Denia 2nd October 2007

Once again we had a lazy start to the day - got up at about 8.15, had breakfast and then set out to see if we could find some markets. We headed for the markets in Benissa - found an Information Centre where we got a list of markets on each day of the week - and found out that the market in Benissa was a second hand market !!!!

Needless to say we headed for Jalon which was where another market was. This is a very old town and they had actually closed 4 streets for the market. We had a wander around there - saw some gypsey pants but with nowhere to try them on weren’t game to buy them. I nearly bought a little leather handbag but didn’t in the end as it was really little and I probably wouldn’t have fitted much in it anyway.

After that we headed to Altea to another market only to find that we had arrived there too late - 95% of the stalls had already closed down for the day (it was 2pm and they were obviously off for their daily siesta). The good thing is that Al said he thought with the set ups that they had, there is a good chance that they don’t only go to the markets at Altea but will be somewhere different each day so maybe when we go to the next markets they will be there.

We had a lovely time driving around all these little old towns - they have narrow streets and everyone parks with two wheels on the pavement and two wheels in the road. The parking places in the shopping centres are really tiny - any Spaniards going to Australia would have a great time parking - mind here they are not above taking up two parking places rather than straightening out and going in again at the correct angle !!! Also a lot of the roads and entrances are at 90 degrees and they don’t make it easy for you to turn into them.

The scenery around this area is very different to what we have seen previously - most of the hills are actually terraced but the terraces are only quite narrow - not sure what they use them for. The gardens are quite over grown and it doesn’t look like many people take an interest in keeping their gardens looking nice - maybe they don’t have time.

We were going to stop at some ceramic places to see the numbers we want but in the end drove past them all as we didn’t feel like getting in and out and some were closed for siesta. We have certainly seen a lot more of that in the little towns - most places are closed for siesta - mind you there were a fair few places in Madrid and Barcelona which closed for siesta as well. We still haven’t managed another siesta - oh well, the good thing is that we won’t have to get out of the habit when we get back to work !!

We had lunch at a lovely modern place in the middle of a little old town called Lluna. It was really well decorated. We all went to use the bathroom and when we opened the door it was pitch black - the tiles were black and the lights worked on sensor switches. The toilets each had sensor lights as well - as usual, I chose the toilet with the defective sensor light. So, once again, I was stuck on the toilet and had to keep waving my hand up and down as the light was switching off every 30 seconds !!!! We had previously seen a dummy (of a man) with an automated arm waving a flag at the road works to warn people to slow down - when I got out I said to Al and Kaitlin that I could have used one of those dummies in the toilet to save me having to do it !!!!!

The afternoon Kaitlin continued working on her legal assignment and I was reading my book - hope I manage to find some more English books somewhere along the line as I have come to the last of the books that we brought over with us (there is one left but Kaitlin has recommended I don’t read it as it is too gory !!!) and I still have at 12 days until we get home !!!!!! Al went off to investigate some sports shops he had seen along our travels as well as a turn off which he thought would get us to the resort quicker than the other way we normally come. When he got back we all went to the sports shop and he and I bought some light jumpers they had on sale. We looked at another shoe shop which had been closed when he was out and also got some more paella for dinner. Al cooked tonight and I had a couple of glasses of Amarula. He is dishing up some ice-cream and then we are going to play some rummy.

3 happy travellers going to bed a little later tonight having had lots more laughs and fun together.