The beach is quiet at 8am, but not for long!
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Monday morning we waited for the new mattresses to be delivered and then around 11:30am Rick and Randy took the car and headed East to explore the countryside.
We stopped at the store first for water and munchies since we didn't know what stores we'd see along the way.
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We attempted to find the road from Benidorm to Alcoy, but were confused by the road signs, so we ended up driving down to Alicante and then taking a larger road back from there. The road was full of twists and turns, with very rugged mountains all around. The rivers were dry, but we could see signs that when they are full, they are quite furious.
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When we arrived in Alcoy we were surprised to see that it is built into two steep hillsides on either side of a river, with several bridges spanning the river. As with many cities in Spain, the roads are narrow with buildings right up against the edges of the road.
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The cable stay bridge was impressive.
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We stopped in the town center to look for food, but since it was the beginning of the afternoon siesta, most things were closed. We opted for a supermarket where we grabbed some sandwich supplies. We made our way out of the town and stopped at the side of the road overlooking the town to eat lunch.
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The town center in Alcoy.
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Rather than continuing on to Xativa as we originally planned, we decided to head West to Callosa de Ensarria since the moutain roads were taking longer to drive with all the curves and switchbacks.
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Along the way we passed through a number of small towns, most of them occupying only a few hundred yards along the road. There were a variety of buildings, many were clearly several hundred years old (some of those were falling apart).
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We did see a couple of castles and some really large cloth enclosed green houses.
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Those greenhouses cover huge areas.
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Callosa de Ensarria
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We headed down the mountain through Alfaz del Pi and then arrived back in Altea around 4pm. It was a really nice slice of the countryside.
Monday night we went to a nice paella restaurant along the beach and enjoyed dinner.
Afterwards it was off to bed in what turned out to be a rather warm (and breezeless) night.
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