Tag: spain

Elche | A must visit when in Alicante! 🦕

Amazing tapas & a near disaster catching flight home!

Setting the scene

The conclusion of my Alicante region tour brought me to Elche for a day trip. I wanted to find somewhere awesome to spend my last day & Elche definitely delivered the goods! The town has a cool history, there are ruins of an ancient Synagogue & over the centuries it has had Roman, Greek, Byzantine & Goth (Germanic people) rulers.

Modern Day Elche

Elche is the third most populated city within the region & quite big compared to some of the other towns I visited.

You can visit the world heritage site – Palm Grove, the stunning Basilica de Santa Maria, Museo Paleontológico (cool dinosaur museum), Palau dels Altamira, Elche museum, beautiful parks & Huerto del Cura (one of the most impressive botanical gardens I have ever seen).

Story time 📔

Never trust Google when it comes to small local bus routes! I had planned the day trip meticulously, if you have read previous posts from me you will know I haven’t done this well in the past. For this trip, I knew where I was going, how long I was spending there & my travel plans between sites.

My whole day was going exactly to plan, I found all of the sites without issue & even found an amazing little spot for tapas. With a full belly & slightly merry from the lunch time beers, I made my way to the bus stop to head back to the airport, which according to Google was a 30/40 minute journey.

A few buses had passed but none of them were the airport bus, I started to worry ever so slightly. So I jumped onto the next couple of buses that came & tried to ask the driver where the ‘aeropuerto autobus’ was. I can speak basic Duolingo Spanish, I cannot speak rapido Elche Bus Driver Catalan language, but I quickly came to realise there was no airport bus coming to save me. I still had a couple of hours until wheels up, no need to panic.

I looked to get an Uber, turns out there were no Ubers or street taxis, the heart rate starts to increase apace! I had however remembered that on the way to Elche I passed the airport on the train, I could just get the train back & get off at the stop closest to the airport. I had to run my fat ass back to the train station to catch a train to Torrellano (which was the closest to the airport).

Once I got to Torrellano, thinking surely I could find a taxi to the train station, alas I was wrong. I also couldn’t pin point myself on Google maps, or see any airport or planes in air, so I had to make a best guess judgement & decided on a road. My thinking was it looked like the sort of road that would take me to the airport. After around 40 minutes walking (with my luggage I might add), I saw a sign on the roadside saying aeropuerto & I have never wanted to kiss a road sign so much in my life! I made the flight home, all is well that ends well.

Photos from the trip 📸

  • Basilica De Santa Maria
  • Huerto del Cura
  • Palau dels Altamira
  • Parc Municipal
  • I am saved!!!
  • Basilica De Santa Maria
  • Street Art
  • Huerto del Cura
  • Basilica De Santa Maria
  • Basilica De Santa Maria
  • Beside Palau dels Altamira
  • Parc Municipal
  • Random Holy Building
  • Random Street
  • Dinosaur Museum

Where to eat?

  • Jam on toast & fish 😂
  • Calamari
  • Patatas Bravas

I highly recommend “Restaurante + Que Tapas”. They haven’t paid me for this post, but if the manager sees this & wants to offer me some free tapas, sign me up 😍

They do great Tapas, beers & the place has a chilled out vibe! Be careful what you order if your Spanish isn’t great, I ended up with Jam on toast with cold fish 😂. Either it’s a delicacy or I made a tit of the order (more than likely the latter!)

What is coming next? 🤔

Next up I will be posting about my trip out to Bruges & Brussels. From there I will be posting travel guides for some domestic places ahead of Summer! The UK is awesome when the sun comes out, for that whole week once a year. There will be a mini series on spots in the Peak District, then more historical places like Chester, Edinburgh & York. Would love to take any recommendations, if I can get there by train or flight, I will go 🤠

Hit subscribe to get notified 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 ❤️

Elda-Petrer | 2 cities combined into one conurbation 👠

Besides almost getting eaten by a massive dog, an awesome day trip!

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 📸

  • View from Petrer Castle
  • Petrer Castle
  • Parc El Campet
  • Waterfall where Terminator dog tried to eat me
  • Elda Castle
  • Elda Castle
  • Elda-Petrer Train Station
  • Random Shoes dotted around
  • Random Shoes dotted around
  • Random Shoes dotted around

Where to eat?

