Do not be deceived by the short distances (only 1000km this time). It is all mountains, so windy slow roads. Lots of time to enjoy the countryside and be impressed with the insane cyclists.
B) Xabia
Lovely quiet (i.e., not super-over-developed) seaside town, which gets busy during the summer months, but off season is composed of only elderly Brits and a few locals. Thus known for great day hikes, long walks along the sea and fantastic (relatively speaking) Nepalese/Indian restaurant, which we pounced on ecstatically. Twice.
 |
| All great trips begin with a bocadillo on arrival. |
 |
| The beginning of a walk up from the town. Clouds are ominous. |
 |
| Looking back down on Xabia from atop the local hill. |
 |
| Old windmills(?). Don Quixote would be proud. |
This is where the windy roads get serious, cutting right through some nice mountains of Alicante. Unclear how this town/castle was built, but it surely involved a lot of suffering. A nice reservoir is found under it.
D) Albacete
Semi-accidentally wound up here to break up the trip. Missed the town completely, but friends have referred to it as the armpit of Spain (or something more vulgar), but that there are fantastic knives. In fact, we were able to experience its "Poligono Industrial", known for its roadside hotels, malls, bad food and big box stores. Sound familiar. In "Leroy Merlin" (Home Depot equiv.), an interesting conversation with a really nice salesperson (while looking for camping fuel), loosely translated and paraphrased:- (Other guy) Sorry, we're out of gas. You have a strange accent. Where are you guys from?
- (Matt) Canada
- OG: Where abouts?
- M: The eastern bit, around Montreal and Ottawa
- OG: Cool. So what hockey team do you root for?
- M: Montreal.
- OG: Yeah, I've been a pretty serious fan of Los Habs for a few years now.
- M: Whaaaaaaat...?!?
- OG: It's been a good season so far. But I'm worried about their depth on defense and some of their recent trades are questionable.
- M: ......
- OG: Thank god for Markov on D. That guy's solid. Playoff chances seem good this year.
- M: How the hell do you know all this...?
Very bizarre. At this point, another customer looking for some electrical bit was waiting and getting very irate, so our lovely chat got cut a bit short.
We then had American-style burgers in a "Hollywood-themed" restaurant. More bizarre.
E) Sierra de Segura / Cazorla
The main event and windy roads part 2. Gorgeous scenery: forests, lakes, mountains. Fantastic walks, fresh air. And pretty quiet on the off-season. A bit chilly camping at night, but lovely during the day. Really spectacular (sorry Canada, your National Parks are not *that* special).
Full of animals, which we were unlucky to see very few of. Just a deer, but we were counting on seeing many warthogs also (more exotic), but we did manage to eat some instead. A compromise of sorts.
 |
| Rockface with a little hobbit house built in. Did not explore (there were also lots of beehives around). |
 |
| Our fearless traveling companions |
No comments:
Post a Comment