Alicante

We firmly settle ourselves here at Casa Rudo and begin to explore our neighbourhood

Alicante is around 24km away so we take Fozz there a couple of times to see what the city has to offer

A little like Malaga in appearance we think with an impressive Marina and boulevard

The flaw here is those market stalls acting as a magnet for the freshly arrived Nina…

Within minutes a very nice inexpensive dress was purchased which she left on as she said she was just too hot in what she came in..

A meander around a few back streets and a 'sherbert' later the Castle presented itself towering over the city below

Groans from the sweating tourists were followed by some intensive map searching on Maps.me to see if there's another way up there in this heat

Bingo!

A long cool tunnel is located and for a small fee we take the interior lift up through the rock

Oh No!

It looks like the Playmobil Community Fire Safety event has turned ugly, pesky kids!

Panoramic views up here and about two degrees cooler which is welcomed

The distant Bullring

'Sweaty Bettys'

Cooling off in her new dress...

These guys litter the place looking for trouble

That Marina

Go on I dare you!

You'll have someone's eye out!

Back down at sea level locals & tourists alike enjoy the local beaches

On both trips we enjoy several visits to the ubiquitous Tapas bars, and super value they are

There's a festival this week in Alicante and the streets are getting rigged out for some serious music, dancing and eating frenzies

No wonder then that I'm still suffering with 'Spanish Tummy'

The food looks nice enough but its all luke warm, open to the elements (flies) and its dead easy to drop a cigarette butt or wrist watch in to these strategically placed dishes. The keen eye will notice also there's no running water either. The Spanish are probably long since immune to our 'Northern" OCD but to a guy with 'the trots' its plainly obvious you eat at your peril here...

During our wander round we saw loads of these stalls setting up and roads closed for 'Fiesta Time'

This was our treat of the day, chocolate moose atop some tarty raspberries

What's left of that Armada

Some easy fishing to be had in the harbour

I really fancy a go on one of these

Our second trip to Alicante was rounded off nicely with these beauties (€10.00 for the G & T) sat watching the boats bobbing in the harbour and slowly cooking in the shade of a marina bar

We topped it off with a visit to the local Indian Restaurant on our return to Fozz and enjoyed a really nice meal surprisingly and our thoughts turned to the UK and its impending 'Brexit Vote'