Reminds us of California

These beautiful trees are Jacaranda trees.  They started blooming about 2 weeks ago and they seem to be at their prettiest right now.  This particular street had so many Jacaranda trees and it was such a spectacular sight that we just had to stop and get a few pictures.

That's our car, the first one on the left.  Look at that beautiful line of purple trees down the street!

It's lovely walking along under these trees.

These trees remind us of when we used to visit Fernando in Pasadena, California.  We remember being amazed, as the plane was coming in to land, at the sight of street after street lined with beautiful streaks of purple.  These trees are just as beautiful seen from the air as they are seen on the ground.

On our way back to the house we passed, as we do every time, one or two girls working the street.  Every time we pass them we feel so sorry for them.  Today, we saw one girl, in her barely existing skirt and hardly there top, standing out in the hot sun in her very high heels.  I looked at her and noticed that her legs were already sun burned.  Yet there she continued to stand, totally exposed to the sun.  There has to be some sort of very sad story there.

Tabarca Island

We checked the weather, making sure it'd be a good day to go out on a boat to an island, and the forecast looked excellent.  High of 82 and no chance of rain!  So off we went to Santa Pola to try to find where the boats are that take people to Tabarca Island.  We found the port with not too much trouble.  We tried to find parking along the street, but didn't have any luck so we parked in the pay parking lot by the boats and got our tickets for the boat.  We had a good 40 minutes before the boat was going to leave and we kept thinking, we should move the car out of that pay lot and try again to find a parking space along the street somewhere.  So, Guillermo gave himself a time limit within which to find a space and he took the car out of the lot and headed to the streets.  I was very surprised to see him walking back within about 7 minutes, saying he lucked out and found a spot very close to where we were.  We felt much better knowing we weren't going to have to pay an insane amount for parking.
                          Guillermo waiting to get on the boat.  There were a LOT of kids on this trip!

Once on the island, we decided to walk in the direction of the lighthouse.  It was a LONG walk, but we sure enjoyed the scenery.  In some places in the water there were really beautiful patches of turquoise blue.  This picture shows the town of Tabarca,  from where we started walking, WAY in the distance.

As we walked along, we saw quite a few seagulls sitting on the edge of the cliffs and we just assumed they were sitting on nests.  Sometimes if the seagull flew off, we'd try to see if we could see any eggs or anything but the nests were always in a difficult place to see easily.  And one time, I was just walking along and a seagull swooped down to buzz me.  I guess I was walking by a nest and I didn't even know it!

We passed this old lookout post on the island.

Now the town is even further away, the lookout tower is in the distance and we've passed the old lighthouse.

We're going to walk all the way to those rocks jutting out into the water.

So, we've made it to the rocks.  This is as far as we could go to one end of the island.

As we were making our way around the end of the island, Guillermo saw a gull sitting in an easy place to check to see if it was sitting on eggs.  He walked slowly up to the gull, which of course flew off as he approached.  But oooh, was the gull mad that Guillermo was there.  And yes, there WERE eggs in this nest so the gull had every reason to be upset.  Here is a picture of the gull trying to scare Guillermo into getting away from the nest.

This is what that gull was trying to protect.

As we were walking back to the town, we passed this old ruin along the way.

And this is how the view towards Tabarca looked as we walked on the other side of the island.

Once we got back to the town, we weren't done walking yet!  We decided to walk through the town to the other end of the island.  This was the gate into the old town.

And a street scene in the old town

 This is the church in Tabarca, which we couldn't go in to see because they were setting up for a wedding.

And this was the entrance to the town on the other end of the island.  When we walked here, we had walked from one end of the island to the other.  You should have seen the hinges on the side of those entrance walls, they were for some HUGE doors!!

The view to the sea from the entrance to the town.

And another street scene in Tabarca.

After all that walking around, it was time for lunch!  This paella was quite good!

And two last shots of scenes around Tabarca.

All in all, it was a good day.  

We've made a list of things that we for sure want to do before we leave in exactly 3 weeks.  So, today was to visit a nearby town called Mutxamel and then to drive to Alicante and get on the beach road at our first possible chance and then drive back down to El Campello seeing as much of the beach along the way that we could.
In Mutxamel, we stopped to check out their municipal market but it was one of the smallest markets we've ever seen.  One fruit and vegetable stand, one meat stand and one bakery stand.  That was it.  Then we got on the beach road by Alicante and stopped here to take these pictures looking back towards Alicante.

You can see the castle in Alicante up there on the hill to the right.

Then, from the same spot, looking back in the opposite direction.

Getting back in the car, we drove down some more and picked another place to stop and check out.  It was a very windy day.  This beach area is around a place called La Isleta.  Not much of a beach hear, but lots of nice looking tide pools.

Then it was time for lunch!  We drove to a restaurant that we have passed many many times, and each time, we say we should try it and today we did.  Its name is Yaho, and we had NO idea what kind of restaurant it was but turns out it's a fusion restaurant of Japanese/Korean/Phillipines and maybe even Chinese.  Anyway, the food was great and now we know why there are always so many cars parked outside that restaurant during lunchtime!

