Alicante

Last day in Alicante

Last days can often be difficult on holiday, not least this one with a flight booked to depart at 10 pm. I took breakfast in the hotel for a change, packed and left my luggage at the hotel and set off for another stroll around this city I have come to like. There are some fine buildings, I love the chairs randomly glued to the pavements so you can take a break whenever you feel the need. There are some excellent examples of turn of the century (19-20) archictecture dotted around the streets.

My route takes me past the book cabins I’d seen before and this time they were open. Paperbacks ranged from 5 to 12 euros with some deals three for 12 euros. There were a few English and German titles among them as well and all the kiosks seemed to be doing steady business. Good to see lots of children’s books, history and philosophy as well as fiction from popular Spanish authors like Perez-Reverte, Carlos Zafron. Javier Marias and Almudena Grandes and of course translations of John Grisham and Dan Brown. I didn’t see any Harry Potter.

Also attracting a lot of attention was the four sided display of belenes in front of the Town Hall with scenes of the birth, shepherds and three kings – Los Reyes – who are of course all-important in Spain with the 6th January almost bigger than Christmas.

Down by the marina a lone saxophonist busker was trying hard but basically was practising his scales in public with scores on a phone attached to his alto.

Wandering back up through the avenues what should I come across but another museum, The Palacio Principal, with displays of – you guessed it- belenes but also an exhibition by Francisco Rubio which involved an interesting mix of abstract and figurative work, sometimes in combination.

I’m not fan of photographing meals but my lamb cutlets for my last lunch were worthy and very tasty as well – but no hot padron peppers! Then back to the hotel to collect cases and the C6 bus to the airport. It’s every 15 minutes and whisks us via the train station and then through the newish suburbs, past a huge desalination plant and along the beach at Playa de Agua Amarga before turning west to the airport.

In the hotel there was an exhortation to be very sparing of water – keep your towels, take shorter showers as there has always been an acute shortage of water in the area. One woman I was chatting to before the music the other evening told me that 80% of Alicante’s drinking water – I had declined any alongside my meal – comes from desalination and that she had frequently in her childhood faced water being turned off in her home. I tried to joke that Christmas Day had changed all that but am not quite sure it worked.

I had equivocated for quite a while about whether to make this trip – can I bear the inevitable airport hustle, am I too old to be doing this stuff, can I better last year’s wonderful week in Madrid and Granada? I am so glad I did. I’ve explored a new city, found new artworks, architecture and archaeology. I’ve been to classical and jazzy gigs and had great food. Apart from the soggy Christmas Day the sun has shone and temperatures have been around 17-18 degrees Celsius in the day. People have been friendly and I’ve actually managed a few conversations. I have one regret. I’ve ogled other people’s arroces – you mustn’t call them paella here. These rice dishes come with seafood, meat and vegetable versions and are very similar to the Valencian staple with crusty base and pan-cooked rice and accompaniments. Problem? They are always for a minimum of two people. So I’ll just have to find someone to come back with me.

News

Last weekend of the year

This is a phrase that crops up at lot on news and entertainment channels on the television. Also here in Spain it is in the context of warnings of snow and road closures in the Pyrenees and sea surges and flood warnings in Malaga and Cadiz – Global heating is humbug, right. It features large in the Ian McEwan book. The news tells me also that in Spain, physical shopping is beating online by a distance – and seeing the number of bags being carried around Alicante, I can believe it.

However I didn’t go shopping this morning as I had a couple more museums on my list. The first was in the old tobacco factory, Las Cigarreras which is now a multi-use cultural centre. It was walkable in 20 minutes so off I set in the sunny morning after another excellent breakfast near the bull ring. As I arrived there was a jazz combo doing a sound check for a lunchtime gig. They sounded OK but nothing to wait around several hours for.

Inside one of the grey former factory buildings was a photographic exhibition with a series of experimental images from a variety of photographers. One of the exhibitor’s work reminded me of my friend Lisa Kalloo’s in the use of pinholes, Vaseline and other distorting factors to produce amazing images. Others used reflecting metal objects under water, scratched lines on negatives, printed out and made into a montage wall and a social comment on homelessness with a bed featuring in various locations.

