Little Lolly's Small Adventures: Alicante, Spain. Excursion: Guadalest.

After a day at sea it was good to see land again and get our land legs back again.

View from the gift shop car park

My excursion group was soon on its way by bus, heading towards Guadalest, an Islamic fortified town. As we headed out of Alicante we could see the castle; we passed by old city walls and past a quarry - the stones of which were used to build the castle and city walls. We passed Vila Joiose (“Happy Town”) where there is a chocolate company but it was not on our 'stop and visit' list. So we had to make do with the fact that we could come back and visit it one day, if we wanted to.

A few minutes before we arrived in Guadalest we had a short stop at a gift shop - Fercaria. In the time that we had one could sample a bit of locally made sweet wine, purchase gifts, and also take pictures from a viewpoint overlooking the valley towards Guadalest; as well as making use of their toilet facilities.

Inside Guadalest fortress walls

We arrived at Guadalest. Originally the population lived within the protective walls of the fortress/castle which was accessed via a tunnel cut in through the rock. Later on a town formed outside the fortress but even to this day the oldest part of the town is accessible only on foot.

We walked through the newer part Guadalest to get to the rock tunnel and then entered the fortress. We had short walking tour of the fortress which had fantastic views over the surrounding countryside. After that we visited a museum which was actually one of the original houses, complete with furnishings, etc. and from there one had access up through to the remains of the castle.

View of the castle from the inside of the fortress of Guadalest

We had a bit of free time to have a wander around the fortress and the town outside. There was simply not enough time to explore the place in depth but it is certainly well worth coming back to visit it again. It had lots of character, quaint and charming.

There were lots of arts and craft shops so I popped into a shop and bought a wire wall art decoration - an owl - for the cabin because one of the walls in the bedroom is a bit bare.

On our way back to the Prinsendam the bus stopped alongside the Alicante promenade so that guests could get off to explore the city a bit. Time though, was limited, because of the ship's earlyish departure at around 3pm/3:30pm.

There are inspectors on board the ship with usual annual checks so Paul and the captain have been very busy.

PHOTOGRAPHS