Minarete Apartments Roquetas de Mar

... I headed back into town. There were two restaurants I had spotted earlier that looked good. But guess what, they're both closed for personal rest. Hmpf. I found another place that looked decent-ish. I ordered the pasta with gorgonzola sauce. Oh. My. Goodness. It was like they took a hunk of blue cheese, melted it down and poured it over pasta. It was so rich and biting. Ugh. I covered it with salt, pepper, olive oil -- even vinegar, because it was on the table and I ...

I am on my way to Cabo de Gata from Granada. I, as usual, didn't do diligent enough research and so ended up in Almeria with a 4 hour layover. Normally I would be ecstatic about this as that is plenty of time to drop my bags at the station, roam around on a city bus and get a feel for one more Spanish city. However. Almeria doesn't believe in baggage drops at the station. In an "I am Josie. I am American." moment, I walked to a hotel to leave my bags there. No. Neither being ...

... really interesting. We decided to check out the cathedral instead. It was ok but nothing like Toledo's. We didn't really like anything in Almeria - so we headed on our way north to Cabo de Gato. We traveled another 30 minutes or so and found a long stretch of white beaches with a small little town (also pretty shut down for the winter). We drove on in search of the Parque Natural - but ran into a dead end at a huge lighthouse and observatory. Our gps was all over the ...

... someone had been waiting behind a rock near us. I couldnt have left faster if i tried. Very stressful moment.

So we cycled to the other side of Almeria but our journey was cut short due to a coastal windy road with no lights. We had no choice but to sleep where we were. which happened to be up some steps near a light house in the view of hookers. Seriously no other choice. Also, where we slept the happened to be 1cm by 1 inch orange woodlice crawling everywhere. Lovely.

Returned to San Jose. Next day drove around to the town of Cabo de Gata, saw the salt-pans, went up the the "Cape", saw the incredible beach of Cabo de Gata, had great lunch there, then went around to the beach at Monsul. Eventually decided I HAD to leave!! 

... The terrain became more and more barren. This is the area where all the "spaghetti westerns" (Good Bad & Ugly, etc) were filmed in the 60's and 70's. Allegedly because it looks just like Arizona, but I wouldn't know because I've never been there. Reputedly, it's the driest part of Europe.  I headed off the motorway towards Tavernas, spotting a couple of "Wild West" towns along the way, and went to "Mini-Hollywood" which is basically a theme park. Having ...

... 20 bornes en rebroussant chemin vers cabo de gata....magnifiaue endroit, on arrive en 4x4 carrement sur la plage, on trouve une petite epicerie qu on a devalisem pates, saucisson, courgettes, lard au bord e l eau, etla, surprise, une bande de chats loubards nous barre la route et essqient de nous manger notre repas...il faisait un peu frais et beaucoup de vent SAMEDI 02 ...

... onwennig, ik heb de af gelopen weken bijna dagelijks op dit perron gestaan om een cursus aan de VU te geven, maar nu zal de trein op Amsterdam Zuid met ons doorrijden naar Schiphol. De contouren van onze reis zijn uitgetekend: in Malaga staat een auto te wachten, in Granada staat ons bed klaar voor twee dagen, de gids staat te wachten voor het Alhambra, in Cordoba is niets geregeld en in Portugal kijken zeilvrienden naar ons uit om hun pas gekocht ...

... we zelf ons tempo bepalen. Het zijn allemaal open ruimtes, er is nergens glas aanwezig en er is heel veel houtsnijwerk te bewonderen. Verder zijn er veel tuinen met mooie bloemen en vijvers. Het hele complex is wel 13 Ha groot en het wemelt er van de toeristen. We lopen er een paar uur rond en gaan dan met de grote bus de grand tour maken door de stad. We zien onderweg een opeenhoping van mensen en horen kanonschoten. Het blijkt een ...

... lui donner le « papier vert » pour rentrer la voiture au Maroc. On ne nous donne pas le papier, il faudra le demander à terre. On continue à manger et on va faire tamponner les passeports. On va un peu dehors et avec Flo, nous avons une discussion avec un marocain qui est pas très ouvert, mais gentil. Et voilà, on est descendues et il reste environ deux heures avant l'arrivée à Nador. On y arrive à 23h30, heure locale. 109980km au compteur.