The Albir Lighthouse Walk And Lunch At The Indian Restaurant “Tiffin”

The 9th and 12th of October are “fiesta” days in this neck of the woods and we were lucky this year that they fell on a Friday and a Monday, resulting in a nice long weekend. Also, Thursday the 8th was a holiday in Benissa so Pep literally started back at work on Monday the 5th of October, had 3 days teaching and was then rewarded with 5 days off to get over the first feared few days back at school, after what’s seemed like an endless holiday since March, thanks to Covid-19! It’s not too great for the financial side of things though so hopefully work is here to stay.

Pep and I have recently been slightly under the weather. We managed to pick up some sort of tummy virus that wiped us out for a few days. Because of this, we haven’t got round to doing much in our “huerta” (or anywhere, really) so there’s nothing much to report from the home front (and I don’t think you’d be too interested in me going on about our gastric flu!).

Thanks to this nice long “puente” (when “fiesta” days fall just right for a lovely, long weekend) we managed to go on a couple of easy strolls while we were getting our strength back. On Monday the 12th we were feeling back to normal so we thought it a good idea to have an effortless walk up to the Albir lighthouse (“faro”), in the Serra Gelada natural park.

The weather had been great over the “puente” and Monday was no exception. It was perfect weather for walking. The walk up to the lighthouse is not a strenuous one and is great for all ages. It takes just under a couple of hours there and back (stops included) so it’s a good one to do if you don’t have much time or you just fancy an easy excursion before lunch (or you’ve had gastric flu and aren’t quite ready for a full blown mountain hike).

The only trouble with this walk is it can get quite overcrowded, especially on “puentes” with good weather. We’ve done the walk a few times in the past, either during the week or on a weekend and I’ve never seen it as busy as it was the other day. A weekday is the best time to go, you hardly see anyone on your travels. From now on I doubt we’ll be going on a “puente” again.

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The “Molí Del Quisi” Walking Route (Benissa) And A Take-Away “Arròs Del Senyoret”

It was still very enjoyable though, thankfully the “camino” is quite wide and is also tarmacked so you’re not having to get out of people’s way too often. Except of course for the usual groups of 2 or more people who think that the whole width of the camino is for them and do nothing to avoid banging into you, even when you try to get out of their way (sorry, had to get it out of my system, it’s something that really piddles me off).

Anyway, on with the pics. I’ll give explanations where necessary. The first six are taken at the beginning of the walk.

There is a track that takes you down to the ochre mines and also to the “Cala De La Mina”, a small rocky inlet, which I read somewhere that it’s supposedly a nudist beach. Not sure about that. It’s an obligatory stop for small boats though, as well as kayaks and paddle surfers. I have yet to go down there, maybe next time. We always seem to arrive late and have to zoom back down ’cause we’ve booked a table somewhere for lunch.

To test our stomachs and make sure they were back to their usual selves, we’d booked a table for lunch in one of our favourite Indian restaurants, “Tiffin” (website here, facebook page here, tripadvisor here). We first tried Tiffin after seeing it was the number 1 Indian restaurant in Albir on Tripadvisor and number 4 of all the restaurants in said town, which is saying something as I’m sure Albir must be the town with the most bars and restaurants per capita. They’re everywhere!!

The food has been excellent on every occasion (in our opinions, obviously). They have plenty of selection for vegans and vegetarians too. On our most recent visit we ordered the onion bhajis and Pep ordered the garlic naan (I scrounged a small slice to try, for the sake of the blog, of course). Both were delicious. The bhajis were served with a tamarind sauce and the naans with the three different sauces that are also served with the poppadoms.

For seconds I decided on the Aloo Mutter (potato and peas with a tomato and onion sauce) and Pep went with the Prawn Punjabi. They both had just the right amount of “hotness” for our liking (and that of our stomachs!).

We’ve never tried any of the desserts so I can’t give my opinion on those. What we do like to try are the delicious ecological teas and infusions they serve. The jasmine green tea is divine (and I can’t normally stand jasmine) as is the Bora Bora infusion.

One thing this restaurant doesn’t serve that most others of it’s kind do, is a cheap “menú del día” with drinks included. They do have four set menus with rather a lot of food but drinks are extra. These range from 20€ to 25€ and one of them is, if not vegan, vegetarian. We haven’t tried any of them, I don’t think I could eat that amount of food in one sitting.

What surprises me most about this particular eatery are the customers. All the times we have been to eat the diners were all Spanish. Quite astonishing when you consider that many of the Indian restaurants are visited mainly by Brits, Dutch, etc. “Guiris” as we’re “affectionately” known by the locals.

Now, I don’t want to insult my fellow countrymen/women but I’ve learnt from past experience that if a bar/restaurant (in Spain) is full of Spaniards it’s more often than not pretty decent. Of course there are a few exceptions, but I’ve found that it’s usually the case.

I’m wondering if us foreigners don’t frequent Tiffin (at least when I’ve been there) because they don’t offer the typical daily set menu with the bottle of wine included. Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for a cheap “menú del día”, there are some excellent ones around, in Indian restaurants too. But I’m sure you’d agree that the non-existence of a cheap bottle of wine included in the price wouldn’t stop you from trying a restaurant that has some excellent reviews.

I must admit, on occasions I have been seduced by the cheap plonk included with the daily menu. The only trouble is, it alters my perception of the food. On one occasion in a restaurant close by (I won’t mention the name) Pep and I ordered the mediocre bottle of wine that was included with the menu. We ordered their paella valenciana and when it arrived we were both relatively merry. We thought the paella was absolutely marvellous and we made a mental note to visit in the not too distant future. A few weeks later we returned, ordering the same paella but instead, drinking water. We haven’t been back since!

Ok, I’ll stop waffling, back to Albir. After our meal we had a wander along the sea front towards Altea. We’ve often walked to Altea from there, grabbed an ice cream at our favourite parlour and walked back. This time though, we had about an hour stroll along the prom then went and got the car and drove to Altea for our pudding, we didn’t want to overdo it.

Heladería Quo, as I mentioned in my post here, is one of our favourites. They will be closing soon for the winter so we wanted to get one last visit in until next year. They normally always have a different sorbet depending on the season, on this occasion pear was the chosen flavour. It was scrumptious, the texture was just like the fruit and it had a very delicate, fragrant taste. I combined it with raspberry, another of my favourites. Pep had his usual pistachio and coffee. I had a little try of both of them (again, for the sake of the blog). They’re both divine, in fact I’d say the pistachio is one of the best ones I’ve tried in this area. Soooo creamy.

The day was the perfect way to spend the last few hours of our “puente”. The route to the lighthouse is lovely, you’re really rewarded with some great views for such an undemanding stroll.

Right, I’m off for now. It’s olive picking time, more on that soon. I’ll be back on Valley Fm this Saturday between 12pm and 2pm. Listen online here if you fancy. Here’s last week’s spot. Thanks for reading. As always, any questions or suggestions please get in touch. See you soon. Lots of love, Georgie and Pep xxx