Medieval Market and the Playa in Alicante

Thursday, 30 April, 2015:

It promised to be a HOT day in Murcia, so we opted to head to our favorite beach city, Alicante, to escape the heat and enjoy yet another festival.

Thus it was out of La Hacienda to catch the train northeast to Alicante.

Alicante's Medieval Festival

It would be my third medieval oriented festival having visited the Mercado Medieval festivals in Orihuela and Murcia earlier this year. For Laurie, it would be her first such festival and a chance to buy things!

At the Alicante Train Station

This hairdo should catch on quickly I suspect.

Café con Leche in Alicante

A great way to start the morning.

The start of the Mercado

Birds of Prey were a nice touch

Joe Mollica?

Falcon

Lots of trinkets were for sale

Olives, Laurie's favorites

Fake but colorful flowers

Medieval Armory

THE BAND!!!

With drummers no less!

Band Warm-Up

In a Moorish restaurant

Why would you not want colorful

ropes to weave into all sorts of things?

More fans? Really?

She bought four more in her drive to eventually corner Ventura County's fan market.

Nice flower arrangement made of . . .

. . . CHOCOLATE!

Now we're talking!

Herbalist

Now we're getting serious

Convent of the Sisters of the Blood

Bloods and Crips come to Alicante?

Big chess game

Dominican Chess Masters?

Calendula soap is to be used for

Burns,

Moisturizing and

Intimate Areas

Candied Fruits and Vegetables

We should have but didn't

I'm not sure that mojitos were actually a medieval beverage.

Grilling Time!!!

Spice is nice

HUGE loaves of fresh baked bread

We will enjoy these two

fellows later today

The Ayuntimiento

That's what we're talking about!

Dalí

View out of one of the

Ayuntamiento's front doors

 Troubadors greeting a Band member

 HUGE marionette

We'll need to tackle like this

on Saturday

Falconry alive and well

in Alicante

Stone Carver

Nice dragon

He actually passed

Basket Weaving 101 with flying colors! 

 Multi-colored licorice vines

 Intricate dessert pastry

 Guevara?

 Cheeses Galore!

I wonder what 86 50 means?

More dried/candied fruits and vegetables

What are these three up to?

Time for a vino break

Game of Thrones band? 

Do you like them? 

Nice puppet

THE BAND AGAIN!

Not only can she juggle, she can also . . .

YIKES!!!

She makes me feel . . .

Spanish for "ancient"

Let's see the juggler in action

And THE BAND too

We're having a granddaughter!

Laurie was a Crescenta Valley Falcon

This monk can carve your
name on a grain of rice!

I kid you not!

We had seen a lot of fun things but it was getting warmer, so we were off to . . .

. . . La Playa

I love the boardwalk's design.

Nice day on the Med

The water was refrescante!

Mas-a-gee

I was proud to continue my support of local Chinese Tongs in their endeavors to spread the art of Chinese massage to beaches all over Europe.

When the beach time was done, we had to walk through the Mercado Medieval on our way back to the Alicante Train Station, might as well get something to eat.

Looked good

Looked BETTER!

Thus we sat down to eat . . .

. . . delicious croquettas and . . .

. . . pork ribs

The Medieval French fries were a nice touch too.

BBQ cooks eating what they cooked

That is always a good sign.

A Moor on his Medieval cell phone

I love these historical notes on

Alicante's street corners

Another great day in Alicante and we can't complain about our trips here, but really do have to get to Cabo de Palos soon to see their highly recommended beach.