21) Almeria, Spain

Puerto de Aguadulce, Spain 36° 49N 2° 34W

Puerto de Almeria, Spain 36° 49’.6N 2° 27’.8W

Woke up this morning to a beautiful blue sky.  Got my camera and went on a short walk to take pictures.  I found a little café that was open and wanted to spend some time there.  I went back to the boat, dropped off the camera and picked up my book and headed back to the café.  Through some act of magic I managed to stop them from making a Cappuccino, what I actually ordered, and got a coffee Americano, basically an espresso.  I went on the back deck with a muffin, my coffee and my current paperback and experienced a small slice of the simple life.  The rear area overlooked the beach and was so peaceful and quiet.  As quiet as it can get considering out the front door and across the street heavy equipment was carving the hill for some new structures.

We planned to go to Almeria and sightsee today and that meant taking the bus.  The buses are very clean and comfortable.  We walked several blocks up and got the bus.  Once in Almeria we were dropped at the end of the line, which was called the Intermodal.  That’s where all the buses ended.  The fare was the cheapest of all so far at .82 Euros.  We planned to walk to the castle up on the hill and see some back streets on the way.

  

                                      

Almeria is a very old important town and port.  In the past, and it appears several decades ago, this trestle was busy transferring excavated materials across town to this terminal at the water line and eventually onto vessels.  It appears to be abandoned now.  The scars left behind on the hillsides are unmistakable of what we can do to the environment.

Ya gotta love a town that appreciates a good sculpture here and there.

Yep, don’t shave much anymore.  Don’t shower much anymore.  Don’t know what day it is most of the time.  But, I still know my name and address.

Things here are so different than the U.S.  They don’t tear them down; they just knock some of it down and put up something else.  Usually, the common wall can’t be demolished because the other side is someone’s home.  Above is a church that is about 500 years old and to the left is a new modern building sharing the common wall.  There are lots of remnants all over.

One interesting thing is how they handle some of the demolition trash.  We were walking downtown on the way to the castle and saw this guy doing some demo.  They fill these bags with heavy trash, place them, well leave them where they are, and a truck with a crane comes by and picks it up.  No dumpster has to be used.  This is very convenient where space is restricted.

We were walking through the backstreets and not in the nice part of town on our way to the castle and sure enough John makes another friend.  Her name is Delores.  She is 100 years old, speaks only Spanish and has lived in that house her entire life.  She and John talked for 15 minutes and she was basically asking for money for food.  She has lots of children and seemed content.  We all gave her pocket change.  John asked her to speak and he took a video clip of her.  She was a very friendly warm person.  Her neighborhood looks pretty dangerous and not very enticing.

The goal of this trek was to hike up the hill and see the castle.  It was built by the Arabs many hundreds of years ago and is referred to as the Moorish Alcazaba (castle).  I first saw it while we were at sea approaching the port of Almeria before we were denied a slip.  The castle can be seen and identified because it is at the highest point in that part of the waterfront and separated from the new structures built below and around it.

                          

There is so much to see in the backstreet's.

You need to look hard to find Internet café’s.  And, these foreigners don’t speak English!  I hold up a flash drive and say Internet and we all get along.