Family Trip: Spain (Denia and lots of beach fun)

Cap de Sant Antoni, in Montgo Natural Park

"If you get tired of the rainy weather in the UK, come visit us in sunny Spain!"  Tim and Bonnie, high school teachers of mine from Kenya, gave us that invitation when I posted the news about our secondment on Facebook.  We were finally able to make good on the planned trip during the girls' fall half-term break.

The rainy UK while we were on break

Sunny Spain while we were on break

This trip was our first time flying out of East Midlands Airport.  It was a nice change of pace to make a 15 minute drive through the countryside instead of the hour drive down to Birmingham.  We had an uneventful flight to Alicante, and then made the hour drive up the coast to Denia.  The trip was a little more eventful because the Tomtom I'd purchased from a returning secondee the day before thought we were still in the UK.  Kristine did a good job navigating with the directions we'd put onto the iPad.  The Tomtom figured out we were in Spain the next day, and gave us good directions for the rest of our trip.

The back-seat committee proudly displays their veto of backpacks on their laps or under their feet

Some of us weren't bothered by the wait in the airport

Others were

All ready for takeoff

Elise enjoyed her new Kindle Fire

Clare got bored watching Elise play with the Kindle 

Our flat was (yet) another AirBnb find.  It's a summer home owned by a family in Madrid and rented out at other times of the year.  We benefited from October being a slow holiday period in Denia.  There were very few other families in the complex.  This gave the girls lots of freedom to run around, while Kristine and I enjoyed the relative calm.   

Our flat was on the first floor of the middle building

Looking out at the ocean from the flat

The elevator to the parking garage was Clare's favorite toy

Followed by the playground

And the porch

A clever father who will not be named discovered the chair in the corner was a lovely place to sit and read.  Unfortunately for the clever father, his watching family took notice.

The aforementioned clever father didn't get to use the reading seat for the rest of the holiday

Coloring - a beloved pasttime

For all the daughters (even if it involves coloring in the parents' book)

Enjoying breakfast on the porch

Mango!

Daddy, when will we get to go to the beach?

We picked the flat because it was in a complex right on the beach.  I scouted a couple other activities since I wasn't sure what the ocean would be like even if Spain was sunny.  It turned out I needn't have been concerned.  The ocean was plenty warm for the girls to enjoy, the waves were high enough for them to enjoy but not high enough to bowl them over, and the quiet complex meant they had the beach to themselves.  All this meant pulling them away from the beach to do anything else took a little bit of negotiating (like promising we would come back and they could play on the beach again before dinner).

Sunset on the beach

That naive parental moment when you let your children onto beach in normal clothes

Panoramic Elise, with beach in the background

Despite our expectation of frozen daughters, they spent many hours playing in the water

A castle needs a well, which needs water.  Fortunately there was lots of water for the bucket brigade to use.

Burying a sister

Burying a Daddy

Checking out Daddy's sand burial plot

Burying a sister

Sister deciding not to be buried

Another beach panorama

In which a parent does not get in the water

In which a parent does get in the water

 We pulled the girls away from our beach to make a short drive closer to Denia where there was a beach with a playground.  We thought they'd enjoy the playground.  Nope.  Did I mention the playground was on a beach?

That naive parental moment when you let your children onto beach in normal clothes (note the lack of long sleeves and trousers though)

Push sand along the beach, then scoop it into the shovel and dump in the ocean

Hey girls, do you want to enjoy the playground?

Elise did take a brief break from the beach

All done and ready to return home (to our own beach)

We pulled the girls away from our beach to visit the castle in Denia.  The castle was built in the 11th and 12th centuries, then briefly restored by the French during the early 19th century.   It was quite different from the castles we've visited in the UK.  They tend to be walls, hallways, and staircases, with some courtyard space thrown in for good measure.  This one had pretty extensive terraces and greenery inside the walls.  There were a couple of buildings at the top of the hill (the former munitions depot and the Governor's Palace which is now a small museum). The castle got a little more acceptance from the girls.  They came up with a clever game involving a queen (Charis), princess (Clare), personal bodyguard (Elise), general bodyguard (me), and cook (Kristine).  It might have helped that they got ice cream from the shop in the castle, and also got to ride a train back into the center of Denia.  Maybe it was just the promise that they could play on the beach afterwards.

Ummm ...

Their majesties explore the castle grounds

Somebody's long sleeves suggest he missed the "sunny" part of the invitation to Spain

Denia harbor and coastline from the top of the castle

Let's go Daddy!  The train is here!

View of the street leaving the castle

The train

Things you can eat in a seaside town

We did make it outside of Denia one afternoon.  Tim and Bonnie took us into Montgo Natural Park.  We ditched parental desire for a hike, and satisfied ourselves with a picnic lunch overlooking the ocean.  There was a minor issue with a lighthouse that was not open to the public and a certain 4 year old who didn't appreciate it being closed.  In the conflict between the unstoppable force and the immovable object, the immovable object remained closed to the public.  The unstoppable force had to be redirected.

The dog Tim and Bonnie were caring eagerly took giggling girls for walks around their flat

Looking for boats

Who needs a picnic table?

Reuniting with Tim and Bonnie in Spain, 20 years after we parted ways in Kenya

Obligatory hero pose after climbing stone structure

A fire last year wiped out all the trees that used to cover that hill.  The terraces are where grapes, for which Denia used to be famous, were grown before the trees came in.

The girls had ice cream while Kristine and I had churros y chocolate.  The chocolate was strong enough the spoons stood up straight.

We pulled out of the flat with more than a little bit of melancholy.  Technically you can get to beaches in the US.  But beaches that are warm enough to swim in, and for which you don't have to compete with mobs of other vacationers?  Claims from my Michigan friends who can handle frigid lake waters aside, this is unlikely to be a regular occurrence for us.  I'm glad we got to have this week.

Farewell to Denia (the castle is lit on the hill) from Tim and Bonnie's flat

Enjoying Valencia oranges while waiting to fly back to the UK