es, the English Fool Abroad with his Sketchbook has been out and about in Alicante today. After yesterday I made sure that all the water I was carrying was still. So was the train I was on for some reason, but what the hell, I wasn’t exactly in a rush, and so arrived in Alicante dry, and in pretty good spirits. Spirits, I should add which rose even higher when I saw signs in the station pointing out that the tram station wasn’t at al far away. This came as news to me. I didn’t even know that Alicante had trams. Well, be fair, I’ve only been coming here for about 10 years now.
Right, just in case you didn’t see any of my posts from Prague, Berlin or Budapest I think I’d probably better explain that I have a bit of a thing about trams. I like trams very much, and always try to take a ride on one whenever I’m close enough to do so. I only found out after I left Murcia yesterday that there is also a tram system impinging on the north of that city too. So there was no way that I was going to miss out today. The trams go quite some way out of the city. One of the lines even goes as far as Benidorm. Well, that wasn’t on the schedule for today, so I contented myself with a very short hop. How short? Well, when I walked between the stations on the way back later it took about 5 minutes. My two stations, Lucero and Mercado, were both underground, and it did actually make the whole thing feel as much of a light railway as it did a tram system, but hey, who am I to point the finger. I was too busy making the sketch you should be able to see with this post to indulge in any gratuitous finger pointing anyway.
Mercado station was chosen because it is at the foot of the hill on which my main tourist objective for the day stood, the Castillo de Santa Barbara – or Barbara Castle as I can’t help but call it. (We will all wait here for a few minutes while younger readers go to ask their elders to explain the Barbara Castle reference). Okay – all back? The Castle is a really impressive building complex, but it has the drawback, for the pedestrian, of being right at the top of the hill, rather than the bottom. Even taking the quicker route by climbing seemingly endless flights of steps, it still took a good 20 minutes or so in the increasingly hot sun to get to the part where the castle actually started. My mood was not improved at all when a tourist bus arrived in the car park about 30 seconds after I did.
Mind you, even if you took the bus to the castle car park, you’d still quite a lot of climbing to do if you wanted to see most of the castle. It’s a shame that they never had escalators in the 18th century when a lot of the buildings were built. Well, at least , when I found a convenient set of steps in the shade on which to sit and make a sketch, I had several people stop to have a look and a chat, which, all joking aside, is something I really enjoy. Which surprises me somewhat since I’m not a very sociable person.
When I came back down the hill, which took about half the time going up it had taken, I went to see the market from which the Mercado station takes its name. It’s a pretty impressive building – late 19th century I would guess. Murcia’s yesterday was pretty impressive, but I’d have to say that this one took the prize. I had about an hour before the whole place would start shutting up shop for siesta time, and so used it to sketch part of the market and some figures. They weren’t all there at exactly the same time, but they did all pass during the time that I was sketching, and so I used them to make the composite scene that you see in the sketch.
I walked down to the Marina, where I had a bit of lunch, and had a look to see if any of the boats grabbed my interest in a sketching context. This was a very frustrating experience. I walked past a shopping centre, and could clearly see what I guess was a replica of an old sailing ship. Actually clearly is not correct. I could clearly see the masts and some of the rigging, and the impressively ornate stern of the ship. But that was all. The view was blocked by some buildings which I guessed were the customs house, and there was no way for me to get a view of the rest of the ship. Frustrating.
It got to about 3pm, and the legs were hurting. I think I should report that after several days in the sun, in a certain light they do appear to be taking on a very slight tinge of pink, although that could just be wishful thinking on my part. I haven’t planned any excursions for tomorrow. It is literally a red-letter day, being the Feast of the Assumption, and a Bank Holiday in Spain. But fear not, there will still be another episode tomorrow , although it will probably be a short one.
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