Explanada de España

The Explanada de España is the seafront promenade of Alicante, a broad, palm-shaded walk that runs beside the port from the foot of the old town, and it is the place where the city comes to stroll, meet and watch the sea. It lies at the end of the main avenue that leads down from the centre, with the harbour and its yachts on one side and a row of handsome buildings on the other, and above it rises the hill of Benacantil, crowned by the Castle of Santa Bárbara. The walk is level, car-free and very easy, and the sea air and the long lines of trees make it one of the most pleasant spots in the city on a hot day.

The most famous feature is the paving. The surface of the promenade is a mosaic of marble tiles in three colours, red, cream and black, laid in an undulating pattern that suggests the waves of the sea, and the effect is of a wide, rippling carpet. It is said to contain about six and a half million tiles, and the design gives the promenade a cheerful, rhythmic character that is quite unlike other boulevards. A first promenade was made on this site in the nineteenth century, and the present mosaic dates from a renewal in the middle of the twentieth century. Photographers often take pictures from the end of the walk looking back along the stripes.

Palms line the promenade in four rows, forming a shady canopy overhead, and benches under the trees offer places to rest. A bandstand in the shape of a shell, known as La Concha, hosts concerts and events, among them performances by local bands, and stalls selling crafts, flowers and souvenirs set up along the walkway at weekends. Behind the promenade, a series of elegant buildings from the early twentieth century, some of them in a Modernist style, house hotels, cafes and offices. The Casa Carbonell, an eclectic building of the 1920s, is among them. In the evening, people walk in the cool, children play, and street musicians appear.

The Explanada lies within a short walk of the Postiguet beach, the city's central beach at the foot of the castle, and of the old quarter, the Barrio de Santa Cruz, with its narrow lanes and flower pots. The Mercado Central, an early twentieth-century market with a dome, is also close, as is the lift that carries visitors up to the Castle of Santa Bárbara, from where the whole bay can be seen. The promenade is a good place to start or end a walk through Alicante, or to sit for a drink before dinner.

It is free, open at all hours and suitable for everyone, including wheelchair users and families with prams. Evening is the best time, when the heat has eased and the lights come on.