Mostly Spain 2023 - Alcoi And The Death Of Modernism

Yesterday we visited the interior town of Alcoi. Alcoi, though not a large city, has a place in Spanish history as one of the centers of its industrializing makeover at the end of the 19th century and into the early 20th century. As a result of this economic activity, much wealth was accumulated in the town which was reflected its buildings. The town still has a robust economic base.

Because of the time period it was in its heyday, the predominate architectural style was Modernism. As we did our preliminary reading on Alcoi, I was getting quite excited. I remembered our visit to Barcelona many years ago. Barcelona had a similar economic growth pattern and its architectural boom with the art decco style of folks like Gaudi. In my mind, that was want we were going to see. 

Using the Waze app, we got to our parking garage in the center of town without problem. We honed in on the Tourist Information office. There we found a very pleasant young woman. I mentioned my interest in modernist architecture and her eyes light up! She's pulling out maps and brochures, she is drawing on the maps the route we should take, circling where various important buildings are. She is animated. I am getting animated. I am getting pumped. I miss Wife's fearful look as she sees herself washed up with the torrent of modernistic architecture enthusiasm.

Center of Alcoi

 Of course, there's a big church. And there are these decorative metal arched up and down all the primary streets of town. I am not sure why they are there. We didn't ask that. And it looks like they light up at night, but we won't be there at night.

Ah the first, building on the itinerary

 Okay. I am liking this. Took a bit of time to find the second one which was right close by.

That's pretty cool too. Then the third one

 

 Well that's okay (Wife at this point is telling me she 'is not feeling it' about modernistic architecture). And to be honest, from this point on the buildings pretty much look like modern buildings with just a few architectural touches. I suppose if you think about the term 'modernism' that would make sense. So we abandon looking for the icons of the modernism movement and just look for what's interesting to us.

When I first saw this, I remarked on the color.

 Then I realized later it was some kind of protective coating when they were tearing down an old building before they build the new one.

 Another church

Statue of a person famous for wiping out infidels (that would be Jews like me). Always good to be doing God's work.

 

 A park done in the Romantic style

 Modernistic representation of recycling bins

 Post-Modernistic representation of students at a school

 A modernistic Lamp Light

 Bridges! Alcoi is noted for bridges.

A modern one for a highway

 The St. George Bridge which was build in the mid-19th century and was one of the first of its kind in Spain.

Old factory

Much like Albuquerque, Alcoi has these lovely bike lanes that are pretty much unused as it is town of steep hills which encourages no one to commute by bike.

It is always good to commemorate those you have put to the sword. In this case, Moors and Jews.

 

Something to Think About

 Menu del Dia

We'd read the best food value was the menu of the day restaurants have for lunch. Tuesday in Alcoi, just about everything was closed. We went to this restaurant because it was open. All they were offering was the menu of the day. There were choices for each course. 

For the First Course Wife had a macaroni with cheese and I had Salad Russe. The later was a potato salad with things like egg and tuna in it but very light and very creamy smooth. I enjoyed it a lot. The mac and cheese was equally light and flavorful

For Mains, Wife had Roast Chicken and I had Bacalao (salt cod). We both enjoyed these a lot.

 

Desserts were our least favorite. Wife had a flan thing with chocolate on the top (good chocolate). I had this sort of cake soaked in something that wasn't very flavorful

 I had a beer. Wife had Coke Zero. I had a coffee.

The Total Bill - $25. That's right $25 for both of us for all that food that was pretty damn good.

Amazing

SIGNS OF THE WORLD!

As best I can tell NOTHING is authorized to park  here.

 SPECIAL EXTRA CREDIT TEST

Know Your Classic Greek Capitals

If you can correctly guess the capital type of these columns, you are entered into the drawing for a free week at Wife and de-I's El Campello apartment (assuming we can actually get one)