The Tour of Alicante

 

A few years ago we also visited Alicante to cycle from there to the Spanish/French Pyrenees. This year we first wanted to cycle from Alicante to the Sierra de Segura and then on to the beautiful mountainous area between Alicante and Valencia. Unfortunately, the weather gods decided otherwise, there has been a lot of rain all spring and the weather is bad all over the country. Even the traditionally warm areas (e.g. around Seville) have not really had much sun. Even if we want to go, the weather is not good. The weather was the main topic of conversation in every news broadcast. From Murcia to Barcelona, ​​from Santiago to Valencia, the weather was bleak. Stormy winds, unimaginable downpours and hail and snow showers disrupted much of spring in Spain. In Gandia, even 540 liters of water per m2 fell in 2 days. Landslides and subsidence occurred in many places and several streams and rivers overflowed. We kept an eye on the weather reports and so we managed to adjust the route and avoid the bad weather to some extent. Except for 2 days (of the 2 weeks) we succeeded, but it was the first time in the ten years that we have cycling holidays in Spain that we had to keep the rain gear on and finally have to lower our head to the strong wind and merciless rain, and had to look for a hotel because cycling was no longer possible.

View over AlicanteView over Alicante

During this trip we have already visited areas known to us, but we have also discovered beautiful new places. Especially the area south of Elche with its exuberant orange and lemon trees and many palms is pleasant for cycling, provided the correct route is chosen. Many vegetables are also grown in this fertile area.

This year we also had serious bad luck for the first time: when I want to enter a tunnel I try to avoid a hole, but because of that I don't see the next hole, resulting in bent spokes in the front wheel, a nice dent in the rim and a tear in the rear tire tire. The gigantic expansion of the road network remains a negative development. The beautiful old roads are replaced by wide tarmac highways, on which hardly anyone drives! Spain currently has the largest number of kilometers of road of all European countries. We can talk about it, the roads that were beautiful and pleasant to cycle 2 years ago have now become quite unpleasant.

Finally, 2002 was also the year of the euro, which is now really used. This made comparing prices a lot easier. Although Spain is still a cheap country, you also notice that the euro is used for a considerable price increase (a cup of coffee used to be 100 pesetas = €0.60, but now often costs €0.75 to €1) and for an ice cream with 3 balls you pay € 2.50, which is not really cheap either! The hotels are still affordable (€25-€50 for a double room). In many places, pesetas are still used for calculations and the peseta is also mentioned. Usually, conversion is only done at the checkout, and strange mistakes are sometimes made!

This trip has been put together by Marc himself.