Slowly gathering up all our stuff

Little by little, we're gathering all of our stuff that seems to just spread out everywhere after living in a place for a while.  We're making piles:  a pile for stuff that absolutely positively has to come back with us, a pile for stuff that we acquired here and would LIKE to take with us (if it fits), and a pile that we figure we'll just have to leave here.
It's also weird to think that there are some things that we won't be seeing anymore after we leave here - like the beach and our favorite restaurants and the stores we used to go to all the time and the tram and stuff like that.  It's very strange to know we'll be leaving all those things behind.  But that's how it goes.

25 days left here

And what I will miss the most is all the history and culture around here.  There have been so many places where it would be so fantastic to be granted at least 5 minutes back in that era and be able to see what was going on and how it was for all those brave and hardy people who came before us.  Driving through the Spanish countryside lends itself to imagining how it must have been back in the 1200s or so.  No roads, no power lines, not many points of reference, the people on horseback just riding across the land not knowing what they were going to find on the other side of the mountain or hill.  As exciting as it was at times, it must have been incredibly hard for them.  No feed stores around for the horses, no Home Depots all over the place to run to to buy supplies, no modern washing machines to wash their clothes or fast food places to grab a quick bite to eat.

Anyway, here are some pictures of the flowers around the yard of the house.   There is a lot blooming now.

I just love taking care of this petunia.  It is so beautiful.

Both of us water every single day because even though it's cool at night and there's lots of moisture in the air, the plants dry out quickly for some reason.

Guillermo and I went to the mall in Alicante today and I found a dress that I think would be suitable for Fernando and Eva's wedding.  

Been pretty busy

So, catching up a little here.
We had a good Mother's Day.  We drove to a nice restaurant near here in the Pueblo Acantilado Hotel to have lunch.  We could have walked, but the day was quite warm and the walk back would've been uphill so we decided to make it a relaxing outing.  A picture of me with my plate of some really delicious squid.

We've got 26 days left here in this house.  So, that's not many days left and we've already started thinking about the issue it's going to be with our suitcases.  At first we weren't worried at all about it, because we were going to drive a rental car to Basel and with a rental car, we could just pile everything in the back seat.  But as it turns out, the rental car was going to be way too expensive.  Then we checked into taking the train.  There's a little more leeway with luggage there but it would have been a 23 hour trip with 2 transfers - one in Barcelona and one in Paris.  Which would mean dragging around our luggage at least 4 times in that one day.

Then on Tuesday, yesterday, we took a trip to the airport and found that we could get a flight to Basel that would cost just the same as the train, so that's the route we're taking.  That still leaves the problem of our luggage, but maybe we'll just have to ship some of our stuff back to the states through DHL or something.  We'll see.  But we learned that even paying for extra luggage on the flight costs as much as taking the train.

We also found out two days ago that the Swedish authorities are requiring a letter that states that Fernando has no record of marriage - meaning that he is not currently married or never has been married.  To get that from San Antonio in time is going to be a miracle.  First of all, we need a copy of Fernando's driver's license.  Fernando is in Africa and only goes to an internet cafe once a week.  His wedding is in 5 weeks.  If we can coordinate all that needs to be done for this, it will be amazing.  Every wedding has to have it's little hitch, but right now this is seeming like a BIG hitch.

Another beautiful day

This sure is the weather I have been waiting for.  Nice warm days, totally sunny, no clouds.  Guillermo and I had lunch by the harbor today at a restaurant called Club Nautico.  It was a very relaxing meal.  We had fried fish, squid, shrimp; a gazpacho soup, sangria and some fruit for dessert.  After our very nice lunch, we took a walk around some ruins nearby that we had been wanting to see.

The downside of trying something new

So, today we went to the fish market and decided to buy some shrimp and yes, some barnacles.  Sounds quite yucky, but we were told that they're actually quite delicious.  Well, that may be the case for SOME  people, but we didn't like them and found them way too much trouble to eat.
Our first indication that maybe they'd be troublesome came right at the market when we asked the person waiting on us how it's best to fix them and how are they eaten.  She demonstrated how to eat them by opening one up right in front of us, and as she opened it it squirted out some liquid.  That liquid sprayed out on all three of us!  Ok, no big deal we thought, it wasn't that much.  We still bought a handful of them.
So, we get home, steam them in some salty water and eagerly sit down to eat them.  The first one that I opened squirted a LOT right onto my blouse!  Did NOT like that.  Then, eating the thing wasn't very pleasant because it felt like we were eating sand with the meat of the barnacle.  The meat itself was ok tasting, but each one we opened squirted somehow someway, and the feeling of sand while eating them wasn't too appetizing.  Too much trouble and not THAT good of a taste so we just gave up on them.  Good thing we didn't buy too many.  Guess we won't be buying THOSE things again.   Here's a picture of them.

That aside, today was a kind of day that I have been waiting for quite a while.  It was sunny and warm!!  A very beautiful day!  We had breakfast on the beach and for once it was enjoyable to sit outside - in the shade- and not have to have our jackets on nor have the wind blowing like crazy.  We didn't use our heater during the day, and didn't even turn the bathroom heater on to take a shower!!!  Now THAT'S nice.

Madrid and then back to the coast