Reflecting on a couple of years ago, during the winter season, I recall our trip to Alicante. We spent about 4-5 days there, enjoying the festive Christmas atmosphere while soaking up the sunny weather, warm temperatures, and lush greenery. In contrast, we had just come from Norway, where there was heavy snow, cold temperatures, very little sunshine, and no green trees in sight.
After our evening stroll, we planned to visit the Castle, also known as the fortress, the next day. We woke up early and decided to take a walking trip to the marketplace, which was on the way to Santa Barbara Castle. It took us about 10 minutes to reach the market, a traditional Spanish spot that was particularly lively due to the Christmas season. While we didn’t end up buying much—just a few fruits—the experience of walking around and absorbing the atmosphere was delightful.
After spending a little time, we navigated our way to Santa Barbara Castle, which seems like very close to Mercado; we took scenic and steep hiking trails through Parque de la Ereta. An old town, Santa Cruz's narrow streets. We had heard that the best times to climb the castle are in the morning or evening to avoid the strong sun.
We started our journey through the narrow streets of Barrio Santa Cruz, the old town. This joyful walking and climbing path to the castle proved to be quite beautiful. Barrio Santa Cruz is situated on the side of a mountain, with steep streets and many stairs. The area features traditional small apartments and houses, adorned with lovely gardens; most of the houses are painted in shades of blue.
Although climbing those streets was tiring, But taking little stops and looking around the charming, traditionally decorated surroundings made us forget our fatigue by the time we reached the top of the stairs. And we discovered a nice, cool fountain in the park, so we had a little relaxing stopover there. That made us fully recharge our energy.
We enjoyed our walk and reached close to the main gate at the base of the fortress. There was a big sign because of the holidays, stating that the castle would be closed for a few days but would reopen after two days. It was a little disappointing, but we were happy we had some days to wait for this adventure again.
We spent some time walking around outside protective walls. Watching the city view from different angles. and turned back to get down into town.
when we were at the bottom, we decided to walk around those places that we saw from the hilltop, so we followed those directions and first came to the bullfight stadium. It had been converted into a roller skating rink, but was closed for the holiday. We just explored the surrounding area with some expressive statues from the days of bullfighting and a large lovely fountain that was possible to walk through and get up close to the water jets that doubled as ever-changing sculptures of water
All the photos are taken by me, and I hold the copyright for them. Please do not share any of them on any other platform without my permission.
[//]:# ([//]:# (!worldmappin 38.35029 lat -0.48082 long d3scr))