I had had no idea what to expect as the Cigarreras website wouldn’t work for me in the UK, but I thought the buildings were worth a visit anyway. It was a thought-provoking show that made me vow to go to more unconventional exhibitions back at home and broaden my view of what constitutes art. It needs to raise emotion, stimulate ideas and challenge conventional attitudes. This did all of that.

MARQ – the Museum of Archeology – was feted as European Museum of the Year in 2024 and it’s easy to see why. It’s in a former hospital and has displays not only of objects found in the area from the Bronze Age onwards but has reconstructed videos of life in each of the main eras of Alicante history – Iberian, Roman, Jewish, Arabic, Christian and modern democracy. Sadly only the introductions to displays are in English so my Catalan and Spanish got stretched now and then.

One of its great features that Dee, who always wanted to go on a dig, would have loved was the reconstructions of archeological investigation sites throughout the eras. We had been to Empurias in Catalonia so knew about Spain’s lengthy history but MARQ made it clearer in a dramatic and intelligent way. Well worth the walk to both morning venues and my lunch saw me have my first slices of Serrano ham – how can I been five days without?

On the way back from MARQ a different view of the castle

Most Spanish cities have an interesting rail terminal – not Alicante. But I walked there and then back down through interesting streets to find myself back at the southern end of the marina past an amusement park and passing by the lovely fisherman’s terminal.

I spent another period in the sun finishing my book and then thirst prevailed and I went back into the mad centre of the city where every bar was full and families were meeting up noisily after shopping. Busy!

Things were no less busy when I went out to eat a bit later but one of the older restaurants Labradores – well you have to solid with the workers don’t you – found me a table and delivered a fine series of tapas – gambas al ajillo, pincho moruño finished off with some brilliant blue cabrales cheese. Oh and some excellent local wine. One thing I’ve discovered here is that tapas are much bigger than I’d experienced elsewhere in Spain, so care is required when ordering!

The Rambla is pedestrianised on Saturday evenings

News

Christmas boxed

Oh dear, this is not right. I go out for breakfast in torrential rain. El Sabio street is flooding and palms are reflected in the puddles that pigeons have been drinking from with gusto. I’m boxed in. What to do?

Well there are lots of people to WhatsApp and email with greetings, I have the most brilliant Ian McEwan book to read and I need to book somewhere close for dinner as I’d been warned that lots of places are fully booked on Christmas Day. I pop out again briefly for lunch and later catch the film Hedda being streamed. Having seen the version at the Orange Tree recently, this film was interesting in its Downton Abbey silliness but I was glad I’d seen a more faithful version as well. Then it was back to McEwan’s What we can know while listening to Radio Classica. The book is a masterly conflation of literary detective work, post-apocalyptic vision, love, infidelity, sex and academia – so far. It was still raining, and apparently from El Tiempo on TV next morning there was snow in the Pyrenees. Fortunately the Lobo Blanco was only three minutes away and well worth the visit. Friendly staff who didn’t speak to me in English – result! – an open kitchen where I could see my fabulous duck breast being prepared – I asked for it rosa and indeed it was beautifully pink and tasty with excellent skin-on fries. And as it was Christmas Day when they said would I like a brandy to finish off the meal, it was hard to resist. Santa came late to Alicante but he came!

Normal service was resumed on Boxing Day with sun slanting on the buildings opposite when I woke up. I’m spoiled for breakfast choices and chose a new one for Boxing Day which was well up to scratch. I strolled then through the Barri Vell again with its fine buildings like the Basilica de Santa Maria in the sun.

I soon found the Museo de Belenes open today. It’s a large collection of finished tableaux as well as vitrines of characters that may be used to form them. They can be in wood, plaster, clay and papier maché. There was one enormous one prepared specially for the 50th anniversary of the foundation of the Association in 1959. Also there were examples from Argentina and Venezuela and the text suggests that Francis of Assisi started the trend back in 1223.

I then move a little further towards the sea to MACA the Museum Of Contemporary Art which enchanted me for several hours.

My friend Maria’s friend Eusebio Sempere had been instrumental in setting up the several foundations that were eventually incorporated into this fine institution.

Elegant display rooms featured a local painter Juana Frances who I’d never heard of but enjoyed her work especially some charcoal drawings that were mystical. Her land and seascapes were interesting too. She did a lot to ensure women were properly recognised in the arts as well so I’m glad to have met her.

