Benidorm

Benidorm evokes images of the worst of mass tourism but since it was only just over 70 minutes' tram ride from Alicante, I had to see what it was all about. The tram departed from the Luceros station, which I had scouted out the day before.

The line took the coastal route and through isolated valleys. The line, which existed in older forms in the past, must have been an important transport connection for those small communities. Unfortunately the windows of the tram were not conducive to photographing the landscape we were going through.

I alighted at the station just outside Benidorm. One can change to a train service continuing to Dénia.

It was about 20 minutes walk to the water, first along a busy avenue, then through a pedestrian street.

A restaurant courtyard and the multi-lingual menu boards.

Finally, the seaside.

Lots of trinkets.

The main pedestrian street, running parallel to the shore.

The Mediterranean is subject to winds from all points of the compass, and the inhabitants have names for all of them. This wind rose on the ground names many of them. The Llevant comes from the east.

The Ponent comes from the west. You can see a wind rose with the other names on the linked Wikipedia page.

By this time I needed midday sustenance so on a side street (maxim: never eat at a place on the main drag) I found a hotel restaurant serving platos combinados. I had a simple steak, egg, and fries combo. It was a bit bland, no seasoning on the steak but edible.

This is the Benidorm of high rises quite visible from the hinterland and probably kilometres out to sea. These young people were doing a musical routine, perhaps for practice since they didn't seem to be soliciting anything.

A sea of blue chairs.

A tilted island off the coast.

A headland divides Benidorm's beach into two sections.

The Iglesia de San Jaime y Santa Ana sits on the headland.

From the Balcón del Mediterráneo you have this view overlooking the main beach.

And into the distance towards the next headland. So many highrises.

The balcony itself is actually a respite from the crowds down at the water's edge.

The western beach, not quite so attractive.

In the hinterland there is a mountain with a gash on the top. I thought it was man made, but on checking the Internet on the trip back, this turned out to be a natural feature of the mountain, Puig Campana. It is associated with several colourful legends of Roland. So the people who spun those tales thought it was man-made too.

There is another mountain further inland, Sierra de Aitana, which is the highest peak in the province. The Spanish poet Rafael Alberti gave that name to his daughter because the mountain was the last thing he saw from the plane into exile. That daughter, Aitana Alberti, became the godmother of the Spanish actress Aitana Sánchez-Gijón, who was born in Rome to a Spanish father and an Italian mother. The name became well known because of her.

Fortunately Rafael Alberti lived to see the end of the Franco dictatorship and returned to Spain.

One last view of the balcony and the checker board pattern of tiles.

I can't say I'm surprised at the mass tourism in Benidorm. People do like sun and sea. My gripe is that these tourists also import their customs, so it's like they never left home, except for the weather. I lost count of the eateries proposing English food.

Outside of the tourist area, Benidorm looked a bit tatty with dilapidated apartment blocks.