  • Some sort of Calzone
  • A free Croquette
  • Those Olives have big ass rocks in them, be careful!

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 🤠

  • Street Art
  • Street Art
  • Street Art
  • Street Art
  • Street Art
  • Street Art

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 ❤️

Villena | A quaint Spanish town 🏰

Cheeky whistlestop tour!

Setting the scene

Whilst I was soaking up some winter sun in Alicante I decided to venture further out into the wider region. That way I wouldn’t spend the whole morning in bed dying from the 2 euro beers the night before. This brought me on a day trip to Villena, whereby I originally only wanted to see the Atalaya Castle, but fell in love with the whole city. Other than making a complete calamity of the planning & organising it was well worth the journey.

Modern Day Villena

Villena sits to the NorthWest corner of Alicante near the borders between Murcia & Castilla – La Mancha. It is the Capital of Alto Vinalopo.

Although the Atalaya castle is the centrepiece of the city, there has been some important archaeological finds of treasure & jewellery etc. There are a couple of small museums, awe- inspiring holy buildings, scenic landscapes, a cool theatre & beautiful skyline views.

Story time 📔

Google is a liar sometimes! According to Google maps in Villena there is a Castle – Castillo de Salvatierra, I am now fairly confident that this is a lie. If you go on maps you can see there are no streets around it, when I got there it was the side of a mountain with quite a rugged terrain & insane precipitous drops all over the area. Let me know in the comments if you have ever actually found this Castle! After around 90 minutes of going in circles & not finding the Castle (which may or may not exist) I was fully ready to send up an emergency flare in the hope that Bear Grylls would come save me.

Plan your trip! As this place isn’t a major tourist hotspot a lot of things weren’t open when I went & it was quiet as it was a Monday in February. This meant I didn’t get to go into any of the Museums or the Atalaya Castle 🫣. However, I still loved walking around looking at the buildings etc.

A few cheeky snaps! 📸

  • Villena auditorio
  • Santa Maria
  • Atalaya Castle
  • Atalaya Castle
  • Villena skyline
  • Entrance to the phantom Castle
  • Atalaya Castle
  • Atalaya Castle
  • Santa Maria
  • Arch of Santa Maria
  • Santa Maria

Money 💰

I did not see many cash machines around & a lot of places looked very local & cash only.

So I would suggest bringing some paper with you! As I didn’t get into any of the tourist sites I am not sure which accept card & which don’t.

Getting around 🚕

I didn’t see many taxi’s floating (pun intended!) about but the city isn’t massive. I would say your best bet is to walk if you don’t have a car.

Getting into Villena was easy enough, the train goes directly from Alicante & only costs a couple of euros.

Bonus tip ✅

There are a variety of places called “Mirador de *Name*” on Google maps. These don’t look like anything you would stop by. However, I highly recommend that you do. They are basically platforms whereby you get stunning views of the city & sites.

The 2 that you should definitely visit are Mirador Alt Vinalopó & Mirador del Castillo de Villena. They are close to each other so you can get between them easily enough.

What is coming next? 🤔

Next up I will be writing about my trip out to Elda-Petrer where I had a meltdown trying to get into a Castle, got chased down by a terminator dog & fell into a water fountain! 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 ❤️

Alicante | Cathedrals, Castles & Cervezas🍻

Awesome trip, but Spain definitely needs to outlaw 2 Euro beers & 6 Euro bottles of Gin 😂

Setting the scene

My yearning for Winter sun brought me to the effervescent Alicante. Usually I try not to visit the same city twice, however it was such a wonderful experience that I am strongly considering making Alicante a yearly pilgrimage. That is assuming I am not banned after my overtly jovial antics on this trip. I have made an executive decision that anything occurring after 10pm does not make it onto the blog as a travel tale 😂

Modern Day Alicante ⛱️

Alicante is a lovely city within the Valencia area. It has pristine beaches, beautiful architecture, cheap beers, amazing food & plenty of tourist sites to see.

