Setting the scene
As part of my Alicante region tour, I decided to venture further out for a day trip in Elda-Petrer & was not disappointed. I was fumbling around on Google maps looking for unique places off the beaten track. Generally speaking I am very amenable to visiting anywhere boasting historic Castles, with both Elda & Petrer having one each, I was instantly sold.
Modern Day Elda-Petrer
Elda & Petrer are 2 distinct individual cities speaking their own languages, one Spanish & one Valencian. There has historically been difficulties between the neighbours & various disputes throughout the years. Lordships granting more land to one than the other etc, sounds remarkably similar to Scottish history 😂.
The whole conurbation has lovely architecture, beautiful narrow winding streets, colourful houses, holy buildings & awesome street art.
Something rather unique about this area is the shoes. I like shoes, they stop my feet from getting cut & bruised when outside walking however, I wouldn’t say I was a massive fan. Although, within Elda, shoes used to be a major industry & all over the town you can see shoe statues & equipment that was used to make shoes, they even have a shoe Museum! I really need to start taking my own advice & planning ahead, the Museum was closed when I went unfortunately 🤭
Story time 📔
Elda Castle, whilst beautiful looking from a distance & on Google Maps, is near on impossible to find the entrance! Wandering around trying to get in, I felt like I was trying to get the Gold on Fort Boyard & the Tigers were coming to eat me. The outer perimeter of it is quite big & as usual with any half decent Castle, it is perched up high on a hill. After going in circles, I eventually just gave up on finding the entrance, having also consulted Google to find out the Castle was closed anyway 😂, I should just re-name this blog to “Plan ahead people!”
There is lovely park that you should definitely stop by called “Parc El Campet”. It has a lovely walking route, a cool stage for performances, plenty of shade to hide from the sun & an awesome little waterfall etc. However, stay alert! One of the locals has what can only be described as a terminator dog. I love animals, especially dogs & I am not afraid of them in general, but this dog looked like it was bred in the pits of Isengard.
The dog was just trying to be playful by jumping up on me, but I don’t know enough Spanish to talk to a dog 😂, I just let out a tumultuous squeak & mumbled something about the ‘mascota’ being ‘bonito’. It’s amazing how quickly you forget words when a big ass dog is trying to have you for supper. At the time, I was sat on the ledge of a pond under a waterfall trying to do one of those really cheesy waterfall selfie videos. In the melee I fell back a little into the waterfall & also dropped my phone in the pond. I got it back out very quickly, thankfully it still works. I would have been devastated as I only just bought the phone after breaking my old one in Morocco less than a month before!
Photos from the trip 📸
Where to eat?
Usually I wouldn’t suggest going to Spain & eating Italian food, however I was very hungry & this was the only spot I could find.
The family that ran this place were really lovely & the food was awesome. They don’t speak much English though so either learn Spanish or have Google translate ready to go.
Pizzeria PAPILLON was the name of the place, definitely stop by if in town!
Bonus tip; Look up! ✅
For a variety of reasons we often have our heads down, trying not to make eye contact with street Electricity sales reps, avoiding nutters, looking at Social Media or following Google maps to find our way around. However, everything about this town is beautiful, there was something in particular that really stood out & that was the street art.
Ranging from portraits of the city to some of the awesome animals, it is definitely advisable to look up 🤠
What is coming next? 🤔
Next up I will be writing about my trip out to Elche where Google had me waiting on a bus that didn’t exist & there were no Ubers, causing me to almost miss my flight, I had to go full survival mode! So definitely hit subscribe to find out what happened when the post goes live, thanks for reading through as always, if you have any questions drop me a comment & I will get back to you as soon as possible ❤️
Tyler's Travel Tales 