Daylight brought with it some beautiful sunshine so we headed out onto the terraced area for breakfast. Amber wandered down to the lower terrace to our pool and made a new friend...........Orgi the inflatable dolphin. This is the view from the terrace......the sea in the distance.
This was a self catering holiday so we went in search of a supermarket to stock up on some basic provisions. I had remembered passing quite a few of them the previous night so we did not have far to go before reaching a big supermarket called Eroski. The Spanish parking in the supermarket carpark was laughable to say the least. I don't know why they bothered painting white lines for each parking bay. No-one seemed to work with them!!
This was a self catering holiday so we went in search of a supermarket to stock up on some basic provisions. I had remembered passing quite a few of them the previous night so we did not have far to go before reaching a big supermarket called Eroski. The Spanish parking in the supermarket carpark was laughable to say the least. I don't know why they bothered painting white lines for each parking bay. No-one seemed to work with them!!
It's hard to work out how the Spanish distinguish boundaries between different regions. And we discovered it could vary depending on who you asked!! So we were in a villa somwhere in the regions of Benissa, Calpe and Moraira. Work that one out!!! Not that it bothered us; we were very happy with the location. Calpe as "we knew it" was a typical townscape around a round lake. Several hotels [big posh one called Hotel Diamonte], tall apartment buildings with a few shops at ground level. The lake looked stagnant to be honest and a spot of dredging would not have gone amiss. You must surely suspect something when the local bird life hang about on top of bits of floating wood rather than dip their toes into the lake.......... hmmmmm. Still, not as if we were planning on stepping into it.
The road out of Calpe and up to our villa........... where we called it Benissa......... took you past some more coloquial stores. A large ceramics place, Luigis Deli and the Timon Restaurant to name but a few. Not overly touristy...... more rustic and real I would say. Very charming. Of course we had that steep, poor hill to climb so it was back into NASA key position every time we headed back to the villa. And Andrew and I have become "road planning snobs" we decided as we tried to compare UK road standards to Spanish road standards. The old "70 metres visibility rule" was more the exception in Spain rather than the minimum standard. An interesting combination with cliff edge roads and Spanish drivers pelting out at you from blind access roads!!!! Jeez........ it had me reaching for the old rosary beads at times.
The seaview from the villa terrace gave us the prospect of a beach close by. The more touristy hotels back onto the sea front - nice for a brisk walk along and that's about it. Too many bairns flicking sand and old age pensioners who had developed that "leathery" look from excessive sunbathing!!!
This is a view of the bay as evening was approaching........... gets dark around 7.30pm.
I should mention what Calpe does have though is this giant rock/mountain called Penon de Ifach (rock of Ifach) at 335 metres high and claiming to be the biggest rock in the Mediterranean. I have no idea who Ifach is but he sounds like the 13th disciple!!! The rock is a nature reserve.
The local Timon Restaurant had been given a mention in the James Villa information pack and with it being closeby we decided to give it a try for dinner. It didn't disappoint us. We got a table out on the terrace with a view of the bay and the Penon de Ifach. Food was very good - Andrew had sea bass, I opted for sole and Amber chose a pasta dish to be on the safe side. Staff at the Timon were very friendly. This next picture is our view from our table:-
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