The weather on Tuesday was a bit mixed when we got up, so we went for a bike ride up and down the coastline – about 25 km in total, to see what other resorts in the area had to offer. It was easy cycling, mostly along the seafront.
Frankly, the area is a collection of ghost towns; there are huge numbers of empty apartment blocks, two to three deep, which, whilst completed have hardly anyone living in them. I expect that they’ll be occupied once the season starts, but for the moment it’s eerily quiet. There is also evidence of the 2008 crash here too, with infrastructure in place, roads, drainage etc., and the unfinished shells of dozens of embryonic apartment blocks, in various stages of completion, none of them likely to be finished anytime soon it seems. It’s clear this is not an affluent area, and the expected extending of the up-market area of the Costa Blanca didn’t get this far north.
However, we did find a very nice cafe, and whilst originally intending to just have a coffee ended up with extra drinks and tapas! The place was run by a very friendly husband and wife team, and was spotless, despite the fact that it was very windy, and not far from the beach, there wasn’t a speck of dust or sand to be found!
Wednesday we set off for Denia to catch the afternoon ferry to Ibiza, where we’d booked an apartment for a few days, and where Ginny and Pete are to join us on Thursday. En route we noticed quite a few ‘ladies’ sitting at the side of the road on white plastic chairs, and done up to the nines, clearly waiting for customers. Karol was surprised that some were no spring chickens, and in the heat of the midday sun I suspect they’d be a bit overdone too! They all seems to have all-over tans, although as I was driving I had to take Karol’s word for it. It must be profitable for them, but in broad daylight….. You’d never get that in Cleckheaton!
We duly arrived at Denia Ferry Port, where the system is that you have to park up first, walk to the office and queue for your boarding passes, and then just the driver is allowed to accompany the vehicle on board.
Karol had to wait with all the other car and foot passengers for over an hour until they were allowed on board. The ferry was good, fairly quiet and on time. We arrived at Ibiza Town in the dark, so we had a great view of the floodlit old town. 30 minutes later we arrived at our AirBnB apartment, where Lee gave us the keys and left us too it.
The following day the weather was cold and windy, so we did some of our laundry (you need to take advantage of washing machines when you can!) and did a food shop before heading into Sant Antoni to explore and have a quick lunch at Rita Cantina.
Then it was off to the airport to pick up the Longs!