There was floor devoted to Sempere which had both his excellent sculptures but also an array of silk screen prints including a sequence of 12 that showed the process of building a screen printed image. One of the things I always enjoy is when an artist who has decided to go abstract shows that they had the technique to be conventional too. Sempere did with his portrait of his partner.

There were several other rooms with works that varied in their appeal but a few really caught my eye. There were pieces by Miro, Tapies, Calder, Chillida, Giacometti and many Spanish artists I was pleased to be introduced to. There were interactive areas too where you could contribute to art in progress – altogether an impressive gallery. These are a few of my favourites – sorry I didn’t always get the artist.

After a cultured morning it was time to go for a beer and wander back through a different area of the city. Some elegant facades presented themselves and I couldn’t help noticing how many buildings were in the hands of MyFlats – clearly AirBnB equivalents are moving in here big time. There were a few ‘Tourist Go Home‘ graffiti that I’d noticed and hoped that being in a purpose-built hotel I wasn’t preventing locals from getting a home. Big dilemma – they want my money but not my presence.

I had a lovely lunch in Plaza Luceros with scallops and then cheese with anchovies and a good Rueda Verdejo wine, white for a change, and then back to the hotel to watch my next Christmas present – Watford winning 2-1 away at Leicester. Then I wrote some of this and thought about the evening ahead.

Quite close by is a music bar Entre Bambalinas which had a group of singer, piano and percussion called the Palosanto Trio. They played salsa, bossa nova and Spanish standards that lots of the audience knew. The bar had beer, food and wine and while the music was not my core taste, live music is always a good thing. They were lively, committed and gave me a couple of sets of enjoyment.

On my way back lots of people were filming themselves in front of the e-tree in Avenida de la Constitucion but I waited for a clear shot to wish everyone a Happy Boxing Day – Leicester 1-2 Watford! Yay!

News

A Christmas Eve of strolling

Well the cloud didn’t come so I ventured out for a different breakfast venue – a successful quest with OJ, tostada with tomato and ham and a coffee of course. I then went walkabout in the old quarter – the Barrio Vell. Lots of steps and slopes but some very pretty houses and a few of my favourite signs in tiles. I passed the Museo de Belenes but it was closed today and tomorrow. Maybe Boxing Day to find out when the nativity tableau movement started. Equally closed but for a month is the Museo de Fogueres which features the giant figures that are processed through the streets in June and then ceremonially burned. So I will miss out on understanding what that’s all about.

After yesterday I decided on a more gentle day so took myself down to the marina – well it’s got be flat hasn’t it? Indeed it was and very sunny.

I was struck by this bust of Archibald Dickson who had rescued 2,368 doomed anti-Franco citizens on his ship the Stanbrook at the end of the war in 1939. I’ve read a fair bit about the Spanish civil war but hadn’t come across this story.

The marina is a busy place with lots of vessels of different sizes. There was a salvage tug that reminded me of a video I produced many years ago about the salvage industry. We filmed in the UK, France, the Netherlands and Greece but not in Spain. There was also a sail training schooner from Gdansk, Kapitan Borchardt, that would have excited our dear departed friend Toddy. It is, it seems, the oldest sailing ship flying the Polish flag. I had very pleasant stroll and then sat in the sun for an hour reading my book looking up at the castle with a sense of satisfaction – it was like being on holiday!

The waterfront is a bit of a mish mash of buildings but there are a few lovely examples of classical architecture such as the Casa Carbonell built in 1925. It didn’t get off to a good start – a seaplane crashed into one of its domes killing two on board and causing the dome to be rebuilt.

As everything closes this evening I thought I’d better do lunch today. There was a massive choice of restaurants in Calle Major (Main Street) as you might expect. My food was great – grilled vegetables and a calamari also grilled. The problem was that in Alicante it appears that tapas are raciones and raciones a whole meal. So I had far too much and have some in Tupperware for this evening in the hotel. I also got wine and beer so I won’t starve if I actually want to eat again today. I took this back to the hotel, had a brief sit down and a coffee and then set off to explore an area I hadn’t ventured into before. The airport bus had dropped me off on Avenue Alfonso El Sabio so I now walked the length of this to Plaza Luceros where this one and three other major avenues meet. As a favourite venue for Alicantinos to meet, I just had to sit in the sun with a beer.

