Thursday 12^th August

Up early due to the humidity we were actually off the boat and heading to town by 9 30 this morning.  It was cloudy and cool – just right for doing a big shop for more provisions.  This time we walked through the old town, which with its narrow streets and low buildings reminded me a little of the streets of St. Ives in Cornwall. It’s the fishing quarter but only dates back to 19^th century according to the map.  In fact several of the ‘historic’ buildings recommended in the leaflet we were given proudly boast that they date right back to the 19^th century.   Strange because Denia is quite old – dating back to pre-Roman times and more could have been made of the fact that Miguel Cervantes of Don Quixote fame came here in 1580 after being imprisoned in Algiers.

We glanced at the castle – and the very high steps you have to climb to get up to it and glanced quickly away again. 

After coffee and fresh orange juice in a café we made for the market to get laden down with more fruit and veg, bread, eggs, cheese and olives.  This time we tried to say the names of things instead of just pointing. It’s quite a mouthful to pronounce aguacate for avocado but they do appreciate you trying.  After a banquet lunch in the cockpit sampling all these delights we had the obligatory rest to avoid the most humid part of the day.  The showers in this marina have to be the most luxurious I’ve ever been in. You get a huge room all to yourself with washbasin, big mirror, toilet and shower cubicle and they are easy to operate and adjust the temperature which is always good. 

Paul fancied cooking a fish for his dinner this evening so at 8 we set off for the fish market that the man in the tourist kiosk had told us about which is where you get the freshest fish.  

There was a huge queue there and Paul’s number was 94 (twenty behind) so I left him browsing the smelly cases full of squid, octopus, bream and fish we had never seen before and went to look at the street market again.  With a bag of fish in his hand that he still didn’t know the name of, and which cost 6 euro, we went to an Irish pub to take advantage of the free wifi and watched a bit of the Canadian Open tennis tournament while listening to U2’s greatest hits.  The fish was gorgeous apparently - whatever it was.