Santa Barbara Castle

Towering over the city of Alicante, the Santa Barbara Castle is one of the largest medieval fortresses in Europe. It sits on Mount Benacantil, overlooking the city below.

You can see it from many areas of the city, here peeking between tall buildings. This was a daily view as we walked from our apartment towards the beach. I loved the pastel colors on these apartment buildings.

The castle dates back to the 9th century, at the time under Muslim control of the Iberian Peninsula. It was captured by Castilian forces led by Alfonso of Castile on December 4, 1248 and named for Saint Barbara, whose feast day was the day the castle was recaptured from the Arabs. After the 18th century, its role in the military had declined and it was sometimes used as a prison. Then, it remained abandoned  until 1963 when it was opened to the public.

We chose to do the hike up to the castle rather than the elevator lifts that are available on a different side. The path leading to the nice trail was very near where we were staying. Here is the sign at the beginning of the urban trail.

And here was the beginning of the many steps up the mountain. I mentioned that we took a lot of steps while in Spain. A whole bunch.

 We made our way to the top and were amazed at all the different levels of buildings and interesting things to see. There originally was a palace, dungeons, a small church and even a moat. Besides what ever else may have been there over the years. To me, it is just interesting to imagine all the different people that had walked those paths before us.

Here is one of the lookout towers. The views from these were amazing.

You could see the sea, the city and the walls below that surrounded and protected the castle. It was quite windy this particular day and was most noticeable while out on these corners. Notice how packed in the buildings are. Now you can really appreciate how narrow most of the streets are!

Another lookout tower from a different angle. They had some medieval statues positioned just right. At some angles from below, they looked quite real. Again, makes you imagine how it truly looked at one time.

The lowest arches were actually where we entered the castles interior. As I said, there were many levels and structures that led to a higher point.

Another wonderful medieval soldier ready to protect the castle!

Yep, it was windy and yep, we gingerly made our way to sit along this wall for a photo. It was a long way down to the next level below! They could really 'sea' a long way for any enemy ships that might have made their way towards the castle.

We were somewhat surprised to see the plant life was just like our backyard. Leah had told us that Alicante was a mix of Phoenix and parts of California and she was right. All of these exact plants are in our yard!

                                        I do love a little rust and a great piece of metal!

They had a small museum in one of the buildings. In this particular hallway, they had photographs of years gone by in Alicante. It was so neat to see the candid daily life photos and actually recognize some of the streets and buildings. Again, how many generations of people walking the same streets. I know it is like that in many places, but hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of years is pretty amazing.

 Evidently, there was a flood at some point and I love the ladies playing their instruments.

                                       A group of people walking the path to the castle.

                                      Some spanish dancers perhaps?  Love the fans!
                                  And look...today we would call him a photo bomber!

It is definitely a fishing area with seafood being very popular. They still prepare a dish with little fish like those in the baskets. They fry them whole and you are suppose to eat the whole thing. Me? Not so adventurous. 

                  This room had some artifacts on display and the doors led out to another level.

This was a wall of broken pottery pieces. Really quite lovely and fascinating to look at the different patterns.

                        Can you just imagine someone sneaking through here in the dark of night?

                                            The beautiful Mediterranean Sea for miles.

                                                            And city for miles too.

A view of the port of Alicante. 

                                    Another view of the castle grounds from above.

   They had these sketches on display showing how the grounds had slightly changes over the years.
                                                             The year 1575.

   
                                                                             1709

                                                                                 1986

                                                     Here we are fighting the wind.
                                                  Having changed slightly from 1986.

quote monday

                        A journey of a thousand miles 
                              begins with a single step.
                                                                                    -Lao Tzu


I think we walked a thousand miles while in Spain.
And it started with one step.
And a few stairs.
I'm working through my photos.
You'll see more soon.

Happy Monday!
~norma~

quote monday

                                             Autumn is a second spring 
                             when every leaf is a flower. 
                                                                                ~Albert Camus


I spotted this leaf on a sidewalk in Barcelona. Yes, I said sidewalk. Even those are beautiful.

Happy Monday!
Happy November!
~norma~



                            On another Monday note....this happened last night.

Chuck and I didn't feel anything. Austin said he did. Fall is coming in with a big statement I guess. The temperature has finally cooled off and I'm almost ready to put my sandals away. 
That's exciting! I'm not sure that an earthquake is though. Yikes!

spain part one

After much anticipation and much packing and re-packing, the morning finally came for us to head to the airport to begin our Grand Spain Adventure! We flew from here to Dallas and then boarded the "big plane" to Madrid. Our carry-on bags were stowed and we settled in for our eight (and something) hours of flight across the U.S. and Atlantic ocean. The flight tracker mode on the video screens was a pretty neat way of checking in on where we were and the flight path we were taking. Unfortunately, I only snapped this one photo, as I may or may not have been a little uneasy about seeing a little plane image over blue ocean for a very long time. 

International flights are quite nice. They entertain you with movies and food. We had a full dinner, which was more than a little foil bag with five pretzels in it, and... it was quite tasty. Later, towards the wee hours of the morning, they served a small breakfast. Plenty of drinks were rolling down the isles too. The couple in the seats in front of us made themselves cozy right off the bat by reclining their chairs completely back. They were pretty much in our laps the entire flight. The woman behind me was very tall and as she lounged down in her chair to sleep, she kept slipping further and further under my chair as the night rolled on. I was a bit startled when I first felt her feet on the back of my legs! Ugh. Other than feeling a bit claustrophobic,  the flight was good and we dozed a little throughout the night.  As we were flying into Madrid, I snapped a photo out the window. It was almost 7:30 a.m and still dark! Our first impression of Spain...the sun doesn't rise very early!

