It has been a while since my last post in the #WednesdayWalk community... Unfortunately, with doing the #HHHLive show on the same day, I'm usually too exhausted to do a post after preparing the show during the day, and after the show afterwards (the only thing I can do after the show is to go for a walk!)... But, as I decided to do the show every second week, there is a free space to go back to sharing some interesting walks... Today, I will take you for a short walk around Alicante, Spain!
The walk took place in June this year, while my parents were visiting us, so we did it together... The general idea was to find a parking place in the city center (always a challenge), and to walk toward the castle and the beach... Also, I wanted to check out the potential place for the next year's #HiveOpenDays, the Hive meetup organized by @Buzzparty! Unfortunately, the place was closed as we picked the "wrong" day for a walk! It was one of the most important fiestas of Alicante, and we had limited time for a walk as almost the whole city center would be closed...
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On the other side, when it's "festive time" in the city, everything is even more beautiful than usual... Streets are cleaner, and there are plenty of decorations all around! Like this amazing flower decoration in front of the church!
There was even a (paper-made) piano among flowers... And yes, what you can see on both sides of the church entrance is made of flowers!
There are two ways to get to the top of the Santa Barbara Castle, one by elevator, which takes 1-2 minutes, or the other by foot, which could take 30 minutes or more than an hour, depending on your physical preparations... 😃 As my parent are still relatively fit, I decided to take them by foot, as in that way, they could get to know the city too... We went for a walk earlier in the morning, but with all the time lost on finding a parking space, the sun was killing it...
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I will not write too much about the castle itself, but you can find plenty of information about it on the Internet... The easiest way is to look at the Wikipedia page... I will say, it is a very old castle whose origins date from the 9th century...
You can follow the expansion of the castle from these banners inside one of the rooms of the castle... There were 3 important periods, as you can see from the photos...
At first sight, this was a very odd room inside the castle, but I think it was a stable back in the days... Now, this wide hallway leads to the elevator that was built in to facilitate tourists to check out the castle... Btw. I have to say that we took an elevator ride to the bottom of the castle at the end of our exploration... 😃
Most of the castles in Spain were also important forts, and they served as the most important defensive points of the city... As most of the enemies were coming from the sea, they were usually built close to the sea shore, but also, at the highest point of the city... I suppose when the place for the castle is found, they would build a port at the bottom...
Being built on a higher ground means spectacular views nowadays, and in the past, a big advantage of seeing enemies approaching very early, to be able to prepare the defense! When the enemy boats approach the shore, they would be hit hard by cannon balls, catapults, and ballestas from the castle!
I think that very rarely, these guys would have to fight face to face with the enemy, as the castle was very well designed for defense over bigger distances...
The elevator came in handy on our way down from the castle, as in just a few minutes, we were at the beach promenade...
A look back at where we were just 10 minutes ago... 😃
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These things that you can see in the 2 photos above are something very peculiar for the whole Valencian Community, sculptures made of wood and paper, usually in big dimensions, as you can see... At the end of the festival, they are usually burned, and only the small models of the best "falla" are kept in the museums... The biggest festival is in Valencia, but other cities and towns tend to do similar things at their local festivals...
Before taking the rest in one of the restaurants, we found ourselves in The Mushroom Street!
In 2013, part of Alicantes’s San Francisco Street was transformed into a whimsical, fantasy wonderland of yellow brick roads, toadstool houses, and towering mushrooms
We thought that the yellow brick road would take us to some food, but unfortunately, it was full of small souvenir shops, so we had to make a U-turn and search for food on another street... 😃
If you would like to visit these places, in the company of other Hivians and locals, mark the dates of the #HODAlicante next year, 30.04.-03.05.! You can't miss the fun! There is a cool contest with an awesome prize for those who plan to come... Check it out here!
See you in Alicante!
Thank you for your time.
--ph--