Cities, Ports and Europe’s only Desert!

After spending a couple of weeks walking and exploring the Cabo de Gato desert we were close to our destination of the southeast coast of Spain and the main City of Almeria.

To get to Almeria we took a coast road to explore the coastline intending to stop at the town that the natural park is named after ‘Cabo to Gato’. But once there, we quickly moved on as there wasn’t much to see and the car park was full of what looked like long term motor homers, quite a lot of rubbish and a few barking dogs! ( Poor Geroge is getting fed up being barked at by unfriendly dogs!) This was a blessing in disguise as we then drove to the coastal suburban town of Almeria called Retamar.  We pulled up next to the beach on the seafront and Geroge and I headed off for a walk along the long paved ‘pasear’ next to the sea and we ended up at the far end where there was a beautiful park area with lots of plants, palm trees, wooden walkways and covered seating areas for shade in the hot summer looking out to sea, a great spot to watch the sunsetting. It was a quiet area apart from some locals out dog walking or keeping fit in other ways so when I saw a small car park with a couple of motorhomes parked up I rang Bob and got him to drive the motorhome down to the car park where we spent a very chilled day and stayed over for the night before leaving first thing.

Almeria was only 30 mins away and I had already found parking at the port where we could sleep over. It had a barrier; security cameras and the police paid a visit in the night. The big plus was that it was only a short walk to the city. All for 13 Euros for 24 hours. There were no services onsite but we had arrived with plenty water on board and an empty cassette so that we could be self-sufficient for at least 2/3 days.

Almeria is a port city and right next to where we parked we could see the ferries coming and going to such places as Oran in Algeria, Nador in Morrocco or Melilla which is an Autonomous city of Spain in North Africa. Something that I learned whilst googling the live ferry website…. In 24 hours, I got hooked on watching the ferries via the website – a bit like a plane spotter!

Almeria is one of the sunniest cities in Europe, it is the capital of the province of the same name and its main economy is based around intensive agriculture in green houses. We saw a lot of this as we drive through the province – large towns based around acres and acres of white plastic green houses that went on for miles. I think when you eat tomatoes in the winter this is where they are grown… in soil less drip irrigation hot houses.

We took a walk around the city; it was busy but not with tourists more like locals going about their daily business. There is the Fortress overlooking the city but currently hard to get to due to construction. There is an old Bull Ring and the area around the Cathedral was beautiful sandstone, which gave it a clean compared to the rest of the city. We stopped for lunch in a typical tapas bar where we only paid for the drinks and the food (little plates of delight) came free. We never quite knew what we were going to get but it was all delicious!

Later that day when Bob was resting his knee (after bragging about how well his knee has been I think I have jinxed it as lately it has been swelling up and been quite painful at times) I went off to find the nearest supermarket and realised that the seafront and the pasear was only 10 minutes away. A lovely long sandy beach next to a paved walkway with lanes for walkers, runners  and bikers to all exercise together and lined with cafes, shops and smoothie or ice cream bars. I have mentioned it before but I am so impressed with how the Spanish promote exercising, they have plenty of parks, walkways, cycle lanes and outdoor gym areas and all of which are very well used. You regularly see groups of men of all ages out walking together as well women.

My impression of Almeria is that it is a clean city with a vibrant economy and mix of culture with an influence from North Africa. Sadly, we only stayed one night but vowed to return another time.

Our next stop was the Tabernas desert famous for the staging of Clint Eastwoods Spaghetti Westerns and other big budget American movies. We drove through the desert and what a drive, a rugged, dry and bare landscape. We stopped off at the town of Tabernas but didn’t venture to any of the movie sets all of which have been turned into tourist attractions. Tabernas was a very clean and rustic looking Spanish town centring around the main street which is lined with pale coloured buildings with large window with iron balconies. The perfect setting for a western perhaps this is what they modelled the film sets from. That night we stayed in an Aire in the middle of no-where called Route 66 – American themed but not to be recommended!

From there we headed to the ancient Roman city of Cartagena. Another port city with a long history, especially the roman amphitheatre that was only discovered in 1987. They have since spent decades excavating and reconstructing the area to show how it  would have looked over 3000 years ago. Quite impressive.

Cartagena is another beautiful city with a real vibrant city centre part of which is pedestrianised.  The narrow streets are lined with boutiques and bars that are housed in stunning buildings of Art Nouveau architecture, ornate windows and impressive balconies.  The port area is huge to explore but since the weather was windy and quite a bit cooler we only stayed a few hours.

That night we stayed in a car park in a huge shopping centre along with about 30 other motorhomes. We were heading north now and out next stop was Javea where we would be putting our feet up for a week before the long journey home