2025 10-22 Orihuela Part 1

 Today was another photo day.  We drove to a city of about 84,000 people so they have many honest to god parking lots.  A Michael choice size of city!  

We exited the parking lot to this view.  

The river Segura runs through Orihuela, but looks like a canal here.  There were a lot of happy ducks in the river.  There were a lot of walking bridges over the river.

Well I wouldn't call this a clock tower - it was a structure with a clock.

There are many beautiful flowers still blooming in October in this part of Spain.

From the parking garage we walked towards the old town center and the tourist center.  Later I will have a photo of the tourist center which is in the Town Hall building.  The steps to the tourist center were very old and there was no railing.  I still find steps challenging with my still healing left foot.  There was a sign on the door to the tourist center that said there was wheel chair access around the corner.  However - that access was actually to the town hall - where they told us to go back to the tourist center and climb the steps!  We thought it was closed because I couldn't get the door open - but it was just very sticky.  A women came over and opened the door and invited us in.  She gave us many maps and other information.

She introduced us to the cities most famous poet - Miguel Hernandezand gave us a small booklet on him.  We saw posters and flags to him everywhere we walked.  This poet is a big deal here.  The poetry translated to English is not so good.  I think to really appreciate it you have to be a Spanish speaker.

They have "powerball" type games here as well.  Usually you see people in specific outfits with rolls of tickets walking the streets to sell them to you.  

I should really be taking photos of the outsides of the churches before we go in - but that doesn't always happen.  This church - the Parochial Church of Saints Justa and Rufina was very close to the visitor center.

And then you are outside.  Most of the time these churches are on narrow streets inside the Old Town.  So it is very difficult to get good photos of the outside.  

The central area of the town had many churches.  We visited three churches and a cathedral.  There were several museums along our route, but the churches all closed at 12:30 and the cathedral closed at 2pm so we focused on them first.  Everything closes at 2pm for lunch and then reopen at 4pm.  We love historical museums, but out experience has been that unless it is a very famous museum all the information will be in Spanish and whatever the local language is.