Tuesday in Alicante

To start today’s blog off, I need to make a correction to yesterdays. Abdul Memen is not the father of Hannibal. His father was the great Carthaginian general Hamilcar Barca. We will mention him later.



Today was an easy day and we did not have to rush to breakfast. We met friends David and Sue after breakfast and caught a taxi up to Castillo De Santa Barbara. We were not expecting much as we had read about it in the Princess Patter (the ship’s news paper). Then Judi looked it up on the computer and the site basically said there is not much to see in Alicante, Spain. Just enjoy the beach.

So much to our surprise, we found the Fortress to be a very interesting with exceptional views of the surrounding city and country side. As we tell our kids we walked to school uphill both ways, so it was with the Fortress. A lot of walking up cobblestone ramps. The road up to Santa Barbara was not bad as the road in Gibraltar. I had assured Judi it would be OK. She did not believe me until we got to the top. I do not understand why, I almost always tell the truth about mountain roads. This is an ongoing joke between Judi and I. She has not trusted my description of mountain roads since our trips to Colorado.


Anyway, back to the Castillo De Santa Barbara. The Fortress is located on Mount Benacantil, a piece of rock rising about 540 feet above the Mediterranean. The first fortress was built by Hamilcar Barca, whom we mentioned above. The castle derives its name from its conquest by Prince Alfonse of Catile, later to become king Alfonse X, the Wise in 1248. It came under attack 3 times; once in 1691 by the French, 1709 by the English and the last time in 1873 by partisans of the Cantonalist movement from the nearby port of Cartagena. The castle artillery was removed twenty years later and the castle was pretty much neglected until 1963, when it was opened to the public. Archaeologists have found items on the hillside dating from the Bronze Age, as well as the Iberian and Roman civilizations. It has been determined that the origin of the modern fortress dates from the late 9th century, the time of Moorish rule.


We walked all over the fortress and took more pictures than we can possibly ever want to look at. We really did not want to leave up there as the scenery was beautiful and the weather was sunny and warm. NO RAIN. It however was getting to be lunch time and we wanted to try some local cuisine.

After we finished with the fortress, the four of us caught a cab back into town and although we did not speak Castilian, Judi spoke enough Spanish that we were able to tell the cab driver that we wanted a good restaurant. He took us to a little place on the Marina called Restaurante Poteno. We all had Paella. It is a Spanish dish with rice, (fruits of the sea), and lots saffron. “Fruits of the sea” consist of any sea food including crawfish. You can also get it with chicken which Judi had, but the rest of us had fruits of the sea. The Spanish beer was again very good. We took almost 2 hours to eat our lunch. The leisurely meal was very enjoyable, but now it was time to take a walk. We walked along the Marina until we got to the Explanada. This is a tree lined walkway that runs parallel to the Marina and beautiful apartments. The path way is tiled and there are restaurants along the way, with outdoor seating. Of course there was a Mc Donald’s and a Burger King.

We walked back to a little grocery store and purchased some soft drinks to bring on the ship and then headed for the beach. Judi pointed out a topless female to me. She was at least 6 years old. The heart rate went up, but came down quickly. I owe Judi one.


We returned to the ship and got cleaned up and went down for dinner. The head waiter made fresh Caesar salad for those of us that wanted it. He did an excellent job preparing the salad. We then went to the Explorer Club bar and watched a ventriloquist do a comedy routine. It was very good. He reminded us of Jeff Dunham. He had his characters but also had masks that he could control and put them on a man and woman from the audience. It was hilarious.


After the show it was back to the cabin to work on this and get ready for bed. We are now on our way to Barcelona, which we are going to see on our own.

Our cabin is the the first double doors left of the Flag, on the top row of cabins.  You could also say just left of center, but that has nothing to do with politics.