Andalucia Day 51 Águilas museo del mar, Bolnuevo, San Juan Playa

The day starts at just past 6.30 with a splendid sunrise over the sea, deep red turning to peach, apricot, as the sky gets lighter and then the sun itself firing up the lower part of the clouds before finally the first glimpse. Worth the stay at Mojácar playa.

It's a nice sunny morning and our first stop is Águilas for the sea museum. It's not a slow stop in Águilas because the only thing we see is the museum but the museum is well worth a detour and so nice and well designed that one suspects the rest of the town might be equally welcoming. There's an actual trawler cut down the middle to look around, a small but fascinating acquarium, lots of interesting information about the different fishing methods used locally and a fascinating and large collection of shells which we haven't really got the time to do justice to.

Next stop, Bolnuevo for the interesting geological formations reminiscent of bunches of flowers. Bolnuevo also has a very pleasant and sheltered beach where we stop for a picnic and coffee. Still lots of foreigners and mobile homes around.

It's still quite a long drive to Alicante, at first through fields and fields full of lettuce plants. There we have an Airbnb room in a splendid house full of antique furniture, beautiful but also perhaps a little intimidating. We are in the San Juan area by the beach which is unexpectedly high-rise and residential. The beach is very nice but the skyscrapers are a little intimidating and alienating and absolutely not what we expected.

Perhaps also dusk is not a good time to explore. It's so very residential that restaurants don't start until 8.30 so despite the good tips from TripAdvisor we give in and have a few tapas, nothing special, to call it a day.

Kilometres by car: 264

Kilometres on foot: 10