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Thursday, March 9, 2017

Enjoying our last full day in Spain.

I took advantage of our good unlimited internet here in Alicante to do some onward travel planning. We don't tend to book very much in advance, but one of the places we're wanting to visit in Italy is the area in and around Cinque Terre National Park and the five villages that exist on that rugged coastline there. As well, of course, as the hiking trails that link those five villages together.

It's a popular tourist destination, and so I figured I'd better get something booked for us. And because it's popular, it's also quite a bit more expensive!

We eventually decided on a tiny house in the countryside village of Pieve di Zignago. We'll have the place to ourselves and we'll be there for the entire week of March 16-23! It's about a half hour drive to the park, but we'll have a car with us. And, there are lots of hiking opportunities right from the village itself.

Cost was €173 ($251 CAD, $190 USD) for the week. Not bad.

It was another beautiful day here in Alicante, and we headed straight to the castle that overlooks the city. There are a bunch of different paths on the hill, but we had no problem finding the route that led us to the top. There is also an elevator built into the beach side of the hill. It costs to go up (€2.70), but it's free to come back down.

Castillo de Santa Barbara is one of the larger fortifications in Spain.

We came up the path on top of the wall. 

Lots to see...and it's all free!

If you want something to last, you build the walls really thick!

Lots of different viewpoints from the castle.

Don't step back...there are no railings here!

A seagull's view.

Notice again, the walls are at least five feet thick, and in some parts up to eight feet thick.

The castle sits high above the city.

looking down on Alicante's main beach.

Ruth, showing the statue guy how to aim!

Castillo de Santa Barbara.

Interesting statues.

We were up there wandering around for just over two hours. Nice way to spend a beautiful day. Then we walked back down a trail that led to the beach.

The Basilica. Unfortunately, the doors were closed.

We went for a walk up and down the beachfront promenade. Then, we decided to sit and have a drink at one of the restaurant patios overlooking the beach. 

Enjoying our last full day in Spain.

Tomorrow's blog post will come to you from country #29...Italy!

Later this morning, we'll take the bus to Alicante airport. Then this afternoon, we fly to Bergamo, just outside of Milan.

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Great deal on a two pack of real goose down pillows...


And in Canada, a highly rated exercise bike is at a great price...





16 comments:

  1. Nice to wind up the day with a drink on the beach.

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    1. It was nice! We don't do something like this very often but when we do we really enjoy it.

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  2. The prices on housing that y'all get are wonderful.
    Gorgeous photos. Safe travels to my favorite country! It does help that I am 1/2 Italian.

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    1. Kevin searches around to find the deals. We have been using AirBnB quite a bit in the last year or so.

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  3. The area where you are going in Italy is probably the same as Alex went and I saw it on a travelogue!

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    1. Yes, Alex went to Cinque Terre! It looks like a beautiful area and is full of some good hiking trails.

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  4. Looking forward to the next part of the adventure.

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  5. Magnifico! Can we just travel with you? LOL Your trip has encouraged me to see more of Spain when we travel to Barcelona next June for a work conference. And I'm excited to see your trip to the Cinque Terra, which is on our list for June 2019 (yes, we plan that far ahead thanks to my work). Ciao!!

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    1. You sure can travel with us, virtually of course! ;-) It's not quite the same as doing it yourself though. You will enjoy Barcelona and there is so much to do in the area around Barcelona that you won't have trouble keeping yourself busy.

      Hopefully we can give you ideas for your trip to Italy in 2019.

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  6. It would be interesting to see a map showing your total travel route through Spain.

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    1. I am sure Kevin will do that but it probably will have to wait until we get back to Saskatchewan when we aren't so busy traveling and when we will have less to talk about.

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  7. Looked like a nice peaceful ending to your time in Spain. Enjoy your flight and looking forward to your posts from Italy!

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    1. It was a wonderful way to end our trip to Spain. We really enjoyed every minute of it, well maybe not the couple of very cold and miserable days but every other minute of it! ;-)

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  8. Cinque terre is amazing! So is Pisa, Florence, Venice and Verona... You can't go wrong there. Oh do go to Siena...

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    1. We will definitely get to a few of those places but not all of them. We don't want to be rushing around trying to fit everything in. We would rather take our time and just enjoy some of them. I think we hoping to get to Pisa and I believe I have Siena on the list but we will have to see how our time goes.

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