Bed & Breakfast in Alicante

We left Andalucia's dry olive grove fields and headed north along the eastern coast to Valencia, through the fertile valley that produces a great deal of Spain's agriculture. Up to this point, we've mostly been in cities, so it was a treat to see the beautiful countryside and its fields of grapes and picturesque Spanish towns, most of them at the base of a castle. Hey, castle. We ended up at a lovely rural bed and breakfast outside of the small town of Biar, at Casa Rural Mas Fontanelles , a beautiful home with the most helpful owners and the most relaxing place I've been in a while (the price was great, too). We watched the sun from our terrace while sipping a local vino. Hard times, hard times.

Small Spanish towns

We need to get to the airport in Valencia from Alicante, but instead of heading to the main highway, we meandered through some of the best Spanish towns on the way. Our first stop was visiting Bocairent, a sleepy yet adorable small town where we explored the medieval neighborhood and got the most welcome reception in all of Spain so far (everyone said hello to us). We continued on in hopes of doing some wine tasting in La Fonte de la Figuera, but of course, we arrived in the middle of siesta time. We did, however, find a gas station with a better selection of nice wines than my local liquor store in Denver.