Elche.

This is Elche, where I live. That's why I chose the nickname "Amelche" (Ana María from Elche) and the palm tree as the photograph for my blogger's profile. It's very hard to find a corner in Elche where there are no palm trees. That's why we got the UNESCO's World Heritage award in 2000: as you can see here

These photographs were taken last year at the Museum of the palm groves in Elche. It used to be a private orchard till the Town Council bougt it a few years ago, refurbished the house and created the museum. I remember once I went there to buy some dates for a friend from university who had asked me to buy them for the family where he stayed in Sheffield, when he was an Erasmus student there. The old lady who sold the dates told me: "When I was young it was quite an adventure for a woman to go on your own to Alicante (one of the nearest towns) and now you girls go abroad!"

I had been in the house buying dates but I had never walked in the orchard till last year, when I took these photographs. This is the entrance to the Huerto de San Plácido (St. Placid's Orchard), I think it's a very appropriate name for it, due to the quietness of the place.

There wasn't anybody there and I had left my mobile phone at home charging the batery. In that moment, it was as if I had gone into an oasis far from civilization. There was an incredible peace there. The Arabs, who used to live here many centuries ago, would plant their orchards and place the water channels between the palm trees (as you can see in the first photo) so that the water was on the shade and it didn't evaporate so much. In Elche it is also typical to find benches made of palm tree trunks, as you can see in the previous photograph.

However, behind the palm trees there is the city with its buildings like the ones in the photograph. This park is situated in the heart of Elche, very close to the town centre and its busy streets. I dedicate this post to Anna-Lys, http://anna-lys.blogspot.com/, who asked me to write more posts in English and I promised I would. :-D

(This post in Spanish, although I have changed a bit the translation into English, here: en español.)