Alicante, Costa Blanca, Spain

Alicante is a Spanish town along the Costa Blanca on the east coast of Spain. It is definately a town worth visiting with it's palm tree lined boulevards and with shopping streets a plenty, it's a shoppers paradise.
I visited Alicante for a day when my husband and I were on a Med cruise back in October 2006.

I can certainly see why Alicante is famous for its excellent weather because even though it was October when we visited it was still t-shirt weather. The Alicante weather in winter is around 16 ºC. In summer the average is around 32 ºC.

As we were on a cruise and docked along the shoreline, we were able to stroll through Alicante's harbour region where there are beautiful long alleys for nice relaxing walks, enjoying the palm trees and the mild climate.

Alicante is steeped in history with many historical buildings around the entire city. As with many of the Spanish towns there are magnificent cathedrals and churches in abundance. We got to glimpse the famous Castle of Santa Barbara (Castillo de Santa Barbara), a huge medieval fortress overlooking Alicante from the north.

I would love to spend a few days exploring Alicante, so it is a destination that is certainly on my list of places to return to.

Beach Art - Benidorm, Spain

The beach at Benidorm stretches for miles along the coastline. The sand is clean and pebble free. In August when I was there, the beach was lined with sun parasols and loungers for the many tourists seeking some sun and let me tell you it was hot (temps of 35+).

When I visited, my friend and I went for a walk along the beach and came across some beach art.

I have never seen such an impressive sandcastle as this one!

Further along the beach was a horse and foal made out of sand but unfortunately I didn't get a photo of it. The horse and foal beach art was very impressive, the artists had even marked out the veins of the horse.

The beach artists kept their artwork from collapsing by having water misters on it.

The beach art was certainly a sight that I hadn't expected to see on the beach at Benidorm, but certainly worth a look.

Swimming With Dolphins - Benidorm, Spain

I have just been lucky enough to grab a few days away to Benidorm in Spain. Whilst away my friend and I had the opportunity to swim with dolphins at Mundomar, nature park.

We watched the dolphin show first, which consisted of a display of synchronised swimmers that were joined in the water part way through the routine by the dolphins.Then the dolphins did their show with various swimming routines such as jumping through hoops, leaping through the water and balancing balls on their noses.After the show had finished, my friend and I found a member of staff to let them know that we were taking part in the swimming with dolphins session.

We had to go and change into a wetsuit and then show our ticket, which cost 75euros. For this we got 2 photos, a beach towel and 30-35 minutes in the water with the dolphins in a group of about 10 people.

The experience began with us posing with the dolphins for the two photographs. Then we all swam into the centre of the pool and made a circle. The two dolphins took it in turn to swim around the circle and we were allowed to touch the dolphins. One of the dolphins popped up in front of me a couple of times which at first was a shock and then I felt pleased that I had been chosen. My friend said that the dolphin had obviously taken a shine to me, I tend to agree as the second time the dolphin popped up in front of me the dolphin allowed me to hold his or her fins.

After the dolphins had swam around for a while we were asked to swim back to the side where we got out and then one by one we had to swim to the centre of the pool and stretch our legs out behind us. The two dolphins then swam behind us and pushed our feet with their noses so that we glided through the water with the dolphins pushing us. This was a truely amazing feeling.

Finally we all sat at the side of the pool and the dolphins swam in front of us and then we were able to touch their face or give them a kiss if we wanted. The lady in charge asked the dolphin if they liked the kiss each time. It was funny when they said no, but then she asked the dolphin of it was joking and it said yes! A dolphin with a sense of humour.

The dolphins were very gentle animals and you could see how clever they are by the way they understood what was being asked of them both in English and Spanish. Multi-lingual dolphins, very clever!

I would recommend this experience to anyone who loves animals and is visiting Benidorm.