Alicante



..the second fortress



Well, I was supposed to leave today but seems the reception desk in Denia is closed Mondays...? Was a bit late to do anything serious by the time I found this out, so went to see a few sights that I hadn’t time for yesterday, and spent a bit of time on the beach. Did find out that that fortress thing yesterday is in-fact just that, built in the early 19^th century with the idea of slowing down Napoleon...seems it didn’t succeed.

Early documents speak of faces in the hillside below Santa Barbara Castle – they refer to them as the ‘Moorish faces’. I thought I had noticed something resembling a face, but didn’t really pay any attention until I went back and looked at some of the pictures I had taken earlier – most are fairly abstract, but If you look really closely, one is fairly pronounced... You may have to squint to bring it into focus ... :)

Santa Barbara Castle as seen from the backside

I climbed the hill again for fun (and also so I could take the elevator) ...by the way, the access tunnel is 200m long and the lift up is 150m, which were installed in the ‘60s. There was another tunnel dug in the 1700’s by the French, but its only purpose was to contain a bunch of gunpowder with the idea of blowing up the castle – they did partially succeed, but the resulting landslide also destroyed many 100’s of buildings at the foot of the hill.

Would you believe this building was originally commissioned as a house? Seems the guy had an issue with the concierge at the hotel he was staying at so he had 'such a house built as to outshine the hotel'.

 Trip total 11209km