The weather there is decent all year round but I was really lucky to have had 20+ degree weather in February, meaning I just wandered around in my kilt most of the time 😂

Story time 📔

If I ever write a book about my life, the flight out to Alicante would require an entire chapter. The plane was full of rather unique characters & stag parties headed out to Benidorm. The lovely young chap beside me was having a meltdown because he wasn’t allowed to smoke. When I say lovely young chap, what I mean is he actually looked hard as nails. I did my best to avoid eye contact & pretend I was sleeping when he kept trying to speak to me 😂

On the first evening, there was a big football match on, the Madrid derby. I was walking down a street that had lots of seats outside bars/cafes with people watching. I decided to stop by for a beer & see if I got talking to anyone. I thought everyone was supporting Athletico, so when they scored I started cheering. Obviously I was wrong & they were all Real fans, leading to boos all round & I think someone called me fat ass. My attempts at diffusing the situation failed, “lo siento, estoy amigo” didn’t get me out of the pickle, so I had to relocate to another bar, I just kept quiet the next time someone scored!

I found a little bar that can only be described as a pathway to Narnia. It didn’t have a sign or name, it isn’t on Google maps & has a little board outside advertising 2 Euro pints of Guinness (which turned out to be lager in a Guinness glass 😂). This bar is the most wild place I have ever been in! The DJ (a barman with an AUX cord on his phone) was only taking requests for Spanish songs. I spent 15 minutes trying to convince him Take That were Spanish, so he would play relight my fire. He eventually gave in & played it, just to shut me up!

Within this bar there was a female birthday party, I think must have been between 50-60 age range & they were a very very rowdy gaggle! In hindsight, before going to the discos it may have been wise to ditch the kilt! As the only male customer in there, I was getting a lot of attention, which I was loving, I have to admit. It is hard to pin point at what stage in the evening the line between flattering attention became full on assault by these rowdy women 😂. There was only one toilet with no lock, which had a urinal & toilet seat in same room, which incidentally was where they stored the empty kegs (photo below). As there wasn’t many people in the bar, I thought if I was quick I could get a number 1 done without any interruptions. WRONG! In bursts one of the revellers & plops themselves down on the toilet (which is mere inches from the urinal) & proceeded to slap me on the backside. Having no idea what to say, I just spluttered “Feliz Cumpleanos” (Happy birthday), I don’t even think she was the birthday lady. This was around 10pm & nothing after 10pm makes the blog, so you will have to use your imagination as to how the evening ended!

Places worth stopping by! 🏰

There are so many amazing places that you really need to visit! Some of my key highlights were Santa Barbara Castle, the Basilica Santa Maria, Alicante Market, Castell de Sant Ferran, La casita de las macetas azules, Playa Postiguet, Paseo de la Explanada de España & El Carrer dels Bolets (the mushroom street!)

  • View from Santa Barbara
  • View of Santa Barbara Castle from Castell de Sant Ferran
  • View from Santa Barbara
  • View from Santa Barbara
  • View from Santa Barbara
  • View from Santa Barbara
  • View from Santa Barbara
  • View from Castell de Sant Ferran
  • The counterfiet 2 Euro Guinness
  • Narnia bar where I got abused
  • Random Street
  • Random Street
  • Basilica Santa Maria
  • Basilica Santa Maria
  • Avenue General Marva
  • Mushroom street
  • Spain trying to murder me with 6 euro bottles of gin!
  • Elite level candy

Where to eat & drink? 🍻🍽️

Restaurante CASABLANCA

Lovely little tapas spot in the shadow of the Santa Barbara Castle. Relative to the price it’s a nice spot & the staff are cool too. They have a decent courtyard you can sit in outside.

Would highly recommend the Albondigas, I didn’t get many dishes there but everything coming out of the kitchen looked awesome! They do cold beers etc too.

100 Montaditos

There are a few of these as it is a chain. It isn’t 5 star standard, but really cheap & they do 100 flavours of mini baguettes. It’s the ideal place if you want to try different small plates without breaking the bank!

The beers here are 2 euros & it was the best pint I had in Alicante, there is one beside the beach that is worth a visit!

