Alicante Spain
by: Robert Carlton
Imagine some of you will come over and spend these summer
holidays around the Costa Blanca in places like Benidorm,
Torrevieja, Denia or Calpe. After two month of sunbathing and
party at night, you finally get your act together and do a one day
visit to Alicante – just to be able to tell the loved once at home
that you have seen some culture and arts as well.
Come and join me for a foot walk around Alicante. Before we
start a quick overview. Alicante, with about 310.000 habitants
lies about 6 hours down from Barcelona along the
Mediterranean coast of Spain. Within the summer months about
6 million tourists visit the Costa Blanca area. Depending on
different sources, about 4.5 Mio come from the U.K. alone.
Cities like Benidorm (population 50.000) host up to 4 Mio visitors
every year. Alicante is the second largest city in the province of
Valencia.
The city is best explored by foot starting at the harbour area,
where many parking areas are available. So we leave our car
next to the Melia Hotel right on the harbour entrance. (A quick
tip at the beginning, if you arrive at Alicante Airport you can get
a very good Alicante map right at the tourist information centre
at the arrival hall.)
Just behind the Melia Hotel at the foot of the Santa Barbara
Castle you find the beach of Postiguet, where at the end of our
little walk through Alicante, we will have our sunbath. But let’s
go on and get some culture and historical buildings to see.
Directly in front of the Melia Hotel we enter a little road which
brings us to the Plaza del Ajuntamento, which means Plaza of
the City Hall. Alicante’s city hall was originally built in 1688 by
the French, later heavily damaged and rebuilt in the 18th
century. Guided by two 35 metre. tall towers, the city halls stairs
measures the “Cero-Point” concerning sea level. All
measurements of height in Spain – refer to this “cero-point” as
base for their calculations. Within the city hall you can visit the
blue salon with its wonderful mirror gallery (Monday to
Saturdays). Just passing the city hall at the right you will find the
Plaza de Santissima Faz, a lovely little area surrounded by palm
trees.
The nativity scene museum of Alicante
A little bit further, particularly if you are with children, you should
visit the nativity scene museum at San Augustin Street. I have to
admit it is a rather strange feeling to watch Christmas crips
around the summer time, but it’s worth it. The museum contains
such a variety of hundreds of different scenes and figures from
all over the world, that it will impress every visitor. As entrance is
free, just have a look – you will not regret it.
Just around the corner from the nativity museum, you will find
the concathedral of San Nicolas de Bari. With the neighbour city
of Orihuela being the residence of the bishop of the province,
Alicante got a “sub-cathedral” granted by Pope John XXIII in
1959. With an impressive 45 metre high blue dome the
concathedral the building is one of the landmarks of Alicante.
At one of the two entrances you will find a sculpture of the holy
Nicolas done in black marble.
Just when you walk out of the old city centre of Alicante and
pass the rather modern street of Rambla de Mendez Nunez, you
should enter the Avenida Del Teatro. There you will find
Alicante’s huge theatre with massive roman style columns
guiding the entrance. Just the right place for a pleasant evening
entertainment, by the way. Walking down in the harbour
direction, you will find the Plaza Nueva Alicante. Here you will
find a little aquarium within lovely plaza. The modern display sits
within palm trees and an alley. Just the right place to have a
break in one of the bars around, enjoying the sun.
Alicante Bars and Parks
I think now is the best time to take a break from our traditional
Alicante sightseeing tour and leave the path of historic
buildings and museums. There are so many different churches,
museums and places particularly around the old city centre,
which you can spend many days discovering them. However, as
you might visit the city during the rather hot summer months
allow me to have a little step back and go up to the Plaza de C.
Sotelo.
The lovely garden is the ideal rest place and the best starting
point for a little shopping tour in Alicante. Right at the opposite
you will find the El Corte Ingles, the famous Spanish department
store chain with an impressive outlet. Not that you might just go
there for shopping, but as it is air-conditioned it might just be the
right thing to “cool things down” a little. So after a nice
“shopping-rest” just coming out of the El Corte Ingles, we walk
the Avenida Doctor Gadea down to the harbour area.
Next to statue of D. Eleuterio Maisonnave former minister of
state and famous sun of the city of Alicante, the Avenida
guides you down to the harbour with beautiful flowers along the
way. It is this kind of alleys you find all around Alicante and
make the city such a wonderful place for a walk around. The city
is full with peaceful places and gardens its all up to you if you
prefer going for the quiet site of Alicante. Down the Avenida
Doctor Gandea we reach the harbour area again.
Before turning left to where we came from, you should visit the
Panoramis shopping mall directly at the harbour. Just when you
go there you will pass the Real Club de Regatas – the royal
regatta club. If you are lucky you mind even see members of the
Spanish royal family, who sometimes spend some time here.
Similar to an American style shopping mall, the Panoramis offers
you a breathtaking view over the Alicante harbour area. With a
huge variety of different restaurants, most of them with perfect
view over the city, it is a lovely point of reference for every walk
around the city.
Finally we turn back to the area around the Melia Hotel, where
we started our walk through Alicante. Along the harbour at the
Paseo Explanada de Espana our way takes us in between an
alley of palm trees right back.
Further sightseeing tips on Alicante
Having completed more or less our walk through Alicante –
which might take anything in between 4 to 6 hours, there are
obviously many more things to see and visit around this
impressive city. Among others you could go up the castle of
Santa Barbara (take the car to get there if it’s too hot), see the
bullfighting ring or visit the Park Ruiz de Alda north of Alicante
just to name a view. However you might reconsider your plans
when you are actually visiting the Costa Blanca area, because
above everything stands usually the beach, the sand and the
sea.
About The Author
Robert Carlton lives with his valencian wife and daughter in the
Alicante suburb of San Joan. Running a marketing company he
started setting up a website for some of his international
customers visiting him. You can reach him via his website http:
//www.alicante-spain.com.
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FAMILY TRAVEL FUN.COM
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