How can you not love a city where Christmas food can be made in a beach bar. This is not said by the survey published by Forbes according to which Alicante is the second city in the world preferred by expatriates, the way that Anglos have of referring to those who reside outside their country of origin, of their own free will, especially for reasons work or jubilant retirement.
What the survey does say, which should not be taken as a joke, because the sample size is very high, is that in Alicante “foreigners feel welcome and at home, and are very happy with their social life.” To the point that 92% of them say they feel happy to live in the city, 20 points more than the study average.
And the key is not only the climate and the 320 days of sunshine that official propaganda boasts, but what can be done in and with that climate. Because in the sun you can sunbathe in the middle of a dull square or you can have a cool beer listening to the soft murmur of the waves. That Alicante lives overlooking the sea, that any walk can be rounded off by having lunch barefoot in the middle of winter on the shores of the Mediterranean is, we attest, its greatest attraction.
Let’s see. Noon on Saturday, November 25. El Postiguet, at the foot of the largest hotel in the city. It dawned cool and we are still at 20º in the shade, but in the beach bar located on the far left of the beach there is only room in the sun, and barely a table. The atmosphere is cosmopolitan and the clientele is younger than in the bars on the promenade. Many take off their shoes, several approach the shore, a few submerge themselves in the water.
The beach bar is open every day from 10 a.m. to 6:30 p.m.; At 6pm they stop serving. The menu shows the desire to serve a diverse and international audience: fish
The walk from here to La Albufereta is very busy. It is not strange, it has a wide sidewalk that borders the bay. They are barely three kilometers, with a certain unevenness in some sections, 40 minutes walking, 15 by bicycle, which the lazy can avoid by taking the Tram to La Isleta.
The beach is smaller, more familiar and more local, especially at this time, like the atmosphere of its beach bar, which after the summer season is open on Fridays, Saturdays, Sundays and holidays from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m., but from the 20 From December until Epiphany, it will do so every day.
It is a luxury to have breakfast here, or lunch to the consumer’s taste, nachos, hamburgers, squid, sardines… and rice to order, on the same sand or on a solid wooden platform that a tent protects from the sun and wind in case necessary. We are surrounded by architecture characteristic of the tourist dawn of the 60’s and 70’s, such as the Ulises building, the AlfÃn, and some of recent construction.
At the far left of the beach, it is worth visiting the remains of a Roman nursery that reminds us where we are: in the Lucentum colony, where two thousand years ago there were those who appreciated the place enough to found a city whose archaeological site can visit near here.
Without leaving the coast, just a thousand meters away, a fifteen minute pleasant walk, crossing the Costa Blanca Regatta Club, we arrive at the third beach bar of our unique gastrobeach tour. It has the curious name of La Gallina, related to the Postiguet venue (the same DJs advertise and boast the same chill air), and it is located on the edge of the La Almadraba sandy area.
Here it offers the curious contrast of being a place with a more sophisticated atmosphere and menu, with DJ, brunch, fish
