Alicante

Day 9 of our cruise in Alicante

We visited the Castle here in Alicante and again had a magnificent view over the port.

It was a lovely place and very warm but we only had till 4.30 pm to look around.

We had a lot to cram in and the best way was to take a tour from the ship.

This was inside the Castle and we had  a lot of steps to climb to get to the top...

...but we were rewarded with this spectacular view over Alicante once we got there.

This is the Bullring but there are not many bull fights held here anymore.

Back down in the town we walked along this beautiful Mosaic tiled floor that runs along the centre of town. 

It has stalls and artists along it and we stopped and viewed many of them as we walked.

And in the harbor is this Galleon ship that you can visit.

It was lovely and as the day went on it got warmer and warmer.

But the one thing I want to show you are the beautiful dolls that are made each year for a festival that is held in June.

When I say Dolls I don't mean little ones that kids play with .... oh no these are very  big .... and this is Griff stood along side some to give you an idea of the size.

These dolls are made by the local people from Papier Mache and are hand painted.  

They start the work on the 21st and  they are placed around the town for everybody to see.

Over  the following days the festival takes place and the Dolls  are then  judged by the towns people.

On the  last few days the Dolls are all burned.... except for those judged to be the very best and these are stored in this museum for visitors to see.

You are allowed to take photos but you must not touch as they are made from paper and can be easily damaged.

Here are some for you to see and they are all very beautiful.... and many hours of hard work must have gone into the making of these Dolls.

But time conspired against us and all too soon it was time for us to leave.

This is another place I would be happy to return too in the future as there is still so much left to explore.

Hugs xx