Soon, Christmas is here again! Day by day we are closer to that cheerful celebration and it's time to visit some Christmas markets and walk around in those towns...
Hey, stop!
What you are talking about? We are only at the beginning of June.
Oops, true! Though this walk indeed happened in December 2022. We visited for the first time Xixona, which is a little town between some mountains in the inland Alicante area (Spain). I had a day off, which was so good to be able to plan a little excursion instead of going to work in the afternoon.
We had seen an advertisement for the Christmas market in Xixona, and we decided to go that day when I was free. It lasted for several days, as seems that it is a pretty famous market on those dates before Christmas. This town is well known for the artisanal ice cream and the kind of nougat (turrón) they produce. We were surprised to see so many stalls selling that product, made by local families.
Although we went because of the street market, we participated in a guided tour through the town. Maybe it is better to call it a village, as there are less than 7000 people living there.
We didn't know what to expect, but that's why it was interesting, to meet a new place. Not new, as the village is old. But it was a new town marked in our travel records.
The meeting point of this guided tour was in front of the town hall. It was free and there were two guides who were sharing the work of showing us the municipality and talk about the history of it.
First, we walked through the main street and later the path led towards narrow streets and uphill. Good physical exercise, something I would need now...
One of the stops was in front of this little church. A chapel. The guide told us a story of how the town survived the plague. It was connected to an image of San Sebastian that was in this house. While the owner of the house was cleaning, she saw that the image was crying. It happened on July 24, 1600, well, according to the tradition. Now we can believe or not this story, but they say that the population got rid of the plague in that town because of this happening.
We have chosen to go on this guided walk, but I think we would not get lost by going alone. The main places and buildings were marked with signs.
Stairs up and down but we were not complaining. The group continued and actually was growing during this time. How? People from the street who happened to be there became interested in this activity and they joined.
One of the destinations was the castle of Xixona, and there we stopped a bit, again to talk and laugh about some funny things that happened in the meantime. There was a boy claiming that he is hungry and would like to eat biscuits. The guide offered him turrón, but he didn't accept. To the question of why, the mother said that he didn't like it as it was hard to chew. Well, that is true, there are types of that nougat that have a very dense structure.
The views from the castle were so nice, but it was misty, the tops of the mountains remained covered the fog.
The Castle of Xixona was built in the 12th century, and it is how it looked like. In this representation, we can see different towers, and one of them (the number 5) was Torre Grossa - The Great Tower.
Closer and more detailed representation and explanation of the Great Tower.
This whole complex was built on an elevated part of the town and from here they could watch even the coast and prevent pirate attacks.
If you go up, it means you have to go down too. So again stairs and steep streets were waiting for us, but this time it was easier to go walk.
The old centre of Xixona is not very well-maintained. There are old houses that for sure would need some maintenance and nicer facades. There was also a ruin of an old church, just the main entrance and a part of a wall remained. The guide talked about it but I was a bit far away so I didn't hear a lot of the history. My bad.
This would be the interior of this old church. But we have to imagine the walls here and the roof.
The church that is still in good condition is this one, with the blue roof on the tower - Archpriestal Church of Our Lady of the Assumption. It was built between the 16th and 17th centuries, in Renaissance style.
Just a few streets and we were back to the little square from where we started this little guided tour.
The tour lasted for a bit more than an hour, and the facade of the town hall received a different look. Illuminated by the lights - it felt like evening already.
However, it was not the end of our visit to Xixona. It was time for some sweet bites from the stalls of the street market.
Smaller cities are the ones that manage to have some attention to past history.
Guidebooks that illustrate different parts of the city are a wonderful idea: tourists can go deeper and understand some aspects of the social fabric that characterizes the inhabitants.
The uphill street made in steps is very interesting: there is a similar one in Istria in Rovinj, connecting the waterfront with the cathedral.
When we visit a new place, we like to see the history too, but it depends on the time we have. When a town is organized well then it is easy to learn something about the place through guides or boards placed in front of the important buildings. :)))
I know about Rovinj but we didn't visit the city itself.
Too bad! Rovinj is very beautiful, the building style is characteristic because it is a mix of Austro-Hungarian and Italian, but very striking.
As soon as the opportunity comes your way go without thinking: all of Istria is worth visiting!
The Austro Hungarian style is beautiful, and adding the Italian - I am pretty sure it's outstanding 😉
you had me confused at the start Christams already LOL but then I saw this is a walk from that time LOL
such a cool place I always find narrow streets like that so interesting
Xmas is approaching, isn't it? Hahaha
🎄🎄🎄 😂
Just 6 months and we are there 😁
LOL I have friends who are already counting down to Christmas lOL
The Town Hall can hire you as a guide, and I enjoyed the tour justo like like tourits there
At first, I was a bit confused😅, like, why is she talking about Christmas when there's still almost six months to go... 😂I had no idea that town existed, but now I can say I've been there, I've been un Xixona thanks to @mipiano 😁.
