Dénia 38 50.299 N 00 07.068 E

ALKIRA
Charles & Maggie Bevis
Wed 18 Sep 2013 07:54
The differences between the north and south of Spain are vast, indeed, you begin to wonder if it's the same country at all sometimes.

The economy has dipped enormously and in many places we've seen far too many unfortunate folk begging, many being mothers with their children. In other places the towns seems to be thriving, however, scratch the surface and wander to the back streets and you don't have to look too deeply to realise how many businesses have closed, so many homes are for sale, boarded up shops, offices and businesses and many unfinished developments.

It's still amazes us how late in the morning the businesses open each day, how quickly they close for lunch and don't open again until at least 4 or 5 o'clock, closing again around 8 or 9 o'clock. We've heard time and again from expats living and working out here how difficult it is to do business with the Spanish. The contractors who are making a new bimini and frame for us have told us they're having to go back to the UK to buy their steel tubing and other supplies as too many times they've tried to place orders in Spain worth more than 15,000€ a time but without success. Unfortunately Spain still prefers its siestas and fiestas to working, so will remain its own worst enemy!

On Monday we arrived in Dénia. A pleasant town with some attractive areas, especially within the old town area. Clean streets, good cafes, good shopping, supermarkets, but best of all, a really excellent food market selling wonderful local produce, fish, meat, fruit, veg, bread etc, in fact the best market in Spain so far. There's a pleasant atmosphere within the town too. Dénia is much favoured by the Germans with many living here, but there are French and British here too, although in much smaller numbers.

We plan to stay for two nights to explore a little, but need to top up the fridge, freezer, water and batteries, having been at anchor for 4 nights!

It's been great having the folding bikes with us as we've been able to go so much further afield and see more of the towns than if we'd been on foot. I'm very wary though when on the main roads, especially after what happened to me in Gibraltar. To my surprise, the drivers in Dénia are very considerate to cyclists and slow down considerably when passing, so I'm confident again now.

We now find our thoughts turning to laying up the boat and going home, which feels very strange especially now we've been living on board for so long!

Next stop Valencia.