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Mid July 2001

Spain 2001

Andreas Mayer
2005-12-06 08:08:31

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bigger, dirtier and busier. Also it was quiet hot and we decided to go back to the hotel for a littel fiesta, but unfortunately completly lost our way in the identical looking streets that lead away from the town centre. We eventually found our street and had a good few hours sleep before setting out for a late dinner.

The next day we went up to Al Hambra, the famous old Roman then Muslim fortress that overlooks Granada. It is quiet impressive and we spend a good few hours wandering around the several different buildings, towers and castles that make up the monument.

The rest of the day we spent wandering around town some more, including the Albayzin area, the old Muslim quaters, which was nice as only a few yards after leaving the busy main street one is surrounded by incredibly old looking buildings with hardly a soul in sight.

We also went into the big Cathedral in the town centre, which was in the process of being renovated but still impressive.

Cabo De Gata

We were not sure where to go next, with another 6 days or so of our two week holiday to go. Alison wanted a beachy place and so we decided to go to San Jose, a small village in the Cabo De Gata national park, next to Almeria in the very south-east of Andalusia. Getting there was not straight forward as there are only about 2 buses there form Almeria a day, but we managed to get on one after a 3 hour train ride from Granada to Almeria.

A constant worry for me had been accommodation, as the Lonely Planet warns that there is a shortage of rooms in July/ August as the Spanish all head to the beaches. Again this prooved not to be the case as we found a very nice place right next to the bus stop in the centre of the village. Newly decorated, with TV, aircon and fridge!, this was a complete bargain at at around £25 and we decided to stay here for the next few days.

San Jose is a very chilled out place, basically a long beach with almost crystal clear warm water, a number of small cheapish hotels and a number of Spanish and Italian restaurants. We had a lazy couple of days, reading, swimming and sunbathing a lot, with me dreaming about crazy Internet ideas. As there was no public transport further into the Cabo De Gata national park we could not go and explore, but what we saw did look very promising is certainly worth a return trip.

Back Home

The journey back to the UK went pretty smoothly, we got the train form Almeria to Seville (6 hours) and the the overnight train from Seville to Barcelona (12 hours). We had another night in Barcelona, so we checked back into our old hotel, went down to the beach for a while and did some last minute shopping before flying back to the UK.

Spain was good, though I did not get that 'let'smove here' feeling that I sometimes get when I really like a place. I do want to go back though and try some of the more remote locations, and, if possible walk the GR10, Gr11 or High Route along the Pyrenees.