Market day in Old Town and visit to Denia

For our morning jog/walk we headed towards the port area as I could see the fishing boats coming in.  I had Wendy’s camera with me.  About 2/3 of the way in, I stopped to take a picture of one boat coming in.  The camera battery was dead.  I had not recharged her camera for a while.  Good thing it was not yesterday on our hike.  Either way, Wendy was not happy as she had hoped on going the other direction which is nicer as you do not job along the main road.  So no pictures of a boat with lots of seagulls following it on a calm sea with a slightly foggy background with mountains on one side as the sun is breaking out of the low lying clouds on the other.  You will just need to use your imagination for this one.   I am pretty sure tomorrow we will be going the other way.

Insert your imaginary picture here :-)

After a short rest, I headed to old town with the bike as it is 3 km and my legs felt like lead this morning when we were jogging. No way was I walking that far. Stopped at the information centre to take a picture of the graves below the plexiglass.  After that I went to the indoor market and got something to eat.  Churros and a hot chocolate to dip them in.  I also ordered a tortilla, which is the eggs & potatoes omelets they do everywhere in Spain.   

Market

Graveyard that you see in the information center

City hall staircase

Market

Breakfast

From there I headed to the main area of the market.  There, they had a large section that is called a gypsy market where they sell quite the variety of things (Shoes, clothes, belts, sunglasses, underwear, household stuff) and all kind of other stuff.  I bought 2 leather belts for 10 Euros total. It was pretty much like the ones in Portugal last year except that they had paella pans and flamenco dresses.  Above this area, a row of vegetable & fruit stands were set up.  I picked up a few vegetables for tonight’s supper.  A couple of types of mushrooms and some new potatoes. There was one more area in the lower section of town.  This one had more plants and flowers and candies and desserts things.   

Gypsy market - On thursdays

Candies

I also explored old town to check out the things I had not seen yet.  In the 1800s and up to 1950, this area was big in the raisin production.  The remains of one of the buildings from the 1800s where they would dry the raisins on beds still stand. The town hall was open but just the lobby.  It has a beautiful stone staircase.  There was also an old convent with a nice bell tower.  Again lots of narrow streets with more shops open than at night time.

Raisin Factory

Lotto ticket seller

Convent in Old Town Javea

Headed to the beach area for our lunch time walk.  It had been very nice all morning in old town.  As we walked, we notice that it was kinda foggy on the outskirts of town and the temperature dropped as the wind picked up.  I guess we should have taken long sleeves sweaters with us.  When you got a sunny spot it was nice and warm but otherwise Brrrrr.  It made for a quick walk.  As we return to the apartment, our new best friend in Spain (Margaret)  was on her way to check eh mail.  We told her about walking to the Santa Lucia Hermitage.  She told us her son has a farm property in town and if we would like to go, we could go pick some fresh fruits.  She would take us.  We told her yes and early next week would be great.

Most days we have a large salad for lunch and a Greek yogurt.  I went all out on the salad today.  The usual were included.  2 types of lettuce, olives, feta cheese, grated carrots, cucumber, red peppers, strawberries and mushrooms. We usually have some types of proteins with the salad.  Often a can of tuna.  Today we had smoked salmon slices, pate and Brie cheese on baguette slices.  Smoked salmon is unbelievably cheap at the grocery store, 100 grams for about $2.50 Canadian.  I also bought some 200 grams of Brie cheese yesterday for 1 Euro.

Tonight we decided to go to Denia, which is the town on the other side of the mountain from Javea.  It is about a 20 minute drive (15 km), over very twisty roads.  We parked at the marina and then walked to the information center.  We found out the castle was closed for the night, but the toy museum was still open.  We found out that Dania was once a huge toy manufacturing city, with over 40 companies making toys, starting with tin toys, then going to wooden toys.  These toy companies were here until about 1960.  We then walked through Old Town, very different than Javea.  Lots of commercial high end shopping here just on the edge of old town.  Old town had lots of little restaurants, and old streets, always fun to explore.  Walked up to the castle, which was closed, but got a few pictures.  I may  come back one day next week during the day for something to do.  The Church in Old Town was having a service so we weren’t able to visit.

Outside toy museum in Denia

City hall in Denia

Old town Denia

Marc, be prepared for these streets!

Castle entrance in Denia

Lotto winner??

Main Church in Denia

Back home at about 8:30. Yummy supper, then watching some of the Masters while working on this blog.  We may not post for a couple of days as we’re off to Valencia tomorrow for the week-end, and I know we don’t have internet included in our hotel.