Red Corner Sports Bar

This is a cool Sports bar & has everything on you could imagine, with plenty of seats outside. It isn’t the cheapest place in Alicante but really good beer!

There are 2 of the same bar on opposite corners, the TV’s in the bigger one are a couple of minutes behind, so if watching sport, go to the smaller one!

Murphy’s Celtic Bar

This is a decent little pub if you want to watch rugby, football or anything in between. The staff here are really sound & the owner is a good guy. He has about 4 laptops going with all sorts of streams & will get whatever sport you want to watch on one of the TVs.

Please note; It is a decent pub, but it isn’t somewhere you would go for a nice date night for example.

Money 💰

Everywhere I went took card, but for food etc it’s best to have some cash to tip.

There are cash machines all over, I spent around 200 euros over 3 days & that was with eating well & drinking a lot of beers.

Getting around 🚕

Alicante does have Uber but everything you need is within walking distance so I never got one. There is a tramline & trains are decent to get between cities. I took a bus from airport, it was under 5 euros & only took about 20 minutes to city centre, saved a fortune on a taxi!

Bonus tip ✅

The centre piece of the entire city is the Santa Barbara castle, but it is perched up on top of a seriously high ass mountain! You can spend the whole day climbing up the side of it & give yourself a heart attack.

Or you can do a little research ahead of time (I didn’t!) or read my blog, there is actually a lift you can take from the bottom of the mountain to the top, but it wasn’t all that obvious to me that it was an option 😂. To get to the lift the entrance is just off the Postiguet beach.

What is coming next? 🤔

Next up I will be writing about my trip out to Villena, which is an hour away from Alicante. Unfortunately it was not as eventful as the Alicante trip but managed to get some awesome photos & did make a complete mess of the organisation. So definitely hit subscribe to find out what happened when the post goes live, thanks for reading through as always ❤️

Lanzarote | A surprisingly wonderful trip! 🏝️

Sun, Sand & Sea, the perfect mini Winter getaway!

Setting the scene

Occasionally I will put ‘Everywhere’ into Skyscanner & visit the first place that comes up which I haven’t been to. It has led to some incredible experiences & some less so, but such is the magic of travelling. On this occasion, I landed with Lanzarote in the Canary Islands. Usually I book first & ask questions later, however with Lanzarote I had some slight trepidation.

I knew little of the Island previously, other than it’s reputation for attracting a very particular demographic of UK tourists. I had thought it would be full of rowdy, drunken whoppers that seem to be ubiquitous on some of the Spanish Islands, lacking any sense of propriety (I know, I used to be one of them, many moons ago!). However, I am very glad Skyscanner gave me Lanzarote, I was pleasantly surprised & had a lovely time. It reminded me that it’s important not to allow your pre conceived notions & perceptions to stop you from getting out & experiencing the world for yourself.

Modern Day Lanzarote ⛰️

Lanzarote is one of the Islands in the Canary Archipelago, not far off the coast of Africa. It is the island furthest East & is the only one that has an active Volcano, however it probably won’t erupt while you are there so don’t worry 🤭

I was only there for a few days so missed out on a lot of fun, however you can do all sorts from surfing, to mountain climbing, to sea safaris, to cave exploration or you can just load up on the Cervezas & enjoy the beach!

Given that the region has historically seen a lot of Volcanic activity, the Island is full of beautiful mountains, providing the opportunity to see the most stunning skylines & sunsets.

After spamming Duolingo & learning some basics from Spanish friends, this trip was the first time I tried to only speak in Spanish to locals etc. Given that I am from Scotland, I can barely speak English properly so conversing in Spanish was a challenge! For about 60% of the time I managed to pull it off. However, calling the more senior/elderly ladies ‘senorita’ instead of ‘senora’ definitely doesn’t come off with the level of charm I had thought it would. I definitely need to work on my ‘Rizz’, I think the young folk are calling it these days! 🫣

If you would like to go walking up in the mountains, definitely make sure you plan ahead, sort out travel, take appropriate clothing, provisions & a map or tour guide. Definitely do not rock up in trainers, without any supplies & having sunk 6 or 7 cervezas the night before. Only a dimwit would be so foolish & yes I can confirm I am the aforementioned dimwit 😂.

