A day of driving...

Trip Start Oct 05, 2009
1
16
21
Trip End Oct 24, 2009


Loading Map
Map your own trip!
Map Options
Show trip route
Hide lines
shadow
Where I stayed
Burriana Beach
(Almeria hotels)

Flag of Spain  , Andalusia,
Monday, October 19, 2009

We had great intentions starting out the day. We planned to drive along the coastline to a town called Almeria. it's a 2+ hour drive. We thought spanish coastline, it's got to be pretty right? Not so much. It started out beautiful. Picturesque cliffs that roll into the crystal blue water of the mediterranean ocean. But once we passed the first few cities it became the plastic jungle. Every city after this, all the way to almeria, is a farming town. the hillsides are covered with plastic td greenhouses that grow fruits and vegetables. You can not find a single area that doesn't have a plastic greenhouse. The mountains are very dry and rocky. We stopped in a town called Almerimar for lunch - a fishing village and big windsurfing and water sport area. The town has a marina and yacht club. There were tons of boats in the marina, but the town was pretty well shutdown for the winter. Only a handful of cafes were open. It was pretty quiet. We walked around a bit and then headed on our way. Our main destination was Almeria to see the Fort there called Alcabaza, and then we planned to visit Parque Natural in Cabo de Gato Shae with all her goodies
Shae with all her goodies
 . This area is know for it's conservation efforts and beautiful natural beaches. Mike asked around to find out what other areas are interesting on our way to Almeria. A woman (park cleaning lady) told him Roquetes de mar is a beautiful spot. We drove right there and hated it! Ugly, overdeveloped town near the water. Dirty and not one bit interesting. We could not wait to get out of there. there was probably another area that may have been nicer, but we didn't see it. We drove straight to Almeria and which has an old city and a new city. The new city is also very overdeveloped. Huge high rise apartments and hotels. the old city has a bit more charm and this is where the fort is located. We hiked up to the entrance only to discover it's closed on mondays. Bummer! It looked 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 map and never did get us to the park. By this time we were pretty well done with this area. It was getting late, we never did make it to the park so we decided to cut our losses and head back to Burriana Beach. We decided the only thing that could salvage the day was if the Thai restaurant was open. We got back at 8:45pm and hooray it was open. We had a great meal with some good wine and stayed a good while chatting with the owners and another couple from Holland and France.
Slideshow Print this entry