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The second visit was with Monarch Airlines from
Luton to Alicante where we collected a hire-car. We felt we had done the
local bits so wanted to travel further afield. This is certainly a quick
and easy way to get there and there is little in it cost-wise compared
to the Madrid route. However it has to be said that, as we soon
discovered, the area inland from the coast is not particularly
appealing. It seems to be an endless urban and industrial sprawl, much
of which is very untidy and, well, ugly, by UK standards. But it's
different! The coastal strip once you get north of Cartegena is a vast
holiday complex development that probably stretches several hundreds of
miles all the way to the French border. Again, interesting in its own
sweet way. We did however find a very rugged National Park area some 30
miles north from the coast, the Sierra de Espuņa. Plenty of walks and
free from any development, but a bit parky in December as it goes up to
1500m high. The area would be a real joy in hot weather.
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Another find was the Cabo Tiņosa, an abandoned
cliff-top gunnery station dating back to 1922 and in use in WW2 against
Allied shipping in the Med. You can move around (at your own risk)
inside the cavernous buildings, some still containing the machinery for
moving the enormous guns and the underground rail systems for bringing
in the ammunition. One building has wall paintings to aid
identification of the different classes of shipping from the US, British
and French fleets. We were told subsequently that the ships depicted
were those that were NOT to be fired on. Would certainly like to find
out more about this.
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Your intrepid traveler on one of
the two largest guns. |