We marveled at the airport as soon as we stepped through the doors! We just followed the crowd hoping we would find our next gate easily and anticipated whether or not we would need to use our Spanish..."donde estsa el gate-o?"

We had a few hours to "people watch" before our next flight boarded, taking us to our destination of Alicante. We finally arrived and so did our one checked bag. Hooray! Next, we found our way to the bus stop which would take us close to the place we would be staying. This was an experience trying to figure out the correct bus and if it would make the stop we wanted it to. The driver seemed to know where we were going and said he would let us know when to get off. At a certain point however, at a bus stop... that driver got off and a new one got on! Shift change evidently.  A little confusion ensued as we talked with the new driver to let him know where we wanted to stop. Fortunately, there was a man on the bus that could speak a little English and told the driver where we wanted to go. It was a bit of a rush to get off, when we were told it was our stop, and as the bus zoomed off and we were standing on a busy street corner with all our luggage, we had our first moment of "here-we-are... now where do we go?" My very-skilled-at-reading-maps husband, studied his map and directions and pointed "this way", to find our apartment. (they rent apartments as they do hotels). We quickly found out that the streets are not marked with street signs, the corners of building have the street names. But not all of them. So, we started to walk, me following my leader, lugging my rolling suitcase along brick streets, hearing Leah say in my ear..."Mom, you don't want to be hauling big suitcases through those streets"!  Soon, north didn't seem like north and streets didn't seem to be matching up like he thought they should. It didn't make sense in his head and his well-studied map did not seem to be helping.  So, when we found ourselves on more of a main-street again, we made the decision to hail the cab that was driving by. He stopped and we stumbled through conversation, showing him the address and our map of where we needed to go. He pointed to the direction we had come and said..."there".   Or in other words..."you crazy Americans...it's the street right there...you passed it". We thanked him and turned around and started walking again. One small block and there it was.

We had come down the street and didn't look to our left to see the small sign Apartmentos Artilleros above the small door. You see, the streets are narrow, the buildings are tall and shops are on the bottom floor with apartments on the top. As was this with the Optical shop below. However, as we walked towards it from the direction in the photo, we recognized it right away from the pictures we saw on the internet. As we were standing on the corner looking up, the cab driver came down the street. He had driven around the corner, the other way, to see if we found it! We thought it very nice of him, as he could have piled us in his car initially, driven us around a few blocks and pulled up to the apartment, charging us a cab ride and us not ever being the wiser that we were really only about 40 walking steps away. We had to call the number on the door for someone to come give us a key and let us in. MANY narrow steps up a great staircase later, we were finally in our Alicante apartment.

The stairs we had to walk to get to the fourth floor...

The view off our balcony...

The view the other direction...I loved the tile detail on the corner of the building.

And the view of the street below.

 And then we got to meet up with this girl...

We were happy to see her and she was happy to see us! We walked around awhile and then had a nice dinner. Our first Spanish tapas dinner!

And then it was off to bed for the two of us. We were starting to feel the weariness of our long travel and being awake for 24 hours (mostly). Leah would have class the next day, so we had plans to visit the castle on the hill.

Stay tuned.

quote monday

               
           
                   Adventure is worthwhile.
                                                                                                   -Aristotle


Our great Spain adventure happened.
It was incredible.
I will be sharing....until then,
Happy Monday!

quote monday

Happy Monday!
~norma~

happy october

I recently watched one of the little hummingbirds that hang out in our backyard on a daily basis. They fly around the flowers and the feeder and even the sprinklers, hoping for a sweet and refreshing drink.  Today is the first day of October and the temps are suppose to reach 106. This is the toughest month for me living here. I miss the crisp mornings and the turning leaves and the winds that whip up and swirl the fallen leaves into a leafy tornado. But, I know it's the fall season because the stores tell me so. And so does memory. I can close my eyes and picture all that fall has to offer.

For now though, I will watch the hummingbirds flit around the orange flowers. I will watch the summer-choked plants come back to life. I will watch all the snowbirds return to our area and count all of the out-of-state license plates. I will watch the winter grass start to grow... all green and lush! I will watch our roses as they start to sprout new leaves and flower buds. I will watch for the owls as they come back to our trees. I will watch for all the subtle changes that mean a different season really has begun.

This little one isn't a very colorful hummingbird, but it didn't mind me standing quietly by, snapping a few photos. Look at it's tiny tiny feet!

                                                They really are amazing little birds.

             Do you know that they have very long straw-like tongues that suck the nectar ?

This is a picture I found off the internet. I would be so very lucky if I were to ever get a photo like this, but for now I will have to use someone else's. Isn't that interesting? That is the tongue!

My photo just looks like they stick their beak into the flower, which they do, but their tongue darts out at top-speed to slurp the nectar up. 

I enjoy watching the hummingbirds. They are so very territorial with the good nectar spots and often fight each other off and on some days, when it is too hot for them to do a lot of flying, they just sit up in the trees and sing their tiny little chirppy sounds. Cute birds!

Okay...I just wanted to wish you a happy October! Wherever you are, I hope fall is showing it's beauty whatever it may be.

Cool and colorful or warm and sunny!

Make it a great fall!