Calpe is a coastal municipality on the Costa Blanca that is perhaps best known for its cliff, white beaches and many good restaurants. It is also known for having a high proportion of people from the UK who own or rent in one of the many modern blocks of flats overlooking the Mediterranean. But Calpe also has a well-preserved old town that is less well-known but more charming than the new ones. As in other coastal towns in Spain, the people of Calpe have built their houses on

Around 10 July each year, there is a medieval market in La Nucía, a small mountain village just ten kilometers away from Benidorm. La Nucía was founded in 1705, and the medieval market is ment to be a birthday celebration for the village. Here you will get an impression of how it was to live in Spain in the Middle Ages. There are sales stalls where you can buy food, souvenirs, handicrafts, ceramics, cast iron, shoes and clothes. In the picture above, an artist dressed in medi

If you need a historic stroll on a Sunday morning, Santuario de la Malladeta can be a good option. There you can study archaeological excavations, admire the view and have a snack on the beach afterwards. The tower that is erected on top of the area today is inspired by the many wachtowers that were build along the Mediterranean coast in the battle against the pirates, but this tower was set up as a studio for Dr. José Maria Esquerdo. It is only a few hundred meters to the to

Cala de Muraig was once a nest for smugglers. It is easy to understand when you see how difficult it is to access this place. Even when you lean out over the ditch 100 meters above the beach, you don't get a complete overview. Today it is a holiday paradise. The underwater caves are a mecca for divers. The beach faces south-east and is shadowed in the afternoons for large parts of the year. Thus, morning and noon is best for sunbath. From the top of the cliff you only see par

If you don't want to meet tourists, don't go to Guadalest. It is just the Alhambra and the Pradomuseum that get more visitors in Spain. But if you want to experience Spain's best preserved medieval city, you should take the tour. Some remember the city for the grotesque Torture Museum from the Inquisition, others are fascinated by the miniature museum where a true copy of the Eilfelt Tower is placed on a pinhole head. The village with the two hundred inhabitants has eight mus

An hour's drive from Oslo you'll get an insight into what it was like to be a mining worker 200 years ago. You can refresh Theodor Kittelsen's peculiar nature interpretations and wander in beautiful nature with well-preserved wooden buildings from times gone by. The cobalt mines seen at the top of the image below extend over several kilometers. During the time of operation, more than two million tons of ore were extracted from the mines with only manual power. Over two thousa

For those who have spent some time at the Costa Blanca, the term "the communist" is well known. Together with his wife and son, Jeroni Moncho Pascual has been running a family restaurant in Tárbena for more than 40 years. The restaurant has been a must to visit - mostly because of the owner's charisma and the restaurant's atmosphere. Jeroni - or Jernonimo, as he also was called - was a communist on his neck, and it is said that he lost one arm during the war against Franko. T

You can't miss it. The large house with the green roof that thrones over the rest of Strømstad is a landmark both on land and at sea. But what is it really? The short answer is the town hall - Strømstad town hall. The whole answer is full of drama, symbolism and mystery. The building was put into operation in 1917, but was first formally opened a hundred years later, in 2017. This was not due to forgetting, but a dispute between the politicians and the donor who had financed

Río Vinalopó is an eight-mile long river that passes through an area with Spain's largest density of medieval citizens. La Ruta de los Castillos del Vinalopó is a historical and cultural tour where you visit seven municipalities within a seven-mile area. In this photo presentation we start with Castillo de Sax. It looks impressive on top of a small hill. Only parts of the outer defense wall are preserved and there is not much to see inside, but the view to the city below and

It was the Spaniards who brought the chocolate to Spain and Europe. Until the Civil War, chocolate was an equally important drink for Spaniards as tea was for the Englishmen. Villajoyosa was a pioneer town in the production of solid chocolate. Here you can visit three chocolate museums. Chocolate is made of cocoa. The cocoa bell is about 20 cm tall and contains 20-30 cocoa beans. The chocolate that the Mexicans drank, was spiced with chili pepper and was therefore bitter and

The beautiful medieval town Ronda is divided into two of a river that has dug out a deep gorge. Fascist sympathizers were thrown from the bridge here during the civil war. It is 120 meters from the bridge to the bottom of the Guadelevín river that eroded the deep canyon of El Tajo between the two parts of the city. In Chapter 10, "The Bells Call For You" by Ernest Hemingway, fascist sympathizers were thrown down from this bridge. The event is based on actual events from that

The old town of Altea is one of the best preserved original coastal towns in Spain. It is also considered one of the most beautiful. In the picturesque narrow streets you will find countless little cozy shops with arts and crafts. The church with the distinctive blue dome is a landmark. Altea has been populated since 500 BC. In the 1600s a double fortress wall was established around the church and the buildings on the top as protection against pirate attacks. Today there are

Already in the early 1900s, parts of the Akerselva were converted to a park. For a long period of time large parts of the river were put in pipelines, but now it has returned to the surface and can be viewed all the way from Maridalsvannet to Vaterland. It's a walkway along one or both sides of the river with benches where you can sit and enjoy the sounds of birds and running water. You can think of the trip as a historic walk. The river was an important source of energy and

A 20 minute boat ride from Santa Pola just outside Alicante is a small, flat island that has been both a haven for pirates and a prison for dangerous prisoners. For hundreds of years, African pirates used the good harbor on the north side of the island as a base for attacks both on merchant ships and on the coastal population of the Alican region. Already in 1427 it was proposed to make a fort on the island to prevent pirates occupying the island which they used as a base for