In through the backdoor

Santa Barbara Castle,Alicante

Last Sunday morning when we drove up to Santa Barbara castle we saw it was buzzing with activity and the road up to the main entrance had been cordoned off and was blocked for traffic. This does happen sometimes as the closure of the main access for cars to the castle sometimes occurs when there is some special event on as the castle grounds are frequently used for festivals and art exhibitions.  We therefore parked beside the road that was closed as many other visitors were doing at the end of a long queue of parked cars.  There were streams of people walking up to the castle in the middle of the road so as we are crowd shy we decided to take the back entrance into the castle from the Ereta park.  

It is a bit of a climb up the steep steps and into the old battlements walkway. The walkway was restored a few years back and is now a wall-walk up to a smaller entrance into the castle. What we call the back door into the castle!  It is a bit of a steep climb to get to it. 

Actually I needed the exercise so I didn't mind the thought of the steep climb although I was huffing and puffing quite a bit just a few steps from the very start of the climb. That is how much I need the exercise! Anyhow, I stopped to take a breather frequently and took snapshots while I got my breath back each time.  Sr P, it being homeground to him as the castle and castle slopes were his playground when he was a boy, had enthusiastically gone on ahead. This is the norm anyhow wherever we go to places like this nowadays as he is much fitter than me.  

It was such a glorious day and the views from this part of the castle were outstanding.

Starting the climb!

No mini cacti here! The stalks on these very spiky cacti were huge! 

Inland view from the castle

Once you get here it is through this arch and up the steps into the battlements wall-walk.   

Up...Up...Up and that is Sr P (Mr Superman in blue jeans) already at the top of this part of the battlements. 

Looking behind me and down to the bridge that connects these battlements to the other wall-walk which leads to the shopping centre of the city.

A quick snapshot of the sea and port to the right of the castle

Finally the back door into the castle. 

I caught up with Sr P who I saw was leaning over the wall looking down attentively towards the road that was closed to traffic! Before I could get my breath back he turned to me frantically and told me he had to go back down there and quickly!  He said he had seen that there were two traffic policeman checking out the cars parked on the side of the road and were placing tickets on the car windscreens. I knew straight away that could mean easily a 100€ fine! So he belted off down to the road ... good job he is fitter than me because I couldn't "belt" down the wall-walk as fast as he could. In fact I took my time because I was thinking I won't be able to solve anything by trying to get there quickly myself and Sr P will be able to sort it. As much as I don't want to pay a fine I was not risking tripping over or falling down the bits of very steep steps on the way down. 

There ended our excursion that morning. At least we got to the backdoor of the castle but did not go in. That we can do another day! 🌞

There is a happy ending though. 

When I finally got back down the steps Sr P was sat there waiting for me! He didn't look very cheerful so I took it for granted that he had been given a ticket but...that was Sr P teasing me again! 

I am pleased to say we were very lucky because as we had parked our car right at the end of the cars parked on the side of the road and the traffic police had started giving out tickets right at the top of that long line of cars. Ours being the very last car parked there Sr P got there before the traffic police! He was able to rapidly drive our car away and find a proper parking space nearby!   

Although our excursion was cut short I am so pleased that Sr P is so fleet of foot and we didn't get a hefty fine for what was really our own fault. We shouldn't have parked our car on the side of the road even if the road was closed!

That's a lesson learnt I think! 👍

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Amanda 🚙