Today Vicky and I visited Javea, also known as Xàbia, an attractive coastal town about six miles south of Denia. It has a wide sheltered bay around which the lower part of the town sits, and an upper old town a couple of kilometres inland.

Apparently the town has a sizeable English and German expat community, although they weren’t much in evidence today, and nor was the bay bristling with high rise hotels as is so often the case in similarly beautiful settings.

It’s a place clearly geared up for a summer influx but a warm sunny day in January, as it was today, might just be the perfect time to be here, with the Spanish side of life much more visible. I can’t imagine what it must be like in peak season, when the beauty that draws so many must surely be temporarily impaired by the sheer, lopsided weight of their presence. Not today though.

The old town’s 15th century church of San Bartolome, pictured below, sits in the middle of the old town amidst a warren of ancient, narrow streets. And from the nearby archeological museum you can climb up above the roof to a lovely terrace offering spectacular views of the area.

Iglesia de Nuestra Señora de Loreto

The highlight of the visit for me was the Iglesia de Nuestra Señora de Loreto, the Church of Our Virgin of Loreto, also referred to as the Parroquia del Mar, the Parish of the Sea. It’s a stunning architectural achievement that’s managed to be elegantly beautiful too. Its ceiling, shown in the last two picture below, is made from red pine and resembles the hull of a boat, ringed by windows through which sunlight pours. It’s hard to capture its gigantic splendour on film but here are a few pictures.

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La Sacristia

In the evening, back in Denia, continuing the theme of visiting ecclesiastical sites, we visited La Sacristia (the Sacristry), although with the sole intention of drinking gin (it’s a bar), accompanied by Vicky’s friend John, who arrived here from England on Wednesday.

It’s a dead swanky place that looks a bit like a take on the Borgias’ Palace, or a religious version of the Ivy, and with similarly inflated prices. For a Friday night it was deserted, which we suspected might have had something to do with the prices, and maybe the atmosphere. It was pretty cool but cool gets cold when you feel you’re just sat in an exhibition.

We didn’t stay long, retreating after one to somewhere cheaper where, after a few more, we decided to return to Javea tomorrow for a second helping.

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