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Elche: Things To Do

We had to delve a bit deeper to find jewels like Elche. No, correction: Elx. Not quite: it's both. Vacation spots around Alicante normally to fall into the typical beach holiday category, with the usual boxes to be ticked: sun, sand, sea, and everything that goes with it.

[Want to jump directly to the footwear bit? Click SHOES]

Why Elx as well as Elche? Strange to have two names... are you not sure how to spell it? No; it's not a mistake but a recognition of the Catalan and Castilian Spanish spellings.

And, they both have the same phonetics; 'El-chee' is close enough to the sound without upsetting language specialists, and/or using phonetic marks that look like the word came from some country that uses lots of markings above or below letters. For convenience and laziness, I'll use the long version from here on.

Initially we thought of it as just another hinterland city, on the coast but slightly out of the tourists eye.

We really had no idea how much history and culture Elche represented. It has been a centre of civilisation since antiquity, the Iberian times (4th century BC) to be exact.

Culture Vulture

In the late 1890s, the impressive statue of the Lady of Elche, a bust with ornate headdress was excavated in a plot of land, 2 miles outside of current day Elche called L'Alcudia, the former site of the city.

The large archaeological site is managed by the University Foundation for Archaeological Research of L'Alcudia, which from the outside its compounds has no preparation for the incredible history of the ruins, remains and materials dated from the fourth millennium BC to the eighth century. There is ongoing research to adapt, conserve and maintain the archaeological history for cultural and educational development. To visit the site, you can walk amongst the ruins, or use a bike or horseback ride.

It was great surprise to find the extensive Palmeral de Elche, like a mirage, the oasis of dark green palms, almost right on our doorstep. A UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2000, is an oasis of calm and peaceful tranquillity. It is the largest palm grove in Europe, left as a legacy of the Moorish invasion, and one of the largest in the world, surpassed in size only by some in Middle Eastern countries.

The Huerto del Cura, categorised as an artistic garden or orchard, covers 13,000m2, in the middle of the Palmeral. The impressive Imperial Date palm towers more then 60 feet high and has 8 boughs is just one of the many items of interest. At its peak in the 18th century, it may have covered an area twice as large.

The Vinalopo river runs through the centre of the city, carving a deep ravine, and the old town with narrow streets and palm groves sit on one side of the river bank. Urban growth has seen the city expand outwards on both sides of the river, but retaining the charm of the ancient centre.

It'll take you a number of hours to visit planned sights if you take in the suggested routes when you visit the tourist office, in the Municipal Park, at the start of the Palm Groves area; wear comfortable footwear, hat or cap, and carry a small bottle of water is the recommendation.

Or perhaps just doing a capsule of two or three interesting sights, like climb the Basilica de Santa Maria tower for an outstanding view high above the palm groves, or have a intriguing tour of ancient times in M.A.H.E, the Museum of Archaeology and History of Elche housed in the Palacio de Altamira, a palace also known as Alcasser de la Senyoria. There is a permanent display of Iberian and Roman pieces.

Or wander about the old town, full of colourful squares, little boutiques and stores that just might delight you, the Moorish influences all around, even the Arab Baths located in Convent de la Merce have been restored.

Munchies

And of course, working up an appetite is easy after all this exercise, so why not torture yourself a little and pass through the daily covered market, the centro mercado. It's always good to see natural trading going on in small markets rather than the formalised conformity of large supermarkets.

It's also quite ok to see raw produce when you are hungry, as the aroma of a fresh pomegranate won't tease your saliva glands anywhere near the agony of getting your nose near a freshly roasted chicken.

Which is very easy to do as the Spanish actually have shops dedicated to churning out fresh spit-roast chicken every day.

If you visit the mercado after 1pm it will be closed, and the smell of fresh hot food will steer your nose elsewhere anyway, leading you somewhere in the old town for a bite to eat.

There are many restaurants where you can get a 3-course 'prix fixe' menu with a drink included, for lunch for less than 10 Euros..

The Spanish have shops that only do spit-roasted chicken,
and they are open most days (yes!)

How many shoes did you want?

Ancient history is always interesting, up to a point. Then most of us lean towards more recent developments, like shopping, and especially for the ladies, shopping for shoes. At this point, most male readers would either groan, or stifle a groan, or fervently wish beer suddenly appears on the next line. Ok, here goes:

BEER

I can cheerfully report that beer here in Spain is plentiful and wonderfully cheap, compared to most of European countries, and US/Canada and NZ/Australia.

:: end-of-beer-statement ::

Now back to the shoes, and not only ladies shoes. All shoes, any shoes, for men, for women, for children: fashion, sports, casual, utility, safety, fancy etc.

They even cater for Martians...but not many takers - it's a long round trip.

Elche is that synonymous with shoes it should have its own dictionary term. The footwear industry here is Spain’s leader in production and exportation as well as being very important on a European scale. Using only high quality leather and excellent designs, the city has over 1,000 shoe factories. In fact when you visit industrial centres around the city, you'll be amazed by the numbers of wholesalers there are.

Anecdotal: visitors to Perleta Magic earlier this year visited an outlet once to view and then a second time to shop like no tomorrow on shoes. The wife was in seventh heaven because of the variety and colour, and struggled to carry the shopping bags to their car. The husband was deliriously happy as she spent a fraction of what she would have back in their home country (Europe). He got a nice pair of brogues and some trainers as well, and the kids came away with at least three pairs each. It helped that they drove down to Spain otherwise the excess luggage cost on the flight home could have been a bit steep.

The manufacturing and design facilities are state of the art, supplying international markets with high-quality products of unbeatable design. A sizeable proportion of their production is exported to EU countries and to the USA.

Jacqui has a write-up on shoes. Click here.

Then come the fiestas and events! Click the logo to see a slideshow on Elche, or click the FWD button in the Navigation bar to go to the next section on fiestas.

ELCHE

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