Alicante is a popular tourist city, and so we didn't have high expectations. And I think that because of our low expectations, we were pleasantly surprised.
We had booked a room in a 3 bedroom apartment...total cost for the two nights €30 ($44 CAD, $33 USD). So, pretty inexpensive. We grabbed all of our gear (or we thought we did! See below!) from Louis, and said a quick goodbye and thanks to Graham (and Tana) for looking after us so well.
Up the stairs, and our host Mubera was there to greet us. She's an interesting young lady originally from Bosnia who moved to Sweden with her parents because of the Bosnian war back in the 1990's. She has one of the bedrooms, and there is also a young couple being hosted in the other bedroom. It'll do just fine for us for two nights.
We had some lunch, and then set out with a few errands to run. We were about 10 minutes from the apartment when I realized that I hadn't brought the camera! I was thinking about turning around when I remembered that I had the new Samsung phone in my pocket and decided to try out the camera built into the phone. So, all of the photos posted here are taken with the phone.
Ruth, on Toadstool Street!
Like I said, we had some errands to run. First stop was a department store to look for a protective cover for the phone. It's a brand new model, and when we bought the phone there were not yet any accessories available in the store where we bought it. So we did some shopping and ended up spending €11.95 ($17.40 CAD, $13.50 USD) for a case. I'm so worried about dropping the thing, and it's so sleek and slippery. The cover definitely makes me feel more confident, and easier to hold a grip on it.
The other thing we were looking for was a place to print our Ryanair boarding passes. I had downloaded their app to the phone, but we're not allowed to use the app version of the boarding passes because we're not EU citizens. Well that's stupid! So we were stuck trying to find a place to print our hard copies.
Interesting traffic circle statue.
We went to the library, but by this time it was siesta and it's closed between 2-5pm. I spotted a hotel, and we went to the reception desk and explained the problem. I figured they must print out stuff for people all the time. Sure enough, the girl gave me her email address and I used the phone to email her the boarding passes...and she printed them out for us free of charge. Nice!
Then we wandered down to the waterfront and looked at the boats in the marina.
See the castle in the distance?
You can bet we'll be climbing up there today!
What a beautiful day.
We continued walking to the main beach.
The beach was pretty busy with sunbathers and others enjoying the beautiful day. This was probably the nicest day we've had since we arrived in Spain two months ago. Temperature was about 25C (77F).
Alicante's main beach.
Scenery along the way.
The back end of this pirate (?) ship was pretty fancy.
Where the rich park their boats.
Overall, pretty pleased with the quality of the pics taken from the phone.
Good thing too.
Why? Because I left the big camera on the corner of the floor by the passenger seat in Louis! I only realized it sometime over night. Funny the things that come to you while you're sleeping. Anyhow, I contacted Graham and Tana, and they are on their way to Alicante airport themselves this morning for a flight back to the UK. The plan is that they will drop the camera bag at lost and found and we will pick it up there tomorrow.
If it doesn't come together, it's not a big deal. I've been thinking about replacing that camera anyhow. It's got a few bumps and bruises from the last four years of travel, and I don't think the sensor is working properly anyhow.
So for now, we'll use the phone for pics.
Another beautiful day today, and we've got a castle on a hill to climb up to!
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Time to stock up on paper towels. Heavy duty disposable shop towels...almost half price, and made in the USA...
Alicante looks interesting. What is that on your header picture at the top of the cliffs? Castle walls? Great you have some warm weather, I'm a little envious.
ReplyDeleteIt's not too bad here, better than we thought but I doubt it would be a place that we would ever return too. There is a castle at the top of the hill and it is one of the largest medieval fortresses in Spain. We visited it yesterday.
DeleteThe last two days have pretty much felt like summer. Definitely our two hottest days since we arrived in Spain in January.
Pretty decent pictures considering you used the phone. Good to have a back-up. My camera has decided that the flash doesn't want to work, but that likely has something to do with me getting the poor thing wet last summer. Not buying a new one just yet.
ReplyDeleteKevin is quite impressed with it. The only thing it lacks is a good zoom!
DeleteAt least you can still use yours and really how often is the flash really needed?!
Color saturation in those pics is terrific! Enjoying your travels!
ReplyDeleteKen, second the motion on the color saturation; the camera/phone is doing an exceptional job or there isn't any Sahara dust floating around at this time.
DeleteThanks Kent and Dee! Kevin is quite impressed by it and it makes him realize how the sensor for the colour in our "good" camera is definitely not working the way it should be.
DeleteNo Sahara dust floating around anymore, Dee.
The camera pictures are really good, you might decide just to use the camera instead of buying a new digital camera. I am still on the fence about taking my huge camera to Greece, want really nice pictures but not keen to drag it around.
ReplyDeleteThank you Cheapchick! Kevin said he may take just the phone with him when we are in the city but the zoom isn't all that great on it and he really loves the zoom on our regular camera.
DeleteKevin knows what you are talking about, he certainly didn't miss carrying the camera around with him these last couple of days.
Ottawa also has blue sky and sun but the temp. is 4C at the moment. Blizzard weather in Sask. and wind chill of -29C.
ReplyDeleteHope it warms up and the snow is gone by the time we get to Ottawa and Saskatchewan next month!
DeleteToo bad about your camera, but the phone be does take wonderful pictures. We have 2 smart phones an I pad pause my camera for back ups so we have things pretty well covered.
ReplyDeleteLove that "pirate" ship.
Hopefully we will have Kevin's camera back today! We also have a smaller point and shot camera but we have hardly used it at all this trip.
DeleteAlicante looks like a lovely city. Your new phone does take beautiful pictures. Weather looks amazing we are sitting through a snowstorm right now with -22 temperatures so enjoy. Sorry to hear about your camera hope you get it back even though you need to replace it. The bag is handy for sure. Looking forward to you next adventure!
ReplyDeleteThe weather has been fantastic these last few days but we are expecting it to be quite a bit cooler when we arrive in Italy later today. We will be further north from where we are not but as long as the sun is shinning we are OK with that.
DeleteWe should be getting it back today. Kevin does miss the camera for it's zoom capabilities but he hasn't missed having to carry it around with him these last couple of days.
Beautiful pics with your phone, Kevin. I'm also thinking of switching up to a cell phone and leaving the camera at home on our next adventure.
ReplyDeleteThank you Dianne! He is almost tempted to think that way too but the phone doesn't have the same capabilities with the zoom as the camera and he uses that quite a lot. It is possible that we will be looking for a new camera this year.
DeleteLove Toadstool Street. So dang cute.
ReplyDeleteThe waterfront is gorgeous. Great photos with you phone!
We thought so too! I loved those pretty toadstools. :-)
DeleteThe waterfront was quite pretty and we enjoyed strolling along it, as well as sitting down and just people watching.
I have been reading your blog for a few months now. Are you using a certain site to book your apartments? The rates are really great. My husband and I will be visiting Spain next year so I wanted to know how you find the rooms and/or apartments you are renting.
ReplyDeleteWe mostly use AirBnB for booking our apartments but sometimes we use booking.com when we can't find something else that is suitable. We used to use couchsurfing.org a lot but have almost given up on that as we don't seem to get replies back and if we do they aren't in a timely fashion, so AirBnB is our first choice. Keep in mind that quite often we have to share the apartment with the host or sometimes with other guests so not everyone likes to stay somewhere like this. There are however lots of listings for private apartments but you will most likely spend a little more but it is still way better than staying in a hotel.
DeleteNice phone pics:)
ReplyDeleteThank you!
Delete