Discover the traveler in you!!!. Hans Christian Andersen and Alicante

Discover the traveler in you. Hans Christian Andersen and Alicante.

Learn or improve your Spanish and discover a fairytale city . On the occasion of the celebration of the day of the Children's Book in March; we discovered, with our students, the visit of the famous fairytale writer HC Andersen to Alicante. We recreated the experiences he wrote about in his travel book so many years ago in 1862. Just as when the travelers of the nineteenth century wandered through the streets and boulevards described in his book, we saw not  many things have changed.

Come and discover with us the friendly people from your first arrival:  “The train hastened on, but it was midnight before we reached Alicante (…) on our arrival at the station at Alicante (…) But our good star was in the ascendant. We had a proof of the Spanish people’s kind consideration for strangers.”

Listen to the joyful sound of our markets and be amazed by the variety of fruits and vegetables: “Near Alameda, out by the sea-shore, one comes upon a low but long building, a sort of bazaar for butchers, fishermen, and fruiterers… There was a constant buzz of voices paleying between the sellers and the purchares. From the meat and the fish markets, we passed to that of the vegetables; oranges lay here in heaps like potatoes with us; colossal onions and grapes hung round the pillars, and seemed to spring out of the dry wood.”

Taste the traditional Alicante wine, flavorful grapes, pink pomegranates, sweet cherries, almonds, oranges ...: “They brought us splendid fruits- firm, juicy muscatel grapes, and sparkling wine, genuine Alicante. The sound of the sea was our music; the stars of heaven, an illumination. It was summer night; and many, many such there were in sunny Spain.”

Relax on the “Explanada “, sit in one of its cafes and enjoy lively conversation with friends  ....: …” Whitewashed, flat-roofed houses with balconies, were the principal features of the place.. Alameda looked like a fragment clipped from one o the Boulevards of Paris… people were sitting there on the stone benches looking at the promenaders….

Loiter around the old town, discover magnificent buildings, slender palm trees, secluded romantic squares: “Outside of this place stretched the principal streets of the town, with fine buildings, among which the town-hall stood prominently forth, with a turret in each of is four corners. The cathedral was situated but a few steps from this…”

And above all, do not forget to enjoy magical nights, parties, dances, festivals ....: “For the first time we heard next day of the Danish Consul, who, at about the distance of a mile from town, had been celebrating a people’s festival. Ladies and gentlemen, in the garbs of the common people, had by torch-light dance until a late hour at night in the open square near the sea. What a pity that we had not known of this before!”

With Colegio Internacional Alicante you will not feel the pain  of missing the special ambiance of Alicante that H.C. Andersen failed to discover.

Come, discover Alicante with us.