Andalucia Day 44 From Cordoba to Almeria

By nine thirty when it starts drizzling we, and everything else, are in the car ready to go. Google maps manages to take us along the road it wants instead of the one we want so at a certain point we get off the motorway onto some minor roads in the middle of the countryside. It's probably the best part of the journey, ochre colours of earth and ploughed fields, no-one around except a lone cyclist and a jeep which zooms out in front of me ignoring his stop, so unlikely was it that there should be other cars on the road.

The rest of the journey lacks the same poetry, one or two things have got mislaid in the last pack up, spitting rain seems one step ahead of us and mars the view, the long drive makes us start to think about the return trip.

As we arrive in Almería we seem to have beaten the rain and we immediately notice it's a lot warmer, but the welcome from the Airbnb host this time is decidedly tepid. We won't be staying for longer than booked.

We set off to explore Almería. Córdoba is a hard act to follow and Almería at dusk on Friday has no hope of succeeding. Everything looks a bit grubby, a bit dilapidated, the cathedral square is nice but nothing spectacular. When we go towards the Alcazaba to go up to the statue for the view we realize perhaps it's not a good place to be.

The tales on Internet of cheap fish restaurants and free tapas, if not unfounded are not apparent to the passing tourist. Our end of town is full of restaurants with good reviews on TripAdvisor, only they are Italian restaurants.

We end up in Café Paris, which fortunately has nothing French about it but sports a large variety of pasta and pizza too. After scoffing somewhat at the fact that tapas are indeed free with a drink in Almería for the simple fact that drinks cost double than in the rest of Andalusia, we actually eat rather well for a grand total of 11.80 euros for 3 drinks and 6 tapas of which the best, undoubtedly, was mojama, a sort of salted tuna with fried salty almonds. Back in the room we study the forecast and plan the next day.

Kilometres by car: 340

Kilometres on foot: 11