We had one last glimpse of the castle and the wall that surrounded the old townas we pedaled away from Alicante.  Then we enjoyed a glorious ride along the boardwalk (ie: no mountains), joining the strollers and those getting a little exercise first thing in the morning.There was also the occasional yacht and a view of the shoreline we just traversed.We lost our beach after and hour and a half and climbed mountains,but the scenery continued to keep our mind from the chore.

An hour or so later our course took us closer to the beach and into the large city of Benidorm; filled with contemporary buildings, the likes of which we had not seen before; even the boardwalk had a contemporary flair.This looked like a city that hit it’s boom before the bottom dropped out; tons and tons of modern high rises and based on the amount of people on the beach, they were occupied.  Seriously, have you ever seen so many people on a beach? Though it was a bit early, we stopped here for lunch as the duckies had found a shady spot to rest.We seemed to climb the hills past beautiful homeslooking out to the sea with not as much pain as in previous days….there is a lot to be said for having the wind at your back.  Thank goodness we had the wind at our back as the climbs were toughwith a few tunnels thrown in for good measure.But the height did allow beautiful views of the seaand the town of Calpe in the distance.With a little more climbingwe arrived in Calpe around 2:00

and had a refreshment at a cafe to decide whether to continue on or stay here.  Based on availability in the next ten + miles and the scenery, we decided to check in with 44 miles done.  Calpe boasts a rock as impressive (in our opinion) as the rock of Gibraltar.There are two side to this town, the port with a rocky shoreline, where we stayed and the sandy beachon the other side of the rock.Since we stayed on the ‘port’ side we decided to enjoy fresh seafood, of which we had a lot to choose, calamari and white fish won out,absolutely divine!