Thursday Sept 3 Continued
Elche
Gertrud wanted us to drive toward Elche. This time I was driving. In fact, it’s the only day I got to drive. Nancy and I managed to use the GPS to get to Elche. We were not impressed, but we maneuvered the streets until we found the Palmeral de Elche. The palm grove is a UNESCO historic site.
Jávea (Xábia)
We thought we were heading to Alicante, but it turns out the parador is in Jávea (Xábia). It’s one of the regions where a sizable part of the population want to cede from Spain and they require both spellings of public signs (similar to Québec in Canada). The former is Castilian and the later is Catalan.
On the drive to Jávea we pass Benidorm, a city with quite a skyline. There were hundreds of high rises including the tallest apartment building in Spain (Europe?). Unfortunately most of the buildings are virtually empty and/or unfinished. These are generally called Zombie buildings. The look alive, but are really dead. What makes it worse is that many remember Beniform as a cute, quaint seaside village, perhaps like Half Moon Bay in the US. It had no restrictions and the developers exploited the financial boom to totally transform Benidorm into what most people think is something much worse.
We arrive at the Parador de Jávea a little past 7PM. It’s another parador that looks like Hilton in brown, tan, neutral, but build right on the beach. We have nice views and decide to have dinner at the hotel on the terrace. It is lightning and threatening to rain, but holds off and provides a great backdrop for our first official paella. It was good to get some for the table, but we perhaps preferred the next to last one we had the best.
[13,380 steps]
Friday Sept 4
Castellón de la Plana
We did a late departure for once. We started up to leave town without the GPS and got lost. It then punished us by taking us literally through single-lane dirt roads amongst the farmers and donkeys. We were led into a road that was blocked off (looked to me like it was washed out in a flood) and our attempt to recover got us even more lost. Gertrud asked a farm hand the way out of town and he made some suggestions. Eventually, the GPS agreed. We felt like we learned our lesson.
We got to the toll road when thunderstorms hit, but then got back to the coastal road once the storms subsided. Traffic was slow and there were some slots where we noticed nicely dressed young girls on the side of the road.
We did a detour from the GPS fastest route and drove through Valencia. Valencia is a vibrant university town known for its arts and modern life. We snapped a couple pictures going through town and I augmented them with Internet shots below.
Castellón has it’s own real estate bubble notoriety. A new airport with terminals was built and after 4 years it still had not had a single plane. Not airline wanted to serve it and they ran out of money (the story of many, many building projects in Spain throughout history). We heard when in town that RyanAir is planning to serve it, so the bad luck may change.
We arrive in Castellón de la Plana about noon in rain. It’s the NH Hotel Castellón Mindoro in the old town section. A 20-yearl old student checks us in and later Maria de Carmen helps us make a plan. We walk around town, get some tapas, and then head back to the hotel to work (me) and nap. We taxi to the port section and the polish clerk at the NH Hotel there guides us to the Restaurante Club Nautico. We arrive and it’s literally empty overlooking the marina. We take the best seat in the house and have a great meal and excellent service. I have the Seabass and Nancy has the Lobster Paella. Near the end of our meal another group comes in. We decide it’s our best meal yet.
[7,591 steps]
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