The tourist town of Guadalest.
Thursday 15th October
Today we headed out to El Castell de Guadalest, better known as just “Guadalest”,a Valencian village high up in the mountains located near
Amazing views
the 1500-metre Serra d’Aitana. Guadalest has an area of 16 km² and, according to the 2002 census, a total population of 189 inhabitants.
This morning the sun was shining with clear blue skies so back into shorts today and after some discussion agreed we shouldn’t go the conventional route; duel carriages and motorway, but straight 
across the mountains, half the distance but twice as much time. Not long after leaving Alcalali we hit the mountain pass, narrow road, extremely twisty, big drops but beautiful scenery and fortunately not too much traffic other than cyclists to bother us. This was just as well as Christine was hanging onto the
More views
door handle and safety belt so hard her knuckles were quite white, add traffic into the mix, well we would probably have to turnaround!!!!
At the top of the pass we stopped for a few minutes at the viewing place to take in the panoramic vista, mountains with the Mediterranean Sea in the distance but we didn’t stay too long as it was rather cold, we should have thought about that when we put our shorts on!!!!!
Such a lovely area
Heading back down the other side we passed orange, lemon, olive and almond trees, different from Alcalali where wine grapes are grown.
We eventually arrived in Guadalest, parked and again the first thing was to find the loos but due to Covid the public ones were locked up so, oh dear, we’ll have to go to a bar which means we had to have the usual.
The village is split into two. The lower part with its attractive narrow, 
pedestrian, cobbled streets with tourist shops selling their wares and a few ally’s connecting the two main streets. The higher part accessed up a lot of steps and through an arch naturally formed by rocks with buildings on top. Once through this arch we still were walking up the hilly cobbled street to the top where there was a nice square and a path running round the mountain for people to take in the magnificent views, including the lake below 
which turned out to be a reservoir, filled by the Guadalest River.
Tourists to Guadalest probably outnumber the inhabitants several times over and apart from this village being small and high up in the mountains there are 9-museums to be visited, but we only went into one. The house was laid out as it was in the 18th century including an olive oil and a flour press; interesting but small, in fact all the museums seem very small but they are very varied. On fact is is definite, there in no way it is a wheelchair friendly place.
Returning down into the lower part of the village we stopped for a light lunch; tapas with a drink overlooking the Guadalest valley with the Mediterranean in the background and the sun shining. Once through 
this arch we still were walking up the hilly cobbled street to the top where there was a nice square and a path running round the mountain for people to take in the magnificent views, including the lake below which turned out to be a reservoir, filled by the Guadalest River.
Tourists to Guadalest probably outnumber the inhabitants several times over and apart from this village being small and high up in the mountains there are 9-museums to be visited, but we only went into one. The house was laid out as it was in the 18th century including an olive oil and a flour press; interesting but small, in fact all the
Lovely restaurant with superb views
museums seem very small but they are very varied. On fact is is definite, there in no way it is a wheelchair friendly place.
Returning down into the lower part of the village we stopped for a light lunch; tapas with a drink overlooking the Guadalest
Entrance to castle
valley with the Mediterranean in the background and the sun shining. It was even warm enough to take our fleeces off!!!!
Early afternoon and we headed back but this time decided to return on “normal” roads, and to ensure I didn’t take a “wrong turning!!!!” Christine suggested we went via the seaside town of El Albir to ensure I didn’t. El Aldir ran into Altea and together they looked to us as your typical seaside resort, though no doubt suffering this year with few guests. The other thing, Christine didn’t have any good thoughts about living here, to quote her “I only like Moraira“, who knows where we go from here!!!!!
Arriving back, we had a cuppa before sorting dinner and a quiet night 
in, tomorrow we’re off to Denia.