Altea and together they looked to us as your typical seaside resort, though no doubt suffering this year with few guests.   The other thing, Christine didn’t have any good thoughts about living here, to quote her “I only like Moraira“, who knows where we go from here!!!!!

Arriving back, we had a cuppa before sorting dinner and a quiet night in, tomorrow we’re off to Denia.

Wednesday 14th October 

Martin and Marian made an early departure for the airport after which we sorted ourselves out before heading off for the day; firstly to Calpe (Calp).  The weather didn’t look too hopeful in the mountains hence heading to the coast, the sky looked more hopeful there.   It was so chilly that our long trousers came out for the first time this winter and our fleeces came with us.

Penon de Ifach

We drove into Calpe but soon drove out, we were not impressed as it looked just a like a seaside destination for hordes of people from Northern Europe; sorry if we have denigrated this place, but first impressions do count!!!

After consulting the map we headed along numerous back lanes and narrow twisty roads following the coast, stopping in the middle of the road (a la Spaniards) several time to admire the views.  The problem with main roads and motorways is you miss so much nice scenery, and there’s lots of that around here.

Our destination was Teulada, probably a little known old town with the first settlement dating back to 20,000-BC, though the modern Teulada was founded in 1386 and was fortified in the 16th century as it was constantly attacked by the Barbary Pirates operating from North Africa, even the church of St Catherine is fortified!!!!  We ignored all the modern bits and headed into the old town with its “very” narrow streets and found a suitable parking spot, left the car and all “wrapped up”, we went walkabouts passing through the market as the stalls were packing up.  We soon found the old square and made a bee-line for a bar as a call of nature was urgently needed, though naturally whilst enjoying the bar’s facilities, we had to have our customary coffee an brandy, but no cake!!!.  Whilst there we were seduced by the Menu Del dia but had to work up an appetite first so headed up the many steps deeper into the

Working the grapes

old town to where the church is but only to find it closed?. However whilst wandering about and climbing the steps leading further into the old town the rain arrived, still as is usual at this time of the year it soon stopped and off we went again until we miraculously arrived back at the bar we’d been to earlier, so ordered our lunch.   For a menu Del dia, we had some amazing choices and finally noted the awards from Trip Advisor, 4.5 out of 5, and we concur, good food, courteous and friendly staff and excellent facilities, especially in today’s world!!!

Heading out again we drove along some twisty, off the beaten track roads with amazing villas hanging on the slopes of the mountain and finally arrived at the pretty, small, up-market coastal town of Moraira where we had a wander along the front, and though it was a little chilly, the sun was shining with blue skies.

Christine felt an immediate “bond” with this place and started to think about moving here, quite a surprise I can assure you!!!  We even stopped so Christine could look into estate agent windows as we headed back to base.

Back at the house and after a cuppa, the first thing Christine did was get online and look further to see what apartments were available in Moraira, watch this space!

Tomorrow we hope to head to the little mountain town of Guadalest.

Sunday 11/10/2020. We walked to the village to meet-up for the normal coffee and bacon butty, good chin wag with everyone before

Lovely views

setting off to Marian and Martin’s. It’s lovely having family only two hours away, where we can enjoy visiting new places, and their fantastic villa, with views to die for, only one problem lots of steps!  Martin

First few steps

cooked us dinner and we had a good catch up on the news.

Monday12/10/2020.  After a late start we

Phew he made it!

went to Alcalali for coffee, sadly most of the places were shut as it is a fiesta weekend.  We were served by a surly Spanish man, who had no interest in us, so we had a quick coffee then moved on.  Back in the car, we travelled to Xalo which was quite busy, we sat down outside and waited

Pretty square

for service which did not come, so in the bar the boys went.  We were not impressed with this place either, but we did have a nice bottle of vino Tinto.  Across the road we noticed a busier restaurant with waiters so finished the wine then we went over, and there we stopped, we had a variety of tapas, and more vino Tinto, third time lucky.

Back to Marian’s and Geoff cooked two big trout’s on the bbq, whilst I

Martin swimming in 17 degrees

did roasted vegetables.   Martin went for a swim 17 degrees he was in a wet suit though.  Lovely day.

Tuesday 13/10/2020.  Another lazy morning before we went out for coffee, this time to a tiny village called Lliber, tiny little

Enjoying the ambiance

streets, but so much character, Marian took us to the square where there was a lovely restaurant on the hill.  We had coffee, then

Church beyond square

decided to have some wine with tapas, the waitress was French so we were talking French, Spanish and of course English, we will be going back here. We left about 4.30pm so

Lovely side streets

another boozy day.