Gran Alacant January 2000

[John H]

It’s changed!!



Regards all

John


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[DaveG]

Hi John,

It sure has changed. I came across the two attached photo's recently. They are photo's of photo's as I have lost the negatives - June 2002 so pre-digital era.

They are taken from outside what was to be in October 2002 the Sunset Bar. One looking up the hill and the other across to Arenalas.

Dave

[John H]

They’re brilliant Dave, I’ll have to go in the loft one day and dig out my early ones for 2003/4

Regards all

John


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[Aficionado]

Fascinating John - no Altomar 1, no Altomar 2 yet just 2 -3 years later it was all built!

Well found

Michael.

[Tony Gillam]

We first visited on an inspection trip in December 2001. It's surprising how much has been built in that time. Novamar 2 had just been finished and the excavations for Novamar 3, where we bought, had just started. It was all open space opposite. No school and only the first block on that road had been built.

[hyetometer]

Hi all,

the video is amazing. Which roads are you following, John?

My parents bought the flat in Arenales in 1999. (Must look for some photos, if interesting for you, I'll scan them. Not digital at that time.) When travelling by bus to Santa Pola, the bus took the route along the coast or N332. I can't remember going to or passing Gran Alacant. The commercial centre, Lidl, Mercadona didn't open until a couple of years later on.

Apart from buying food in the small supermarkets in Arenales we went to Santa Pola as mentioned or to Altet. On the way from Arenales to El Altet there was a former discotheque (?), then a ruin but still with a dog barking when coming near. (Anybody any idea? I can't find information on the net.)

I'm very much interested in the history of the place. So far I've learned that everything started with the hotel in Arenales, built in a desert. Next buildings were the Torre Andalucia with 18 plantas and the buildings first line at the beach. When my parents bought in 1999 we were told that they were illegal in the mean time and would have to be broken down. But the ley de la costa is a difficult thing, and from my point of view, why break them down? (Maybe when the sea comes too next to them? Has anybody here observed, that the beach is getting narrower, the water coming more and more towards the buildings?)

Ok, that's to Arenales. I assume, investment companies soon discovered, that the place is especially beautiful and got the idea to expand constructing buidings to Gran Alacant. I remember the smaller houses with exorbitant view to the sea were the first ones.

TM was then very active and is still active now. They offered the flats and houses all over Europe. The first neighbours of my parents, apart from the Spanish, came from Germany (as we), Finland, Sweden. So far, I've not met British owners around in Arenales, maybe they were more attracted to Gran Alacant. And in my block (Av. Costa Blanca with the blue roofs) by now foreigners have disappeared. (Apart from me.)

So many questions. I hope you don't mind, that I'm German and my flat is in Arenales.

Cheers,

Monika

[julietmorris]

My parents bought their apartment from new in 1985. It was in Urb Gran Alacant, where the video ends. There was very little here then, a tiny supermarket, and very few restaurants. All the roads (with street lights) where here but they didn’t lead to anywhere. We used to cycle over the hills towards Los Arenales. It was just all waste land. Would never had imagined then how much it would change.

[John H]

You’ll find lots of interesting photos of the area in times gone bye on here

http://www.carabassi.net/bitacora/

Regards all

John


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[BeachLife]

Thats the first old video I have seen .... fascinating how things have changed

Here is a couple from my records  - you would struggle to spot the point these were taken now !

[John H]

Just a few changes BeachLife, all those lovely hillsides that the promoters said they would never build on!!
Did we believe them, of course not

Regards all

John


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