We took our final step to residency this week with a trip to Alicante to deliver yet another pile of papers to the Spanish government. It took us two months to get these appointments and we’re relieved to have it done. We hope to get our residency cards in a month (or so, since this is Spain afterall.) We celebrated by touring the Santa Barbara castle.

It sits high above the city and is an imposing sight. Unfortunately, I wasn’t really thinking and forgot to take a picture from the bottom. The good news is you can Google it (if you really care).

We also took a trip Saturday to a town about 30 minutes from us that we haven’t visited yet–Villajoysa.

It has a beautiful sandy beach and is known for it’s very colorful casas pintadas. The walled section of their casco antiguo (old town) was also really lovely. We saw a wedding party in the church plaza as we walked through and I couldn’t help but think how incredible it must be to celebrate in a church that’s been there since antiquity marking the events of its citizens for hundreds of years.