Leading from Luceros towards the sea is Avenida Federico Soto which is lined with ten or more book cabins – all closed today but encouraging to see such an appetite for the written word. I’ll be back to see how busy they are later in the week. Further down they morphed into Christmas stalls but not as tatty as many.

My wandering roughly described a square and took me back to the Teatro Principal which I had walked past before. Sadly there is nothing on of interest to me this week but it’s an impressive building. It also has a bus stop which I had researched before coming here, along with the purchase of a travel card. However I have found everywhere so far eminently walkable so have only used the bus to get in from the airport. Opposite was a church which is a lot more impressive than the cathedral.

One of the good things about the hotel is that the TV has BBC and ITV channels so I could catch Only Connect and University Challenge after a couple of weird Spanish game shows. Music, wine and reading now so Happy Christmas everyone.

Uncategorized

Footloose and fably frazzled

I don’t have a Fitbit or other step counter but I think I would have broken it today. I set off at 9.30 in quest of breakfast which I found quite close to the hotel and the central market which I’d shot last evening. As many will recall, I love a market and while the building couldn’t compete architecturally with many I’ve visited, the contents were well up to scratch. Fish, meat, fruit and vegetables, all local produce, were brilliantly displayed. Some counters were obviously more popular than others with lengthy queues waiting patiently after taking a ticket from the ‘Su Torno’ machine.

I then decided to walk to the Auditorio where I’m going to a concert this evening just to gauge what time to leave – 20 minutes is the answer. It also involved passing the Alicante bullring which has gigs now not fights which will be a relief to the bulls being driven towards it in the sculpture in the square outside.

One of the major attractions of Alicante is the medieval Castillo de Santa Barbara and as cloud is threatened for Christmas Eve I thought I’d better do it today. On my way back down through the town I passed the Ayuntiamento which has a special Belen – the astonishing displays of the Christmas scene that are prevalent all over Spain. Outside was a giant version with a very strange looking newborn.

The castle sits quite a long way above the beach but fortunately there’s a lift, which by flashing my old farts’ pass I was able to use for free.

There’s still quite a long way to go when you alight from the elevator after a lengthy wait – be warned if you attempt it in high season; I had to wait about twenty minutes each way. There are lots of warnings about uneven surfaces and danger of falling so I mounted the steep slopes with great caution and frequent pauses. There’s not much left of the castle itself but the ultimate chamber has a great display of finds from the site over its history as a castle since the ninth century and from settlements on the site back to the Bronze Age. One of the main reasons for making the trek is for the views and they are spectacular.

I made my way very slowly back down rewarding myself with a beer at one of the several bars the castle provides.

After a further wait for the lift – I’d done enough slithery downward slopes for my age – I went to the city’s central beach, El Postiguet, and wandered along the northern promenade in search of lunch. There were lots of beachfront places that looked both full and expensive. In the streets just behind I found a super little bar that had and excellent aubergine with mince and melted cheese – perfect. As further proof of Christmas madness my cutlery came in a snowman!

Right along the street was MUBAG the Museo de Belles Artes Gravina which had been on my list of places to visit. It had an exhibition of Spanish Romantic art and at my first entrance with a red corridor made me think I was in the Dulwich Picture Gallery. It had some interesting portraits and some more modern pieces, among them a couple by Eusebio Sempere of whom my neighbour Maria owns some originals. I like his abstracts with emotion.

I decided to smarten up for the concert – trousers not jeans, a shirt not T and a jacket – so I called back at the hotel to change. Then more steps up to the Auditorio a rather splendid 2011 addition to Alicante’s cultural spaces. It’s a pleasant hall with a cedar wood ceiling that spoke triangles and coffins to me.

Then the concert began with Haydn’s Berenice cantata which featured the main reason I’d booked for this; Roberta Mameli an Italian soprano who I first came to love through a fusion album Round M – Monteverdi meets jazz which I heartily recommend. Claudio’s notes sung as written with a jazz accompaniment – brilliant! But she also has a superb voice with range and power which were further displayed in Mozart’s Exultate, Jubilate, the seventeen year old prodigy’s challenge to his favourite castrato. Roberta managed it with flourish and style and the orchestra under the baton of Ruben Jais supported her well and also did a symphony each from Haydn (49) and Mozart (25) with some panache.

