After our long journey we decided to have a rest day in Denia, which turned out to be far more pleasant then we had remembered from out overnight stay last year. This time there was no fun fair, so we wandered over the waste ground on which it had stood and had a walk along the beach. To our right was an unexpected island, which bothered John until we worked out it was a headland viewed from an unusual angle. We then walked along the harbour front, which had been crowded with tourists last year and enjoyed a coffee in a very reasonable cafe. Then we explored the town and found a busy high street with plane trees trained to zig zag across it. We tried again to go into the castle on the hill, but again failed to find an entrance when it resisted our circumnavigation. Although impressive from a distance the castle seems pretty derelict up close.

Our plan had been to return to the cafe for lunch, as the daily special had been very reasonably priced, but as we passed through the back streets we were tempted into a rather more relaxed lunch of tapas sitting under a canopy of vines at a restaurant specialising in Galician dishes. We chose a mix of the usual suspects of bread with tomato, calamari and baked sausage, the taste of the casseroled chorizo brought back happy memories and for desert we shared a scrumptiously ripe half pineapple.