A Day in Almeria

Saturday 9th January
Almeria.
We thought we had better have a day of culture as we hadn’t for a while and there is a bit of history in Almeria. We started with the Cathedral which was yet another one built on top of an old mosque. It was quite impressive but didn’t have a terribly spiritual feel. (Or at least we didn’t have one but this may be because they charged us a lot to go in.) We have to get better at finding out when the services are as that is the only time the main doors are unlocked and you can walk in without paying! Here, unlike France the churches are locked most of the time. It is a shame because there is a lot to see and we love the large life size dolls of Mary who are very pretty and covered in gold and silver. The amount of gilding is quite staggering and there is some wonderful art.
We walked up to explore the old castle walls - and came upon some quite dodgy inhabitants living behind them, so didn’t spend so long there. They were in a terrible state of disrepair, but were built on the highest point so the views were stunning. We were then able to see that we should have gone up to the OTHER Alcazabar which is beautifully restored. So off we went again up another rock face but it was worth it. This had been built by the Moors in 756 and covered a huge area of rock face, with lovely water gardens and covered wells and cisterns and some old baths. At the back was the more recent addition built by the catholic Kings of Spain after they had won this area back. From here we spent some time watching the goings on in the shanty town (or to be really unPC-slums) that have sprung up around the caves on the hillside. The houses were mostly made out of corrugated iron built into old holes in the cliffs and the whole area was just a big heap of rubbish. There were lots of men and youths hanging around but yet again not a female in sight (quite a Muslim area we think) They had sprayed a flock of racing pigeons all the colours of a rainbow and they were flying about in huge circles it was a lovely sight, maybe not so good for the pigeons.
Because there is still no way of going north except up a dual carriageway – inaccessible to cyclists, we went back to the bus depot to check out buses into the National Park on Sundays.
The simple answer is that there aren’t (on a Sunday), we could cycle into the park, but as there is no way of getting out except by coming back to where we’d started from we reluctantly and full of gloom and utter despondency (this was a serious setback as we’d finally thought we were on a roll all the way to Valencia) admitted defeat and went on line to our friends ‘doyouspain.com’ and hired a baby Benz which we know can fit two bikes and at £85 for 10 days seemed like a deal worth having.