Oh, L’Amour, Alicante Edition

So, Alicante. We promised a love letter. Here we go.

We arrived in Alicante in late May, with a scheduled stay through the end of June. We arrived to an apartment rental that we immediately liked. Last year, we spent four days here, where we accomplished a lot of things on the tourist checklist. From our first stay, we had a sense of the layout of the city, which is big enough to absorb the demands of tourism very well. And, luckily, our apartment is in easy walking distance to the town center, promenade, pretty plazas, and tourist points of interest, while being removed from them and a bit more “real.”

It is a very residential city, which distributes amenities, such as grocery stores, restaurants, and parks, throughout, and is animated most hours of the day. It’s fun to see toddlers and octogenarians share the park, and many adults handling their shopping trolleys. Our neighborhood is home to lots of Latin American businesses and people, which has struck us as just a little bit ironic.

We like to explore our environment on foot, and we like to eat. Alicante offers an abundance of walking-about opportunities, and, yes, fun food.

Walking Exploration

We’ve crisscrossed the city on foot, astonished at the many living neighborhoods we’ve discovered. Our apartment has view of the lesser of Alicante’s two castles, the Castillo de San Fernando. Set atop a hill (of course), the castle has walking paths leading up to it and sweeping views from the top. Unlike Castillo de Santa Bárbara (the older, storied main castle of Alicante that is worth a visit), San Fernando wasn’t built until 1813, during the Spanish War of Independence. The castle’s surrounding park-like environs are not heavily visited during the day. In the early evenings, the park’s playground and other areas are filled with life, but the spacing is generous and much of the space is filled with pine trees, some olive trees, and lots of blooming oleander. We’ve found ourselves on several wanderings through the park and castle. From the top of the castle, splendid views of the city and coastline can be had.

Just a 20-minute walk from our apartment, across the street from a mall, is a trailhead where a 2+ hour hiking trail around the Serra Grossa nature reserve begins. The trail leaves the bustle of the city and its people behind quickly and gives way to a mediterranean arid landscape, at times reminiscent of the San Jacinto mountains in California. Very different are the views, of the city, on one side, and of the mediterranean sea, on the other. That juxtaposition, from the vantage point of a hill of rock, pine, and shrub, is captivating. What also captured our attention was that, luckily, there was sturdy rope available where that was necessary to make it down the trail safely.

Michael belaying down the 'trail'.

Walking though the old town, with its narrow, often car-less, streets and up and down the decoratively cobblestoned esplanade are quintessentially Alicante. Timing is important though, as these are the places where the short-term tourists concentrate. They’re easy to make fun of, as they wander in the aftereffects of the bachelor party, push their baby carriages about, or pile themselves on the popular beach to collect the sunburns to be paraded about later in the day. Just a few steps past the beach hubbub is the beginning of the breakwater that points out into the mediterranean sea. The breakwater, because it also serves as a cruise ship pier, has a beautiful, elevated walkway, offering amazing views of the city and surrounding sea and, on non-cruise ship days, surprising solitude.

Three Call outs on food: Mercadona, Cheese, and a Tasting Menu

Alicante has a lot of commerce. Upscale shopping for anything at El Corte Ingles, including fancy food that borders on silly. A traditional market hall that makes the most amazing foods available. An abundance of everything stores, generally operated by folks of Asian descent, which are the curiosity and bargain shopper’s dream come true. And so on. But one store (chain, actually) deserves special mention: Mercadona.

Mercadona is Spain’s biggest chain of grocery stores. And an exceptional food experience. Experientially, it is like the merger of the best parts of the Trader Joe’s and the (old) Whole Foods concepts, offering interesting, superior, well-priced, convenient products. The fish counter offers a variety of fresh seafood. The produce section moves product at a velocity that doesn’t require it to be doused in a water spray every other minute. The jamon station is staffed by one to three individuals carving jamon without reprieve. The bakery is putting out fresh crusty bread at all hours of the day. The prepped food area is small, but offers local specialties, like tortilla (basically, an egg and potato frittata) and arroz (rice, similar to paella). One thing that we didn’t know was missing in our life: Pickled garlic. Donut peaches are in season. And so on. Hardly a day is complete without a quick stop at Mercadona.

Surely, there are many cheese shops in Alicante, but the one that won our affection is La Trampa del Raton. The Mousetrap. It certainly trapped us, and a few times we left there with the most amazing cheeses to amuse our palates for days. The shopping experience is delightful, quintessentially old school specialty shop. Run by people who obviously have been doing so for a while, who clearly love cheese and love educating their customers about it, and who delight in two tourist customers who stumble through their Spanish to select just the right cheesy delight.

We’ve found a few restaurants we’ve liked, but the best was La Taberna del Gourmet- a mid-priced delight that we discovered last year, which offers a lovely tasting menu of local favorites. There's nothing like having a slab of brioche french toast that's been brulee'd served on a cow plate with a mini bucket of ice cream. Moo.

What did, however, leave the strongest impression was the process of sourcing our food at the stores, a little bit like a local, and taking it home.

And surely that’s part of why we love Alicante. Because it is welcoming, comfortable, and a little bit like a home.

We anticipate that we’ll be back.