Our first of three stops in Spain is Alicante, Valencia. As we boarded the shuttle bus from the ship to the city, I was excited to enter a country where I thought I could (at least somewhat) understand the language. And then I discovered that none of the signs in Alicante are in Spanish, but rather in Catalan. Luckily, most of the signs had English translations.

We walked along the beach toward Santa Barbara Castle. The castle is situated on a tall hill just off the shoreline. Hiking up the hill probably would have been a lot of effort. Fortunately for tourists, authorities have installed a public elevator from the beach level to the castle. Since we had skipped Rothenberg and the Romantic Road, Valerie has been disappointed by the lack of castles so far on this trip, so I was hoping that this would fill the castle gap. While the castle provided a great view of the city, I think Valerie was disappointed by the lack of a great hall and other castle-like amenities.

We headed down the lift, walked to the main street, and walked around town for a while. On our way back to the ship, we ate at an amazing tapas bar that was recommended on TripAdvisor called Cerveceria Sento. It was probably the best meal of the trip.