Javea Old Town

We started the day with our morning ritual by jog/walk to the port area.  This morning I was going to be ready and bring a camera with me so when the boats were coming in, I could take pictures.  The only problem was there was no boat in sight coming in.  We jog to the end of the wharf and the boats had already beaten us in.  They were putting their catches in wooden boxes to unload and sell at auction.  I asked a man and he told me the morning auction was starting in a little while and another one around 5 pm for the other types of fish.  I will return at some time to watch and take a few pictures. The fish this morning were like sardines, very small.

Sun rise on our jog/walk this morning

Boats unloading

Packing the fish in wooden crates for auction

After Breakfast, I took the bike and went exploring around the port area and then the area between the port and old town.  Lots of grocery stores in this area.  I check them all to see if any were better than the one we use.  Pretty much the same.  Always fun to see how some of the stuff is packaged compared to us.  Lots of vegetables are in bottles, so you can see what you get.  One store had a large display of cured hams on display in a wide range of prices.  Otherwise not many stores like we have at home.  I saw one electronic store like futureshop but smaller.  They did have lots of TVs plus about 10 netbooks and ereaders  but not much as far as electronic.  Lots of household items. 

I was also on a lookout for a place where they were having a boot sale at the now defunct drive-in.  A boot sale is the British term for car trunk sale.  Kinda a flea market out of your car.  Found the location but it was not happening.  Maybe next week.

Views on my bike ride

For lunch we packed a picnic for the beach.  On the way out the lady from unit 5 in our building was on her way back to her place.  Quite the interesting lady, we have ran into her a couple of times now in the halls or outside the building.  Could probably write a book from just the few things she told us.  For example, she used to work for the Rathskellers group when she was younger and would take 4 weeks of in a row for a holiday, which back then was unheard of.  She married a Spaniard and they moved back to Spain. She mentioned that David Ferrer was born in this born in this town.  He is one of the best tennis players in the world, currently ranked number 4. Wendy just told me that he was here on Monday.  Once we finished our conversation with her we headed to the beach across the road from where we are. We found a little spot that was somewhat sheltered and enjoyed our lunch, me with a nice cold beer.  The beaches in parts are rocky but we found a sandy spot. Wendy was not so happy with me when I asked her if she was sticking her tummy out while she was lying on the beach towel, guess that was not the smartest question I have ever asked… To my own defense she was lying on her side and she was kinda and she was kinda, I better not write any more before I get in deeper waters.

Picnic for lunch

After lunch, I biked in the back of the beach area to look at the restaurants and stores.  Most of them look like they are mom & pop shops.   Many bars, where a few people were enjoying a cold beer on a sunny afternoon.  I almost stopped for one myself but instead I stopped for an ice cream.   The prices the restaurants were advertising were a bit cheaper that on the waterfront but only but 1 or 2 euros.  I found the tennis club in town and guess what. It is the David Ferrer tennis academy.  They have clay courts,  we will see if we can get rackets and go play for an hour.

After Wendy was done work we headed up to Old Town.  We decided to go visit the Town museum.  The lady in our building had told us we must visit this museum, her sons were very involved in getting this up and going, and she said there were a lot of interesting things that her sons had helped find.  The building it is in dates back to the 17^th century and was owned by high class people in the past.  We were surprised that when we walk in and the man at the desk pointed us where to start.  No admission charge.  Gotta love that.  The museum has about 25 rooms with laid out in a way that follows the history of the town. From the time people lived in caves in the mountains to the 20^th century.  (Iberian, Romans, Moors, Medieval, 1800-1900s).  Very interesting.  Lots of artifacts from all those periods in display cases and pamphlets telling what things were.  On the top you could go to the roof.  The views from there were great as this is one of the highest points in Old Town which is one of the highest points in town.   The tile floors in this place were colorful and beautiful.  Will go for a second visit to the museum at some point as we only had one hour this time. 

Museum in Old Town

Beautiful stair case

Church in old town from the rooftop of the museum

orange fields we walk through to get to old town

View of the water from old town

Afterwards we wandered the little narrow streets of old town looking for somewhere to eat and at the same time checking out the old buildings.  The church in old town dates back from the 14^th century and also worked as a stronghold for the town.  It was open but a service was being held so we did not go in.  We might have stood out as there were about 20 people and they were all over 70 and Spaniards.  We did a quick visit of the Market which is open in the evening.  It only dates back from the 1950 but it is done in a Gothic style.  We did find a wine store.  We asked the owner if he could speak English.  He could but just as much as we can speak Spanish.  We told him we were looking for a bottle of wine around 15 euros ($20.00).  We wanted to try one and if we like it we will bring back a couple of bottle back home.   He was very good and picked 3 bottles for us to choose (12, 15 & 20 Euros).  We picked the 15 Euro one and will try it tomorrow night with supper.  I will have to make something good to go with it.  We did not find any restaurant that we liked and that had many people in it.  We are not too crazy to go eat somewhere where we are the only 2 there.  The food can`t be that fresh.   Some of the busy places were for tapas and we did not feel like that tonight.  We hope to do that in Valencia with James and Karen.  Tapas are like appetizers and you order a bunch of them for your meal.  It will be more fun when there are 4 of us to do this.

Coffee available from the side of the building

|An idea for Lima

Wine store

Indoor market

 We decided to walk to the port area of town where the restaurants are busier.  Wendy wanted to go try some paella.  The other night, the owner told somebody walking by that they made great paellas.  We ordered mixed paella for 2 which was chicken and seafood.  It was very good.  In the kitchen you could see all sized of paella pans.  The larger ones would be big enough for 12 people.  It was a bit more expensive than the other meals we had but it was made fresh and tasted good.  No 3 course menu of the day today.  I had a pint of beer and Wendy had wine.  The bill was just a little bit over $50 Canadian with tip and taxes.  We are still not sure how much to tip here in Spain.  We were told to leave a few coins but we tend to do more than that.  Maybe it is from being a waiter in the past.  The walk home at 10:30 seemed longer than when we go out in the day time.  I guess 3 hours of walking before supper tired us out.

Sunset over the windmills we walked to the other night

Paella for 2, yummy!!