The sun shone – well for the first half of the day at least and Calle Gerona in the Rincon de Loix turned green to celebrate the Patron Saint of Ireland. St Patrick’s day is big business here in Benidorm and many of the bars embraced the occasion, with bunting, flags, balloons and shamrocks decorating their premises.

Most of those out celebrating dressed up – although there was one very brave gent wearing not much apart from his shamrock glasses and Guinness hat… but then this is Benidorm and as we all know, anything and very often everything goes here. There is very little that will shock here.

There were also plenty of green t-shirts, green garlands and Guinness hats and even a pooch embraced the occasion! Unfortunately the weather did turn mid afternoon with high winds and it started to rain – but it didn’t seem to dampen anyone’s spirits too much.

Although bars were busy, numbers seemed down on last year, when it was virtually impossible to walk down Calle Gerona.

Many comments on social media have remarked that airfares to Alicante have shot up. Perhaps this was the consequence, less people.

 

But for those that did make it, they certainly all appeared to be enjoying the mighty craic... with plenty of beers consumed.

The next big one for the Brits here is British Fancy Dress Day, falling the day after the end of the Benidorm fiestas, which this year is on Thursday 15 November.