My short break in Alicante [1] [2]
[3] [4]
[5]
Gallivanting in Alicante…
As I drove into Alicante, I gave a
happy sigh of relief. This was just what I wanted to escape to, a
beautiful, relaxing, city. As a travel writer for the ‘Around
the World in 80 Days’ magazine,
I was often gallivanting around different parts of the world. In
the last two months I had been to Sydney, Marakesh in Morocco, Bruges
in Belgium, Amsterdam, San Francisco and my last stop had been New
York. As much as I love New York, after a straining nine hour flight
to Spain, all I longed for was a relaxing city to tour around for
the day. So after spending the night at a hotel in the small town
of Santa Pola, I headed north to Alicante.
The scene was beautiful as I entered Alicante. Ahead of me the sun
was shining on the Benacantil Mountain and the hills surrounding
it, highlighting the different shades on the rocky ridges. To my
right was the glistening blue sea, with the waves rolling gently
to the shores of Alicante. Not quite sure where to visit first, I
thought I’d spotted a prison to my left, because of the tall
brick walls obscuring the view of what was on the other side. However,
on spotting the lush greenery and tall palm trees, I realised it
was a nature reserve—far different from a prison. Deciding
that this would be my first stop, I signalled off the main road and
pulled up in the car park.
El Palmeral Park
I had arrived at El Palmeral Park, a lush
green nature reserve which can only be described as beautiful. Small paths
twist and wind off in different directions, taking visitors to all sorts of
areas of the park. I found myself walking underneath a huge canopy of trees,
with all varieties of birds sitting above me, chirping to each other. That
was when I almost fell upon bird droppings on the ground, but as my shoe slipped
and I went backwards, I managed to grab a tree branch to hold myself up. Congratulating
myself, I dusted myself down and walked on, before realising I had ants crawling
up my hand. Jumping with fright, I flicked them off, much to the delights of
some small Spanish children who seemed to find my mishaps quite amusing.
Walking onwards, I came across a small
lake, in which a group of fluffy white ducks were swimming contentedly, as
if they didn’t have a care in the world. I wasn’t quite sure if
they were Spanish, since I’ve seen the same ducks in the Lake District,
and feeling I had found some British companions, I sat myself down on the bench
overlooking the lake and tucked into the juicy orange I had bought with me.
It was just then that I saw a huge pelican waddling towards me and I had to
laugh. Not at the way he moved, but at the awful mullet-like hairstyle he had.
It was indeed a curly mullet, which was even worse. He stopped, surveyed me
for a while, before joining his fellow ducks on the lake. He didn’t seem
to mind so much about his hairstyle and I could only feel sorry for him.
Gallivanting in Alicante >
Gallivanting in Liverpool >
Gallivanting in the Lake District >