My visit was the week before Christmas & I stayed in Arrecife, the capital. It was a lot quieter than Peak season which I really enjoyed. On my first day I managed to pick up a pair of Armany (with a Y) sun glasses on the beach for 5 Euros, however I managed to lose them on the first night unfortunately. No matter what you are in the market for, I am fairly certain you can pick anything up at Playa del Reducto for 5 Euros. When I went back to the beach the guy was gone, I managed to find him later in the trip but the replacement Armanys had magically double in price! The gent was an astute businessman indeed 💷

Places worth stopping by! 🏰

As mentioned, I didn’t do nearly enough ‘touristy’ activity. However, It wouldn’t be a travel guide without at least some recommendations. The Castillo de San Gabriel is well worth a visit. The Castle itself isn’t massive however the bridge, beach, pier & surrounding area is really beautiful. You also get a cool view of Arrecife against the background of the mountains.

The Marina Arrecife should definitely be on your list of places to visit. There are lots of shops, bars & awesome boats. It is definitely a dream of mine to have a boat there one day as a retirement retreat. So if you or someone you know is in the market to settle down with a slightly podgy Scottish person who may or may not be a little bit zany, hit me up! We can split the cost of rent, heating & other exponentially growing bills, then use the saved £££ to buy a boat in Lanzarote, solid plan if you ask me! There is also the added benefit that if I am driving you mad, just launch me overboard, the sharks will think you have laid on an all you can eat buffet for them 🦈

  • View from bridge of Castillo de San Gabriel
  • Bridge to Castillo de San Gabriel
  • Charco de San Ginés
  • Arrecife from Castillo de San Gabriel
  • Marina Arrecife
  • Random beach
  • Charco de San Ginés
  • Castillo de San Gabriel
  • Christmas sand castle display
  • Random beach
  • Random Street
  • Marina Arrecife
  • Arrecife from Castillo de San Gabriel
  • View from the Marina
  • Random beach
  • Charco de San Ginés
  • Lizard Point Lighthouse Pier View

Where to eat & drink? 🍻🍽️

Unfortunately I didn’t get many photos of the bars or restaurants I visited. However a couple of decent bars to check out are Manhattan Cocktail Bar & Mojito’s Lounger Bar. They are on the same street & close to beach. Manhattan has an American pool table in the back, lots of decent drinks & you can get shisha if that’s your thing (I didn’t try it so can’t say if any good). Next to Manhattan there is a cool little Italian pizza place called Pizzeria La Sonrisa that I enjoyed. If you want something more authentic, Malecon was awesome! It is on the waterfront at Charco de San Gines & had amazing food!

Money 💰

There are cash machines dotted around the Island, however I just paid on card & used Starling as they have no fees. I took 150 in cash I think & that covered me for about 3 days. If you aren’t smashing back the cervezas you could get away with spending a lot less.

The tipping culture isn’t as prevalent as some places I have visited, but if you receive good service, throw in a few Euros, don’t be tight!

Getting around 🚕

Lanzarote does not have Uber, but there are regular taxis. You can rent bikes & the buses are pretty decent too, although the timetable is more of a guess than as actual plan.

On the first night I ended up at a party on other side of Island with some Moroccan lads I met & had to take a taxi back at 1/2 in the morning, it was around 30 Euros from one side of Island to the other. Lets just say the driver wasn’t exactly shy on the accelerator either 😂

Bonus tip ✅

Usually in this section I would share some really useful information on keeping safe, or some little anecdote. However, what I am about to share is the most important piece of information on this blog.

If you are planning on doing some snogging, bin that idea immediately, find the nearest corner store & get a bag of these badboys in. They are unparalleled in the crisp world, you will suffer crisp induced halitosis for days, no amount of toothpaste or mouthwash will get rid of the stench. But believe me when I say, these are a Jewel in the Spanish crown. Increíble!

What is coming next? 🤔

Next up I will be writing about a recent trip to Alicante. It will cover a fair few incidents from trying to convince a local that Take that were Spanish, to being accosted by a mental birthday party, to visiting some of the most wild west Bars I have ever been in, definitely not one to miss! Hit subscribe to get a notification when it goes live ❤️