Of course you didn't know it existed, the guagua can't pass through those steep streets 😂
The Christmas thing - it just had to come. :D And there is more to come, from the same day, the street market y los turrones. ¿Cómo lo voy a empaquetar yo eso? 😂
😂😂I can't stop laughing, just imagining it makes me die of laughter 😂. So genius 😂
On the other hand, I'll be looking forward to the rest of the day then, and even more if there arr turrones involve 😏
What a lovely walk on this tour through the village.
The castle is stunning.
The stairs… up and down… I so know hahaha 🤣 it can be tough.
Almost half way there 😉
Enjoy your day! Great captures @mipiano 😎 and we don’t mind thinking of Christmas hahaha !LOL
Haha, yes, stairs up and down 😂 it's always fun. And Christmas, we can talk about it 6 months before it comes and later 6 months to remember it 😂😂😂 (though I don't really fancy those dates, you know, a bit of pre-christmas depression can come 😅)
I went over many of those steps on the small mountain villages… in the summer it was killing 🥵
Yes why not. Christmas is fun. Although I haven’t celebrated for a few years as we were always moving or about too. So never put up the tree.
I can imagine… some years that can happen.
!HUG Have a wonderful Thursday @mipiano 👋🏻😊
I sent 1.0 HUG
(1/3)Dear @mipiano, you just got hugged. on behalf of @littlebee4.
That was a very good use of your day off, I love the view of the valley from the castle, those old town looks very interesting, I was wondering if you didn't find any of those magic Arch that Teleport some place else or maybe other time 😁
No, I didn't find any portal in the old town, but still, after this walk the market stalls were there. Maybe if I eat a bit of turrón, a magical one, I can end up in some another dimension 🤔 We will see 😁
Maybe you would traveled to the time they were building the castle 😂😅😅
Qué paseo tan bonito. Y también tienen frío porque llevan abrigos gruesos. Igual, con frío y todo no me perdería los helados, ni los turrones de Jijona, como les decimos aquí, porque Xixona es en Valenciano.
En mi familia siempre que se acerca fin de año comenzamos a buscar dónde comprar turrones de Jijona para comerlos en las fiestas. A mí me gustan los que son suaves, hay uno de yema de huevo que me encanta mientras tomo sidra. Y bueno en realidad todos son de mi agrado. Ahora que lo pienso hace dos o tres años que no he comido... después de la pandemia todo se puso patas arriba.
Gracias mipiano, me ha encantado ver lo que vieron tus ojos 😋, el paisaje desde la torre con caminitos y pequeñas colinas... y niebla... (estoy allí mirando)
Sí, en diciembre en las montañas hace más frío. Y también con la niebla, nos abrigamos. Helado - mi hijo sí que tomó un helado allí jajaja. Yo - cachitos de turrón que en cada stall ofrecían! No me quedé con hambre 😂😂😂
En serio? Comprabas los turrones de Jijona? Sabía que los turrones de aquí son famosos, pero no que se podían comprar en Cuba y que los conoces. 🍀
Espero que un día puedes encontrar de nuevo ese con yema de huevo. Con sidra o ron será genial :)
Speaking of egg yolks... did you see the Photo Essay community theme? Creo que me animaré.
Sí, eso espero yo también, que vuelvan los turrones de Jijona. Y algunas otras cosas como los cereales con frutos secos que solía desayunar con yogur.
Un abrazo mi 🎹
Yeah, I saw it yesterday... I do have some yellow objects around but I think I would not make it on time. Probably there is a deadline. (can't find the exact date when the theme finishes)
But thank you for the reminder, and looking forward to seeing your contribution :) 😀
until Saturday 0:00 am GMT+2 😉
Con cariño, nanijjj 🤣
Pero dime, estoy errada con lo de Jijona? Es que cuando leí me pareció conocido ese lugar por lo del turrón. Y luego lo mencionaste y dije ahhhh... es como México que le decimos Méjico.
No, no, no estás errada, es Jijona en castellano 🙂 👌
Thank you ,,zzzz
Hi! That sounds like a great time! I've never been to Xixona, but it sounds like a lovely place to visit, especially during the Christmas season. I'm sure the Christmas market was really festive and the nougat was delicious.
We were there for that Christmas market, it was interesting to visit. I am not sure how it is when there is no decorations and all those stalls, so maybe a new visit is needed, one day ;)
What a beautiful walk and town.
First I was reading and looking at the pictures and I said to myself I love the third one but then when I got to the views from the top, the stairs, the beautiful landscape, I said .... this is the best.
I loved it! Even I had a great walk around visiting you, thanks @mipiano !!!!❤️
The views from the castle toward the hills is what I liked the most, with that fog. Though it was a bit cold ❄️ ;)
You could tell it was cold, everyone was warm, but it was worth it. Beautiful views!
Good evening!✨
beautiful photos, appreciate you sharingwhat a beautiful walk dear friend @mipiano and what a charming town to walk and enjoy its cobbled streets and period buildings
Thank you for coming with us to this little town 😊
Christmas twice a year?))))) 😄 I would want to have some cold weather here from Christmas time. Cold weather is better than hot))
Summer will heat up the temperatures here, soon. I will want that cold to come back hahaha
Christmas is that time of the year that people love the most because it is full of celebrations...
I can't wait for that period to come again
Just six months and we are there 😉🎄
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