May 25 - Elche Old Town

 This is part two on Elche.  I enjoyed the town very much.  But after we had gone up the way too many steps of a tower - I was glad to settle for ground level touring after that.

Our first view of Elche.  Right out of the parking lot. 

Fun with the water bubblers.

Public parking lots in Europe are always a challenge.  This one seemed way bigger - but maybe we have just gotten used to it.  We went down to level -3 and found lots of room.  We found a middle space - no pillars next to our car!

The tourist center.

Basilica Santa Maria.  The sun light was at a very bad angle to take photos of the out side.  We said we would come back later, but never did.

This stained glass window was way up high.  All the stained glass windows down lower had bars over them - so the photo ops were not there.

Outside the side entrance to the church.

This area is filled with buildings built very close to each other.  But in Elche they had statues to represent people of the day.  These three all seem to be talking at once - Michael is the only one listening!

Next we went to Torre De La Calaorra or the Calahorra Tower.  This tower was from the period of time when the Moors had control.  Most of the building had been restored.  They had paintings from the period on the walls.  In the foreground is a a painters palate and brushes.

One of the restored Moorish paintings on the walls.

I liked this painting of children.

Some more of the original but restored rooms.

This room was left unrestored.

To get beyond the third level you had to take these curve, narrow steps.  Lucky for us there were only a few more levels.

And you came out onto the roof and wonderful views of the church and a few other buildings.  

The entrance to the roof and back down.

A painting on a building across and down from the rooftop.

Back down at the bottom of the tower is another room with this painting on the wall.  

After this tour we stopped to get some drinks at an outdoor restaurant.  Michael and coffee and bubbly water and I had coke zero for less than 5 euro.  After this we headed for the Municipal Park to see all the Palm trees which I have already posted about.