8 Aug 2010 – Fireworks

How fortunate to be here for the fiesta in honour of Calpe’s patron saint La Virgen de las Nieves.

During this time the towns commercial activity virtually shuts down for the celebrations. Festivities begin at dawn with flutes and drums in the streets and include processions, bull-running, dancing in the streets, live music, sporting events and firework (my favourite) displays.

What a life! Walked Playa Arenal-Bol, De Calpe, De La Fosa, visiting the trendy shops and disco!

Thanks to Rita & Jürgen, Kitty & Dennis visited and what a treat to taste Rita’s yummy home-made paella with Sangria to drink and fresh fruit salad.

Breathtaking views from up the hills, 15mins walk from the house!

The view after 60 is breathtaking. What is lacking is someone, anyone of the older generation to whom you can turn when you want to satisfy your curiosity about some detail of the landscape of the past. There is no longer any older generation. You have become it, while your mind was mostly on other matters – Willian Maxwell

6 Aug 2010 – A Very Brief History!

Originally settled by the Iberians/ancient Spanish people, Calpe was later the site of a Roman fish-salting factory, located at Los Banos de Reina. Controlled by the Moors during the Arab occupation of the Iberian Peninsular/8th-13th centuries, the Castle of Calpe was then built to defend the town against the Christian reconquest, but fell, app 1240 to forces under Jaime I of Aragon.

After the destruction of a small town called Ifach, built on the towering Penon de Ifach, a community was founded in a farmhouse overlooking Calpe bay which developed into the town now called Calpe.

1637, the town was sacked by Barbary pirates and many of its inhabitants taken to Algiers, where they remained prisoners for 5 years. The original walled town was extended during the 17th-18th centuries as the pop increased around an economy based mostly on fishing and salt production. The growth of tourism began back in the 1930’s and has continued to grow ever since, ultimately becoming the main source of income for the town

Avenida Gabriel Miró is Calpe’s main drag, running from the sea/Poniente Beach to the old town at the top of the hill. This street is filled with trendy and fashionable shops… all out of my price range!

Jazz performance at Bolero was fun, especially when the performers are all 60+ Thanks to Rita & Jürgen for a wonderful evening with fireworks to end it. This is the festival weekend; will post pictures with fireworks where the fascination only last for a blink of the eye, thus no history 🙂

The very ink with which history is written is merely fluid prejudice – Mark Twain 

4 Aug 2010 – Meeting with Kitty

Kitty from Ireland is also here at her holiday house in the area and we decided to spent Tue in Altea (pop: 23,780, area: 13.3sq mi), app 12km from Calpe. At present, the economy of Altea is based on tourism, which started to grow in the 1950s because of its good weather, beaches and the labyrinthine streets with whitewashed house-fronts that characterize the town.

During the Moorish domination the land around Altea belonged to the Taifa of Denia until it was recaptured by Christian Spaniards in 1244 under James I of Aragon. The town was quickly fortified, and walls were erected to enclose what is now known as the ‘old town’ from outsiders.

This maze of cobbled narrow and crooked streets with glimpses of the bay is one of the better features of the town. Other sights include the church of Nuestra Señora del Consuelo or La Mare de Déu del Consol/Our Lady of Solace, easily identifiable by its picturesque blue and white domes, tiled with glazed ceramics.

There is this lovely ceramic shop by Eugenio Mira and I just could not resist buying a small plate with a tree motive for EUR9!

Art begins with resistance – at the point where resistance is overcome. No human masterpiece has ever been created without great labor – Andre Gide

1 Aug 2010 – Ifach

Aug Special Dates:

5 Aug – Happy Bday LAM ChengEn

9 Aug – Happy 45th Bday SIN

21 Aug – Guri & Hans Olav’s wedding day

What is happening… floods in China & Pakistan, fires in Russia, cool weather in SIN???

Fri: Rita & Jürgen had their Scandinavian friends over for drinks and finger food… great to meet the Norwegians and the Swedes.

The fresh produce market here is quite something.

Sat: boating & swimming all day along Costa Blanca. From whichever direction you approach Calpe, the dominating view seawards is of the Peñon de Ifach, a 332 metre rock that, has been used since Phoenician times as a defensive standpoint against pirates and Barbary raiders. It is now a Nature reserve (since 1987) and provides a shelter for a number of rare plants and home to over 300 species of animals including colonies of sea birds that use it as a nesting ground. Also the largest single rock in the Mediterranean called the Northern Rock by the Phoenicians to distinguish it from the Southern Rock at Gibraltar.

Sun: The sea is wonderful… so wonderful that I got sun-burnt on my back as I forgot to put sun-protection on my back yesterday 🙁 This morning a walk around the shady side of the Ifach and there, two crazy rock climbers (last pix: zoom in and you will find two tiny figures, ie your eye-sight is still good!). Risking their lives is one thing but… inconveniencing others if anything happens is entirly another issue!

If mankind doesn’t kill himself first on a mountain, he may just learn how to inhabit the Earth as god planned – Editorial in News after the ascent of the Nose