Today, I travelled from Los Alcazares to Alicante for an overnight stay.

Los Alcazares to Alicante.

Because of the significant cost of getting a taxi to Alicante to take my cruise, I booked a hotel room for the night before my cruise and went a day early on a coach. I saved myself €160 by doing this which will be money spent doing something else on my cruise.

My friend Bob picked me up around 13:30 to take me to the bus stop by the town hall in Los Alcazares. He dropped me off and I sat waiting for the bus to Alicante, due at 2 pm. At about 1:45 pm, a Spanish man asked me if this was the stop for the Alicante bus. I told him it was, and we both waited impatiently. The bus was late, and by 2:20 pm, when it arrived, we were both hoping it was the correct stop.

Apart from being a slow journey stopping at many stops at different towns, it was an uneventful journey. I did realise as the bus went through Los Alcazares that I could have got the bus at the top of the road by my apartment. It was not a choice given on the booking website but the bus stopped at many places in each town we passed through.

When I got off the bus in Alicante, the map app on my phone gave me directions to my hotel 1.3 km away so I began the slow walk. It was not a challenging walk, but the construction work and closed pathways made it longer than it needed to be. I arrived at the hotel puffed out and breathless even after stopping, it seemed, at every bench, I passed.

The hotel lobby at The Esplanade Hotel was lovely and the girl at reception was helpful and friendly. To get to my room on the third floor, I had to navigate several steps on each floor and use a small, very slow lift. I had to hunt around on the landing for light switches as the lighting in the dark hallways was off, but after finding my room I had a rest for a while. Room 306 was tiny, and I had to leave my suitcase on the floor as the wardrobe was too small to accommodate it. There was a small fridge I could use in the room, which was also on the floor, as there was no table it could fit on.

After resting, I went for a short walk around Alicante. I stayed a short distance from the street with the large model mushrooms. As I walked around, MSC called me to inform me that the ship would be leaving before the scheduled time tomorrow because of the strong winds in the Mediterranean. They told me to check in earlier than previously instructed. I looked around the area of Alicante that the hotel was in and then went for dinner around 6:30 pm.

Photos from my stay in Alicante.

I went to an Indian restaurant called New Delhi. I was not disappointed; my meal was beautiful, and the service was good. I chose a mild Kashmiri lamb curry. I had it with mushroom rice and Peshwari Naan and washed it down with a pint of San Miguel. The curry and rice were beautiful, possibly the best curry I have ever had and the naan bread was terrific. I finished the meal with a coffee and rum before returning to the hotel.

The hotel bed was relatively small and very lumpy, I could not get comfortable and ended up doing crosswords on my notepad until I fell asleep.