Our Trip To Alicante an Valencia, Spain
After visiting Vienna, we took a little jaunt over to Spain! We flew in to Valencia, rented a car, and drove to Alicante, which was about 1 hour 45 minutes from the city.
SPAIN
We stayed in the most amazing AirBnB, a beautiful modern apartment painted all white with a view of the Mediterranean Sea from almost every room. The apartment was on the 11th floor but we had easy access to the beach with a key the landlord Gonzalo gave us.
We spent four days in Alicante basically doing nothing but lazing around the beach and eating at a few restaurants. It was a nice change from the busy week in Vienna and a much needed break from our busy work schedules back home. It was perfect.
The beach was a quick elevator ride from our place. Most things were closed in the evening so we spent some time walking around and exploring.
On our last evening in Alicante we made our way to the centre of the city to eat. This area of Spain we found a bit difficult to navigate, as neither of us speak Spanish! We got by with Google Translate.
On our last day in Alicante we stopped by The Roman Ruins at Lucentum. On our drive back to Valencia we took a few detours through cities along the way.
The weather was a little bit chilly, but comfortable. Much nicer than our -10 C back home!
Once arriving in Valencia, we met up with Pablo, our next Air BnB host. He took us to the apartment we would be staying in until our last day and it also was amazing. This place was in a secure building with parking and only a 10 minute drive from the city centre. Note about driving: we had never experienced roundabouts, let alone mega eight lane roundabouts! They were mayhem.
We had one full day in Valencia, so we decided to make the most of it by exploring the city on foot and bike. We parked our car at the City of Arts and Sciences (AKA Ciutat de les Arts i les Ciències) and walked through the park until we were hungry and decided to find some food. We happened to have great timing and ended up being in town for the beginning of Las Fallas. We ate lunch at The Good Burger and headed to city hall and stood in a sea of people to see/hear smoke bombs going off.We rented bikes and rode back down to the museum area where we had a little look through the museum (City of Arts and Sciences). Since the minimum fee for the bike rental was 7 days, we decided to make the most of them and ride into the city for some food. Here's a tip: people in Valencia (and maybe in other parts of Spain as well?) don't seem eat dinner between 5 & 8 PM, at least not during the time of year we were there. We had a difficult time finding a place that was open or serving food at that time. Luckily we happened upon a bar who, even though they weren't serving food at the time, offered nachos and guacamole before the kitchen opened. They were delicious. The streets were crowded with families all celebrating the beginning of Las Fallas. We beat it back down to the park and rode our bikes back to the car. The sky and scenery were beautiful!We took an 8 hour flight back to Toronto where we got stuck for a day because of bad weather. We didn't end up getting home until late the following evening. We were tired once we arrived home but had a great time together in Europe!
Next we headed to Spain to relax in slightly warmer temperatures. You can check out that post coming soon!
What is on the top of your travel list? Do you have a favourite vacation spot? Let us know in the comments below.