I insisted in having the remainder of our strawberries (4) and an orange on the balcony before we left.  A clear blue sky and the sea to match … a group of swimmers out, swimming to a marker and back.  The workers have started and moving the stones up the beach. 

There is an age that a man should wear a shirt in public …

We leave to have breakfast at a patisserie, the croissants here are as good as in France, croissant de chocolate … yum. John is settling into the Spanish way of life and a toasted small bagette with cheese and jamon (ham) however more like procuito … very yummy.  We leave south past areas that we haven’t yet seen … more lovely beaches and apartments. 

We left the coast for a short while, the morning sun on the mountains around us is spectacular.  Soon after 10km we were approaching Benidorm, a metropolis, skyscrapers everywhere, traffic lights. A great cycle way in the middle of the road.  What do you do when you are waiting at traffic lights, take a photo. 

I can’t believe the skyscrapers, apartments and hotels.  It’s 10.30am a lovely sunny day, the tourists are making their way to the beach, carrying folding chairs, beach umbrellas and beach paraphernalia.  We see the sea ahead of us and the beach is the attraction here, an exercise group in front of us.  Heaps of sunbathers here today, I’ve seen so any sunburnt bodies here in Spain … and 60+ men with no shirt on … seriously … not a good look!!!

We had periods that we were on the busy roads with a big shoulder up and down hills with views of the sea. The mountains were closing in and very dry. At one point garmin recorded 10% gradient.  We were off course a few times trying to avoid hills but ended up on a main road. We had one last climb … John spotted it first … a tunnel … joy!!

Further on, garmin off my radar, we ended up in a spaghetti lot of roads, the speed increased to 120km … ummm … I’d better look at the course on phone … sure enough we had got ourselves on a major road.

‘Okay Johnny, we have about 15kms to go … I’m not staying on this busy road.’  We found an exit and headed down to the beach in search of my mapped route; garmin was finally happy as was I.

Down to the beaches, the sea breeze is in it’s about 2.30pm, the beach is emptying, is it the wind or hunger why these beachgoers are leaving?  ‘I’m stopping here to have lunch’ I say, hot, thirsty and not long to go and a beach … the beer didn’t last long nor did the toasted roll.  Off for another 10km, ignoring garmin again we were able to follow the coast into Alicante.

My mind is a blurr for today … lovely scenery, amazing mountains. Was it going off course too many times, the huge dead snake I had to go around that was on the road … who knows. Maybe 2 nights in Alicante will restore the mind. A lovely busy town that we have seen so far … we are staying on the edge of the old town and had dinner near the cathedral in a Thai restaurant … walking back we were astonished at the number of people at restaurants.

Our bikes are in a secured parking lot not far from here … there is no parking here even for bikes but for 1€ a day I guess that’s not bad.

One of the main attractions here is the castle … another castle and up on a hill!