2025 10-28 Finestrat

 The girls had ended up choosing the coastal town of Torrevieja for Monday and the mountain town of Finestrat for Tuesday.  Michael researched a parking lot on the outskirts of town.  The walk in to the old town (to the old church) was only ten to fifteen minutes.  But it is all uphill.  

A large plant sits atop a wall at the edge of the parking lot.

The official entrance to Finestrat with the Puig Compana mountain in the background.

Heading into town.

Getting closer.

Finally here - but it is at the back of the church.

We passed this wall which was painted by some school kids.  Like the fake door?

Street scenes

Finally we make it to the front of the church and enter.  This is the church of St. Bartholomew.  It is 18th century baroque.

There were four paintings including these two inside the dome.  In each one someone is holding a quill and writing.

I said - I need to take a photo to prove the girls went into a church - this is the looks I got!

Right across from the church is the town hall.

After exiting the church we wandered through the streets.  

We found many signs like this.  Finestrat has worked to grow and make it more of a tourist destination.  There over 30 of these signs that we saw in the small town of a little over 9,000 people.  Just a few years ago it was a town of 6,000.

Finally - a photo of the front of the church.

Lia has been using her phone to guide us through the streets.  She found directions to the next attractions and guided us.

Scenes along the way.

I don't know what plant this is but I find it quite  intriguing.

Lia leads us to this lookout.  Yes - you can see for a long way - but it was not very interesting.

From the lookout we need to go up these stairs.  After that there is another set of stairs and then another.  How many?  Lia sets off to explore.  There at least 4-5 more before you get to another lookout - which is not any better than the first one.  If you want to follow the signs in sequence you must go up the stairs.  It leads to a garden park which includes an auditorium, hermitage called Santisimo Cristo del Remedio.  I decide that I am not going to go there - I am still building up strength in my legs after almost a year of being told to stay off my feet.  The rest follow suit.

We wander around a little more - we had met a couple who live in Finestrat who were showing a visiting friend the town.  He had told us we must see the philosopher's house which wasn't too far away.  We were also getting hungry - but thought we would find a pub down at the bottom of the hill.  Made more sense to see the philosopher's house first.

I don't know exactly what this is.  The tree (green) should not be having flowers now.  I think it is another plant that is taking advantage of the tree.

More street scenes.

They do celebrate Halloween in Spain.

We head up the street the house is supposed to be on.

And sure enough - here it is.  The writing on he walls are sayings in Spanish.  Sorry I could not get a better photo - the street is very narrow.

On our way back to the steps to go down and out of Old Town.

Here we go.  We could not locate the pub - every other restaurant we saw or searched for was closed.  We would have to go to our car and drive into the real town where restaurants were open.

Lia and I waited across the street from this small park while Natasha and Michael went to get the car..  We finally figured out that this was a statue of a hand.  Once Michael got the car to our location - we drove up the hill and into the main street.  There were a lot of open restaurants - but no parking places.  Michael dropped us off and drove back to the same parking lot.  The girls and I choose to go to La Barra restaurant.  They had a good range of food choices.  

Another disappointment.  I don't know if we just didn't choose their specialties or if they were just a mediocre tourist restaurant.  Natasha had lamb chops with potatoes and vegetables - she and Michael finished the plate saying it was delicious.  The rest of us were just sad and still hungry.

When we got home Lia and I researched the best place to get dessert in El Campello.  The first thing that came up on all the lists I saw was Flores Bakery.  The rest were all helado stores.  It seems to be the place to go!  They were delicious but a bit on the expensive side.  Four desserts and water came to $30 dollars.