I left the concert very happy but concerned about finding somewhere to eat – we’re not in Madrid after all. The illuminated castle through the pines reminded me of a rather wild day. I needn’t have worried as the restaurant De Oliver about three doors from my hotel provided a rare and tasty steak, a good Rioja and a farewell whisky on the house. I may well be back!

News

Christmas trip

After a week of brilliant music, family and theatre in London I now find myself in Alicante.

Thursday saw neighbours Les, Sean and Maria and me make our way to our local wine bar and then to Blackheath Halls to see the Andy Sheppard quartet. Dee and I and a colleague had recorded an hour long to show with Andy back in 1999 and guitarist John Parricelli was still part of the group.

He is still a complete master of the soprano and tenor saxophones and was given great accompaniment from Dudley Foster on bass and Nic France on drums in an evening of varied old and new material. He made me cry by playing ‘Dancing Man and Woman’ which Dee and I had as our play out music from our wedding back in 2001. Happy memories through the tears.

My friends Anna and Lisa ventured up from Ramsgate to see Ute Lemper visiting Marlene Dietrich. They had a spare ticket and invited me to join them.

I didn’t really know what to expect but thoroughly enjoyed Ute telling us about a three hour long telephone conversation she had with Marlene in Paris. She had written to convey her horror at the press calling Ute ‘The new Marlene’ and the diva had phoned her back. This story interspersed with the great songs made for a most enjoyable evening

Sunday was little short of a miracle when son and daughter-in-law, daughter and son-in-law, two grandchildren and I were all free for lunch at the same time. Amazing fun and great stories all round. A great start to Christmastime.

Monday saw me go with Frances to the press night of Indian Ink at the Hampstead Theatre. It coincided with Tom Stoppard’s funeral and we were a bit worried about how it might affect the cast, especially Felicity Kendall. They were all superb and particularly Felicity playing the older role rather than the one of poet Flora Crewe she had created twenty years ago and Ruby Ashbourne Serkis playing Flora in front of Felicity. Gavi Singh Chera was also excellent as the beguiling – to Flora – Indian painter. As always the witticisms and hilarity were countered with serious debate about the role of Britain in Empire. Not his best play but definitely worth seeing for the acting and the brilliant set and lighting design – oh and the incidental music is good too.

I had a lovely lunch with Camilla Reeve the publisher of BBPC’s anthology Home and Belonging. It was a generous thank you from her for my chairing the discussion panel at her literary festival back in November. An enjoyable discussion ranging over many topics.

Wednesday was at the Almeida for Christmas Day, the second play in a month featuring a Jewish family (not) celebrating Christmas. This was provocative with references to Gaza and antisemitism, family bickering and made some good points but for me was a bit disjointed and I felt needed longer in development to get a better play out.

Twelfth Night came early with Frances, Farzana, Richard and me heading to the Barbican, some of us via the excellent Jugged Hare for dinner. This was the RSC`s production starring Freema Agyemang as Olivia and Sam West as Malvolio with Gwyneth Keyworth at Viola and Michael Grady-Hall as a brilliant Feste – brush up your juggling skills if you’re in the front rows! It was hilarious, but also touching, emotionally grabbing and was spoken with such clarity that your respect and admiration for the genius Bard of Avon rocketed even higher.

I had Friday at home to tidy up the place and think about packing. Saturday was my last Watford match of the year and we actually won 1-0 against Stoke, so another good omen for the festive season. Sunday evening I drove to Stansted in a horrific downpour which made my arrival in Alicante so welcome. I’d been equivocating about coming away for Christmas this year and am already glad I finished up with a decision to make the trip. I checked in to a very pleasant well-situated hotel where I think for the first time in my life my room is right opposite the lift not the 200 yards race I had to make last night at Stansted. Legs thus spared, I went walkabout to get my bearings in a city I have only been to once so long ago that not much sticks in the mind. A quick tapas lunch with a beer confirmed the decision to make the trip. The bar had no menu but served tapas of the day on wood blocks and a bit like Yo Sushi, they count up the blocks to make your bill. With a big party you’d get a Jenga game thrown in. The Christmas spirit and the love of tapas were well in evidence.

Further down towards the Mediterranean the welcome was even clearer at the end of the palm-lined promenade.

I then crossed to the marina to select my yacht when I win the lottery. It’s a very pleasant harbour to be further explored tomorrow.

