Regent Seven Seas Voyager: Day Five Alicante, Spain

PHOTO: The Cathedral of Novelda (c) Sery Kim

On Day Five, we docked in Alicante, Spain. Much like Malaga, I had never heard of Alicante but unlike Malaga, I did not have friends who lived there so I was left to fend for myself to find something fun to do during the day. What's great about Regent Seven Seas Voyager is they always give us very detailed descriptions of the port we are going to be at the next day. Directly from what they gave me on Alicante:

"The area around Alicante has been inhabited for over 7,000 years. The first tribes of hunter gatherers moved down gradually from Central Europe between 5000 B.C. and 3000 B.C. Some of the earliest settlements were made on the slopes of Mount Benacantil. By 1000 B.C. Greek and Phoenician traders had begun to visit the eastern coast of Spain, establishing small trading ports and introducing the native Iberian tribes to the alphabet, iron and the pottery wheel. By the 3rd century BC, the rival armies of Carthage and Rome began to invade and fight for control of the Iberian Peninsula.

The Carthaginian general Hamilcar Barca established the fortified settlement of Akra Leuka where Alicante stands today."

While I ended up not staying in Alicante, I picked my excursion because there was a great wine option. I always pick wineries above all other choices and Novelda, a 30 minute drive from Alicante, allegedly had a great winery. So I ended up in Alicante; however, after my Novelda day, I wish I would have done something different because the Novelda cathedral (while beautiful) was small. Also, the winery we visited only let us have two tiny tastings of wine. Boo boo! I needed more wine!!

PHOTO: The interior of the Cathedral of Novelda (c) Sery Kim

PHOTO: Exterior of the Cathedral of Novelda (c) Sery Kim

Maybe I should have done the "Amazing Guadalest" which has some of the best water views of Spain. Ah well, you live and you learn! But the one upside to my Alicante day is that I got onboard at lunch time and had a great lunch at the Regent Seven Seas Voyager Pool Grill.

PHOTO: Salad and french fries onboard the Regent Seven Seas Voyager (c) Sery Kim

I didn't know until my Alicante day that there is an entire contingent of cruisers who stay onboard all day and lounge by the pool. Obviously this is a genius move because (1) there is staff who give you endless drinks and food; (2) if you are hot -- and it is super duper hot in Europe right now -- you can jump into the pool; and (3) if you pay this amount of money to cruise why not really enjoy it.

The Pool Grill is one of three places onboard the ship where you can have lunch, and as I mentioned yesterday about my delicious hamburger and fries combo the Pool Grill is the way to go. Of course because I don't want to be fat I have been trying to balance my eating habits by adding veggies. The salad bar is quite large and absolutely tasty. I ate the most enormous amount of salad, and it was so fresh! After 10 days in Santiago, Chile where I barely saw a vegetable, I was so enthused about the tasty salad. Naturally, being me, I had to add french fries.

Seriously, I need to write my book about french fries ASAP!

Anyhoo. Even though my excursions wasn't quite what I wanted it to be, I am so happy with the ship. The Regent Seven Seas Voyager is absolutely blissful thus far!!!