We now have our 2nd week under our belts. We are slowly falling into a bit of a routine. I usually get up early, go out for a bike ride, make coffee when I get back, sit on the deck, drink coffee with mi amor, have breakfast, go for a walk, hit the pool to cool down. We've been down to the beach a few times now. Munchie reads, I do a crossword and to cool down take a plunge in the sea! You have to go out about 200m to get to chest level (for me, 100m for Munchie!). The water is bathtub warm, but still refreshing on a hot day!
We found an awesome chinese restaurant (Restaurante Chino)! Had a great meal, and the next day we were walking to the farmer's market and ran into our server!
I mentioned the farmer's market, it is on Saturdays and Mondays, they say there are over 450 vendors, and I believe it! There was just about everything you could imagine and there were scads of shoppers strolling through! Google said it was a 23 minute walk, but Google walks a tad faster than we did, we took our time and our pace kept us from over heating, still got there in under 30 minutes.
Our evenings are pretty laid back, Munchie makes me some fabulous meal, we sit out on the patio, play a game of cards or yahtzee, or dominoes and enjoy the evening sunsets!
One of my early morning rides! Its about 6:30am.
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| Ready to roll! |
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| Back up at the light house! |
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| Alone at the Mirador Del Faro! |
There was also a huge event that took place, Munchie soloed on a bicycle! Last time she rode a bicycle on her own was in Brooks, Alberta, around 1984! And to top it off, the bikes that we have access to are not sized for kids (the sizing for Munchie!) so it was a bit of a challenge for her, but she persevered and pushed through to complete our gruelling 4 km ride! Only one minor ouch, Munchie lost some skin off her ankle, she said the bike bit her!
On Monday morning it was a bit overcast so we decided to walk into town. We had to pick up some essential supplies, like beer and cava, along with some other meal fixin's! I've been trying to find a mail box to send the Peanut a letter and post card. I found out today that there are no mailboxes other than the one in the main and only post office in town! Gracyn, your mail is on the way!
The sun came out and our walk home was a long 30 minutes! Old Sol has some power I'll tell you. My poor bride almost melted! A bit of poor judgement on our part, we have been here long enough to know mid day is not the time to be out walking for any length of time!
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| Pepe! |
This week also saw a bit of a sad story unfold, our little grocer I had mentioned before, Pepe, closed his doors for good. He said he just couldn't compete with the big stores. We will miss both Pepe and the convenience of his store.
We went on a little outing this week as well. We took the bus from Santa Pola to Alicante. Alicante is a city of over 333,000 people and according to Wikipedia, tourism is its biggest industry. Like all areas of this region, it is also steeped in history dating back thousands of years! We just wanted to take a day trip and check it out!
This was our first attempt at using the buses. First the local urban Santa Pola bus. Using my ever present guide, Google, I planned out our transportation map and timetable. We walked over to the nearest bus stop, a 3 minute walk from the apartment. We were there at the stop waiting patiently for the bus, when a wonderful senora (a tad older than us) came walking up to us. Although her english was about as good as my spanish, we were able to communicate. This wonderful lady told us the bus we were waiting for would not be coming to this stop at this time. She insisted on guiding us to the stop we should be at, which was about 3 blocks away. She said we had to hurry as we had only about 4 or 5 minutes! As we were walking up to the stop the bus came along, our guide stepped out and waved it over! We thanked our guide and went to get on the bus, however, this didn't happen! We had forgotten to bring our masks and all public transport here requires masks be worn! Our wonderful new friend stayed with us and insisted on helping us locate a taxi, which included getting the clerk at the local pharmacy to call one for us! The clerk gave me the number and I attempted the call, our new friend and guide took my phone to ensure the dispatch would understand what we wanted, where we were and where we wanted to go! Well, we could only get the automated recording that basically said keep calling until someone picks up! We thanked our guide for her help and said we would just walk the 30 minutes to the main bus station. Senora Agnes was a very generous and kind hearted soul!
We walked up to a little cafe, the Quesada and stopped to see if one of the servers could help with a cab. A wonderful young man, Carlos, who it turned out was part of the family owned business, which has been there since 1972, spoke very good english and was very helpful. He said he would call us a cab, so we sat down to have a refreshment. A couple of minutes later Carlos came back. He said it would take forever to get a cab and said he would drive us to the bus station himself! We finished up our drinks and accepted Carlos' kind offer for a ride. We made it to the bus station and had just enough time to buy bus fare to Alicante (2.50 euro each) and walk straight onto the bus.
The ride took about 50 minutes, going through Gran Alcant, Arenals Del Sol, and L'Altet (you can google the route!) We got off the bus pretty much in the heart of Alicante and walked about taking in the sights. One of our first stops was the huge department store, El Cortes Ingles, this place had all the chic brands that my bride knows and loves! We were also able to find some wonderful shoe stores to check out!
We stopped at a cafe for a bite, the Lizarran. We ended up talking with Adrian, a server there who was born in Venezuela, grew up in Florida, and is now living the dream in Alicante! Adrian spoke perfect english and was a wealth of information about things to do and places to see in the area.
We made out way back to where the bus dropped us and were able to catch our ride back without any drama!
Although, we did again miss our local bus from the station to our apartment and had to make the 30 minute hike again! But all in all, a good day!
On a side note: we had some local wildlife visit us one evening, one cucaracha (cockroach)! It was a fairly big one and my darling bride did not like the visitor! I dispatched the critter, and it is true, they are tough as nails!
Adios, back next week!
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