And on the way back up (gentle slopes) through town there are some lovely examples of modernisme architecture which I shall also explore further.

Spain again

Closing the circle (or G)

pool It was a splendid warm week with a few visits to the pool purely to stimulate the thought processes of course. I sat diligently in writer’s corner in the shade and have achieved what I hoped for – enough written down that it has its own momentum now and writing a chapter now and then among other commitments will be OK. If any of it is any good that is,

Sunday was a dull cloudy, Essex beat Hampshire by an innings and lots and Watford lost 5-0. The only upside was it was my daughter’s birthday. So Monday was time to set off after my stay at Cortijo Alto. It is so peaceful except when the farmers start spraying the olive groves at 6 am. Still it got me on the road in short order. My excitement today was twofold. I would virtually complete a circular tour of Spain being in Valencia only 100 km from Tortosa. Secondly thanks to the kind proprietors I was going to meet ‘The Hornet’ an olive tree my daughter and the family gave me for Christmas. I had a certificate and have already sampled some of its excellent first cold press extra virgin Arbequina oil. Now I was going to hug my tree!

I left the house and set off eastwards along the A92 autovia, pausing for breakfast near Granada with a fine view of the Sierra Nevada, still living up to their name. I came off at a junction signed Huercal-Overa, the town nearest to my tree but SatNav was not happy as we did some N roads with a few trucks making progress a little slower. I soon arrived and found the original San Francisco deep in the heart of Almeria. We had agreed I’d find my way to Olivas Querencia by amazing good luck or not at all so Angela kindly came to find me – the red Audi and a tall bald bloke are a bit of a give-away.

Angela and her husband Willem (yes, he’s Dutch) have owned Querencia since 2010. They bought a lovely house, a big farm and 22,000 olive trees.

They’ve made a brilliant fist of sorting the place out and have achieved coveted status as first cold press virgin olive oil with International Olive Council approval which means a lot of tasting by people in Jaen, the capital of olive oil – one might say the Vatican of olive oil such is the mystery that surrounds it. Oh and it’s pretty tasty too like less fatty butter with added sunshine. And of course you’ll live longer.

We shared stories and I was treated to a fabulous unexpected impromptu lunch before going to visit the trees. Where I’ve been staying the olive trees are probably 100+ years old. At Querencia they are 10. I’m used to multi-trunk gnarled old things, these are beautiful single trunk olives neatly trimmed and already showing good olive production after blooming. But no hugging in case unwanted pruning took place!

Good early olives

Angela and Willem find The Hornet

Come on you Hornet!

It’s going to be a good year. FACT. Isn’t it great when something so serendipitous works out so well. Hey, I even played with their dogs! We will keep in touch and one of Fuzz’s yellow wristbands will be The Hornet’s identifier in the future.

But I had to be in Valencia and olive trees needed pruning and tidying up – sadly yellow leaves are a bad sign and have to be pulled off. So I got back onto the A7 Autovia del Mediterraneo which should take me straight to Valencia in about four hours. I guess it must have been my cheapskate settings at the start that say “Avoid Tolls” but we veered off round Alicante north towards Albacete and Madrid and then picked up the A31 into Valencia from the west. My circle was rapidly becoming a capital G. It was fascinating as I drove through Spain’s granite and marble supply zone – every other building alongside the road proclaimed quality stone. It was a bit filled with mountain passes too – not as big as the 1379 metres in Granada but at Lorca you top a rise a see the polythene plains of Murcia – I hope things have picked up after the disastrous rains earlier in the year. And later you come over another pass as the road turns into the A35 and there is the green plain of Valencia with fruit of every kind, then orange trees and then rice.

It takes me two attempts to find the hotel as SatNav lady has no truck with No Entry signs exhorting me repeatedly to turn left where it’s prohibited. I got here, showered and changed and went walk about in the old part of this fabulous city, remembering that when we were last here the Town Hall Square was an ice rink.

I went to the amazing Mercado de Colon, redolent of Victoria in Cordoba and San Miguel in Madrid and checked out a few bars where we’d been before including some great ham at one near the Hospes de Mar hotel we’d stayed at in 2015, took a light dinner in a nearby tapas bar and retired to post this. Last day tomorrow and fully back into the swing with a meeting about the Watford Community Trust Anniversary book on Wednesday.