October, wk 2!

 

This week we made a trip to Alicante.  Pat got to see castle number 420!  The Santa Barbara castle overlooking Alicante is pretty impressive.  Santa Barbara Castle It is a massive place.  We did get a sprinkle and took  shelter in the gift shop for a bit.  This afforded Munchie an opportunity to practice her favourite sport, shopping!  Once the showers stopped we continued on.  Munchie opted to sit out the climb to the summit of the castle, not because of the required effort, but due to the height's phobia!  Pat, Dave and I went up to the top of the castle, it was a tremendous 360 view of Alicante and the surrounding area.  Again, the ancients who constructed these places also choose locations for obvious strategic reasons.  It is still mind boggling that these places were built without modern machinery and on precarious sites!  

After the castle we went down into Alicante and took a stroll along the "Wavy Walkway" (Esplanade de Espana)  Walkway  A another delightful spot.  We also walked through the oldest neighbourhood of the city,  Santa Cruz .  

We stopped at the El Mos for a refreshment and met a very nice young man, Angel, our server.  He was quick witted and had a great personality!  Chance encounters and meeting new people is always a highlight for me!

We spent the weekend in Santa Pola, with a couple of beach days, the Market on Saturday and Pat, Dave and I got in a bike ride!  One of the beach days ended up being short as the clouds rolled in and the girls said it was too cold to sit out there!  Amazing at how quickly we get acclimatized to the temperature.  It 24C and without the sun, the girls said it was too cold!  Our pool at the complex is solar heated, and lately the sea is warmer than the pool!  Dave and I have created the first chapter of Santa Pola Polar Bear club!

At the market, Pat scored for the grandkids picking up some Barcelona soccer jerseys.   She had her subject matter expert (Dave) with her to make sure the appropriate apparel was purchased!  We also stocked up fresh produce and fruit, although both the red and green grapes we got were not seedless.   This is a bit of an inside joke, seeded grapes, one time my darling bride picked up seeded grapes by mistake and so when she put them in my lunch, she first removed the seeds.  My coworkers at the time (Shannon, Cindy, Sue) gave me quite a hard time about it, suggesting I was a tad spoiled! 

So happy!

Pat wasn't the only one to score at the market, my darling bride was quite excited about some "deals" she was able to find!  The highlight being a scarf with "The Woman in Gold" on it.  Munchie has been looking for this for quite some time!  I'm very pleased she was able to find it (happy wife, happy life!). 

Woman in Gold

This week was Canadian Thanksgiving.  So Sunday we had our feast.  Couldn't locate a turkey (no Dave and I are not!) so a large chicken had to be the main course.  Munchie whipped up 6 dozen perogies and the menu also included string beans and ginger glazed carrots.  Munchie had to use her adaptive cooking abilities to make the stuffing as we could not find sage!  I'm not a big fan of stuffing, but the stuff she made was pretty darn good!  I kinda preferred it to her back home stuff!

Happy Thanksgiving!

    After our great Thanksgiving dinner, nature treated us to a spectacular          full moon!

Nature had more in store for us other than a gorgeous full moon.  2 days later we watched a spectacular lighting display light up the skies all around us.  It was very impressive, with the bolts flashing and rolls of thunder clapping!  Then the rain came, and boy did it rain.  Alicante was hit much harder than here in Santa Pola with flooded streets and cars floating away!

We took a trip to the City of Murcia, a easy hours drive inland.  Murcia is the capital city of the Province of the same name, with a metro population of over 600,000.  The river Segura runs through it.  We drove into the old part of the city and lucked out with a free parking spot right near the place we wanted to be.  We walked into the Plaza Del Cardenal Belluga, where the Catedral de Murcia is located.  As we approached the plaza, we noticed barricades and police doing crowd control.  We had but luck and good fortune arrived just as the local Guardia Civil (the oldest of Spains national police forces) were completing a military parade (complete with a marching band!)  October 11th, just happens to be the Guardia's patron saint day.  What a great way to start our "walking tour" of old Murcia!  There was one small hick-up on our walk, my Munchkin found a shoe shop that was open and just had to go in!  Well, my darling bride struck again, but this time the footwear were for me (whether I wanted or needed them at all!).  I now have to retire an old pair of sandals Munchie never really liked anyway!  

We walked all about and even took a tour through the Caterdral and it's museum.  And of course we found an awesome outdoor cafe to sit and review our days activities with a beverage and snacks.  All in all, another great day!