A taste of heaven at the Costa Blanca!

On 1 July we reached Eastern Spain to spend a night in Alicante in the Costa Blanca. We were on the 5th floor of the hotel and it was accessed by a lift surrounded by glass like a bay window on the outside of the building giving the sensation of actually being outside. The beach was a drive away and took several roundabout ways to find where to park as we always ended up going past it in the wrong direction and not able to turn around. Eventually we found an underground carpark and at 8pm on an overcast evening we jumped into the waves. I was a bit dubious until my bare feet touched that water. It was just amazing. It felt like a tepid bath except there were great waves for fantastic body surfing. We had a glorious swim. I couldn't believe how beautiful the water felt and how long we stayed in there at that time of night without sunshine.

Later in the evening we found the most fantastic little restaurant where we chose a very large plate for two of prawns cooked in a variety of ways. Yummo - it was divine and the bottle of vino was great too.

Everyone at all the little restaurants on the hill where we were, was serenaded by an accordian player (who was actually really good) and his partner who was playing the tambourine. When they finished she turned the tambourine upside down and approached everybody for a donation. We responded positively as we enjoyed the music. However, we didn't buy the red roses, glow sticks, watches or shirts which we were also offered during the course of the evening!

Next morning we had time for a run before breakfast. We ran from the hotel to the beach and along the boardwalk enjoying the sea air. With less hills we managed to run our 9km two minutes faster than our previous run.

Later we went for an explore and discovered that all the sales started that day, on 1 July, just when our suitcases were already full (almost) to the brim!