Yesterday we arrived in Alicante via autobus. It is about a 5 hour trip via the bus, but don’t quote me on that because I slept most of the way. We stopped in Toledo and had a tour of the town prior to arriving in Alicante. Toledo is an ancient city with a very religious history. The city has grown in recent times, but the ancient city sits atop of a hill surrounded by a river. Of course there are roads to the city, but we walked across the bridge and entered through the gates to tour the city. We were able to see inside of the synagogue, but were only able to see the outside of the Cathedrals, as mass was held at the time we were visiting. The castle was only viewable from the outside as well, but in one of the churches we were able to view a famous portrait by some famous artist, but I can’t remember the name of the portrait or the artist right now (silly, I know, but can google it later). It was interesting to see the ancient walls around the city and life in the present.
We arrived in Alicante in the evening and checked out the apartment. After dumping off all our luggage, we went exploring around. We found the Esplanade pretty easily as it was down the street from the apartment. We were planning to walk to the beach, but ran into a Medieval festival in the Plaza and started wandering around and didn’t stop. There was everything to imagine there including crepes, jewelry, clothing, tons of jamon (that’s ham for you and me), cheeses, dried fruits, and an olive stand. I didn’t realize the options for olives were so great-but I guess it is the Mediterranean! Roger just loved the suckling pig on the spit just roasting away. While we walked around the Spanish futbol team was playing for the European championship. People were out in droves at the pubs to watch a teeny tiny TV with the game on. The team won and the city went crazy with excitement!! Fireworks, cars and scooters honking, people whooping it up. I could only imagine it must have been like Boston when the Red Sox won the World Series. Viva Espana!!
Today we had a tour of the University of Alicante, where Roger will teach his Travel Writing class. The university is very pretty with lots of fountains and plants. It is a very modern University with about 30,000 students. We will check it out some more when Roger teaches tomorrow. We met several of the students and they are having a blast here in Spain as the drinking age is only 18!!! They seem to be having fun and I think it would be a great experience for them.
After the University, we found a store and purchased a fan (a definite must with no A/C) and found a mercado where we bought some groceries. Across the street from the apartment is the Central Mercado with fresh everything; seafood, meat, cheese, fruits and vegetables (that we don’t have access to in Boise). We bought a ton of stuff for about 10 US dollars. Way cool. We are going to head to the beach now, so gotta go!! I will try to figure out how to post pics and get on that later today. Miss everyone at home!!
