Benissa, Spain

Saturday, September 15

We dragged ourselves out of bed at 3:30 a.m. (!!) and picked up Roch et Sue at their hotel (side note: have I mentioned that Dave's parents are visiting for a few weeks? They landed in Paris the Thursday before we left for Spain).

If you've ever flown Vueling (Grant), we are now big fans. For a cheapie airline, the flight was on time, the planes were clean, the stewardesses friendly, and they even stash real magazines in the seats! Ah, how easily I am impressed.

Anyway, we landed in Alicante and used the trusty Tom Tom to navigate us to Benissa, which is about 40 minutes north. Benissa is the second home

for Dave's aunt Suzie and uncle Peter (family history: Suzie is Roch's youngest sister. And really she's called "Sue", but to avoid confusion I'll refer to her as "Suzie" here).

Their house, Casa Juglar, is on a quiet road overlooking a
valley and the distant ocean. The view is amazing. They bought the house when it was practically rubble and remodeled it over the past 20 years. And what a job they've done! They
have four bedrooms and four bathrooms, plus a spacious kitchen and living room. And outside! A BBQ room my dad would drool over, fruit and nut trees-lemon, pomegranate, fig, and almond-
and bougainvilleas my mom would drool over, and a pristine in-ground heated pool that I intended to spend as much time in as possible.

After settling in, we all piled into cars and drove to Benissa to visit the market. Everyone bought fruit and we walked up down the narrow streets of the town, trying to imagine lives in Spain.

The Alicante area is famous for being the second home to many many Brits. It's weird, the Germans go to Mallorca, the English go to Alicante. During our stay we met Peter and Suzie's gardeners, casa-caretakers, and a plumber: all Brits (actually, maybe the plumber was Australian but you get my point). So the only time I got to whip out my little Spanish guide was once in a restaurant when I wanted the bill.

Anyway, we spent the rest of the day working hard on unwinding. This was made much easier by Peter and Suzie's ever-friendly, laid-back manner and general likeability (I spent a lot of time, while floating in the pool, contemplating how two people could be so darned nice).

Sunday, September 16

After a bit of sleeping in and a morning dip, we jumped into the cars again and drove down to Calpe, which is a larger town on the coast. We walked to the famous "Calpe Rock" on the edge of town, along a boardwalk that ran along its side. From the sidewalk I eagerly peered into the ocean, which was beautifully clear.

"The last time I went swimming in the ocean here", Peter said, "all the jellyfish scared me out".

And that story scared me out of wanting to go swimming in the ocean. Back to the pool.

From left: David, Roch, Sue, Suzie, and Peter

On the way back from Calpe we stopped at a small restaurant perched on the top of a mountain for a giant paella for six. It was my first real paella (I refuse to count the stuff from the Valencia office cafeteria) and I certainly wasn't disappointed. Unfortunately, I think some of the others didn't share my enthusiasm for all that rice and seafood, but at least the sangria was well received.
Monday, September 17
For our last full day in Benissa we elected to take an adventure hike up a local mountain. Stupid me, I hadn't packed appropriate shoes, but the first half of the walk was pretty even and altogether quite smooth.

However, after a while the trail split. Suzie wanted to turn back and walk the pleasant way back to the car, and we were all in accordance. But Peter was eyeing the adventurous path, and Dave and I were too...so we decided to split up. Dave's parents went with Suzie, and Peter plowed ahead as our yetti guide to the rest of the mountain.

Well, as it turned out, Peter hadn't taken the adventurous path in some years. We took a bit of a wrong turn, and wound up halfway up the mountainside on a non-existent path. Whoopsy. So, given the time lost and my aforementioned poor choice in footwear, we scrambled back down the mountain and tottered back along the safe path.
At least I got some fun pictures out if it.













For lunch we drove to another coastal town and a busy beach-side restaurant. As we walked past the other tables I noticed that every person sitting there was speaking English. It was like a warmer, sunnier, version of England.

Back in the casa, we did more swimmings and readings and lying about in the sun. Eventually for dinner we went into Benissa and a chic restaurant that Peter and Suzie frequent. David, Roch, and Suzie each ordered a fish baked within a crust of salt. The waitress brought a big tray of salt to the table and literally had to chip the fish out. And they say the fish wasn't that salty.

I had paella.

Tuesday, September 18
We woke up painfully early again (although not 3:30 painful) and said groggy goodbyes and thank yous to Peter and Suzie and Casa Juglar. Then back to Alicante, back on a plane, back to Paris.