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Baia Mare Urban Sports
Dec 16, 2019
2 min read

The plan to visit Alicante was for last weekend yet changes happen as with every plan you make. Even so, together with Giada, my Italian friend from here, met at the train station and started our trip quite early in the morning towards Comunidad Valenciana’s Alicante shiny city. The trip with cercania, the local train, is about 1.5 h, yet the landscapes make the time fly easy.

At the train station my friend Svetlana met us. We were not very inspired in choosing a place to have a coffee nearby as in that particular time there was a motorcycle reunion. The sound of the motors being run constantly made our coffee quite interesting as we barely heard each other.

We started walking and despite being mid-December it was quite sunny. The city has a charming aspect and although it’s big… it’s small. Everything seems near and the buildings make everything seem nice for a walk. You can easily walk along the coast and not even realise that you’ve been walking quite a lot.

Our main destination was the castle and I have to tell you that we weren’t disappointed although getting up there was challenging. We chose to take the longest way in order to get through the Santa Creu neighbourhood. White houses with blue shadows at the windows, arranged one next to each other, following the line of the hill kissed by the delightful sun. The Mediterranean style is there for sure and not just for the architecture, yet also the people’s lifestyle: having a coffee together in from of the door, with the neighbours or hearing the families having lunch and enjoying their time together.

Our journey continued further and little by little we were approaching the great outside walls. Curious what they were guarding we entered the main gate. Maybe not a lot of buildings are still standing, the ruins invite you to leave your imagination go wild. The panels with history and photos are a great help though.

Although the castle, with the latest name of Santa Barbara, was build in the 9th Century by the Muslims arriving from the south, the nowadays inside remaining betray the touch of Christians and European architectural style.

The natural rocky mountain is a great help for the walls and probably the main reason why they are still very well kept. The view is amazing as the sea sets the blue background in the not so far distance. Going on the walls you get to walk around it and see the beauties the castle treasured for centuries.