Continuing our "let's try to do and see as much as we can in out last month of May" plan, Lyle and I went on a day trip to Almería last Friday.
Almería is a city in the Almería province in Andalucía, about two hours by bus from Granada. It was an interesting city with both historical and very modern elements. We arrived at 11am, had a nice breakfast, then spent the morning exploring the old/historic part of the city. The city was said to be founded because the Arabs needed a better defense system. So the
Alcazaba was built on the hill, and the name of the city gets its name from the Arab word
Al-Mariyah which means "watchtower." So we headed to Alcazaba to check it out. We didn't enter, but took some nice pictures, taking in the view.
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| The Alcazaba |
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| The Alcazaba |
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| Interesting walls |
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| With the Alcazaba |
We continued walking around the old part of the city, and stopped by
Plaza de la Catedral to see the
Cathedral. The Cathedral was another interesting sight. The first thing I noticed was it's lack of a dome, and it has an interesting fortress-like appearance. It was originally built as a mosque, and was later converted into a Christian church. It was destroyed in an earthquake, and when it was rebuilt, it was done so in the Renaissance style, but it still kept some of its fortress-like features.
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| La Catedral |
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| La Catedral |
Nestled in
Plaza de Flores in the old part is a
statue of John Lennon. John Lennon filmed a movie in Almería, and it was here that he wrote "Strawberry Fields Forever."
Actually, there are many movies (both Spanish and Hollywood) that were filmed in Almería. Almería is home to the
Tabernas Desert (which happens to be the only European desert), and the filming location of many Spaghetti Western films. Some of the movies filmed here are
Once Upon a Time in the West, 2001: A Space Odyssey, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, Lawrence of Arabia, Conan the Barbarian, Never Say Never Again, Indiana Jones and most recently
Exodus: Gods and Kings. We didn't actually visit Tabernas Desert, but while walking around the city, we saw this mini version of the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Arnold Schwarzenegger has a star there, which was offered to him after he filmed Conan the Barbarian.
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| Mini Walk of Fame |
We headed towards the beach and had lunch at a popular restaurant,
La Cabaña del Tío Tom, by the promenade. They had some pretty huge servings and free tapas with our drink. Would definitely recommend!
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| Lunch at Uncle Tom's Cabin |
Then it was time for the beach! It was a beautiful day out (though I wished it was a tad bit hotter so I could sunbathe haha), and we spent the afternoon relaxing and swimming. :)
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| The start of the promenade |
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| The beach |
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| The beach |
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We had a quick
merienda before taking the bus back home. I tried some
horchata, which is a drink made of tigernuts, water, and sugar. I was cold and refreshing, but I wasn't particularly fond of the taste. Still, it was nice to try something new.
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| Trying some horchata |
We had originally wanted to visit
Cabo de Gata, which is supposed to be a beautiful natural park with plenty beaches, but the bus times were a bit hard to fit into our schedule. Despite that, we did enjoy Almería (a few people had told us that the beach was ugly. It wasn't the best, but it wasn't that bad either), and it makes for a pretty nice day trip from Granada.
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