Vacation in Europe: 
Gandía and Calpe, Spain

days 22 - 26

After Barcelona, we were ready to hit the beach. We arrived in Gandía pretty late, so we stayed in the first hotel we found, which fortunately had a nice restaurant attached. The next morning we drove out to the beach, but there were no available rooms nearby. The beach was absolutely gorgeous and covered with people. The water was too calm for my husband's taste (he wanted to go body surfing), so we continued driving south and landed in Calpe.

Calpe was an unusual beach town. The developments along the beach were almost entirely condominiums. There were at least two dozens huge buildings already standing, and at least half a dozen more buildings in various stages of construction. We could only find 2 hotels along the entire beach, but we managed to find a tiny room with a terrific balcony with chairs, couch, and table.

We spent three days doing nothing more strenuous than walking. We lounged on the beach all day, reading or playing Scrabble, and when we got tired of that we swam in the chilly Mediterranean Sea. There were scads of people, and 99.9% of them were European. It turned out that this is one of Europe's hot vacation spots, and here we'd come across it by accident.

We ate lunch all three days at a terrific French restaurant called Restaurant Arlequin. Our biggest bill at the restaurant was on the third day - my birthday lunch: apéritifs, appetizers, main course, 2 bottles of wine, and dessert. The total was something like $32. The propriétaire, who had a definite soft spot for us by then, apologized (!) for the bill ("c'est pas joli") and offered us complementary apple digestifs. It was an incredible value for wonderful food.

A bit farther down the beach was a cute little crêperie. It was owned by a young French couple who we enjoyed chatting with both times that we ate there. We learned that because they are not right on the beach, but are just 20 feet back from the main walkway (sort of behind the restaurant that is right on the beach), they only get a quarter of the customers of the restaurant in front of them that sits on the beach. It's a shame, because the crêpes are very good and the hosts are delightful.

We reluctantly dragged ourself from the beach after 3 full days and continued on our journey.

Next stop: Dalías        Vacation Index

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