A long weekend (and Easter!) in Almeria (Almeria (Andalusia))

Member Name: k4ssie

Product:	Almeria (Andalusia)
Date:	28/05/09 (52 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: A little known, great value gem

Disadvantages: None really...you'll need a car to do it justice, perhaps

I visited this area with my partner last year. Purely by chance. It went like this: i hate the cold, by January in the UK I'm going crazy. Round about that time every year, i go onto the website of Ryanair or one of their equally hateful budget airline brethren, grit my teeth, and work out how far south i can fly for a minimal budget. Looking at the map, Almeria was it for 2007.

So, i had some cheapie tickets on the flying tube train that is Eireflot, and three days in Almeria. It could've been a disaster...looking around on the web, i couldn't find much mention of things to do there at all, and i was starting to wonder if i'd signed up for a trip to a waste land.

Couldn't have been more wrong. We picked up a hire car at the airport, and headed for Almeria city, where i'd booked us into the Hotel Husa Catedral, based on a bit of web research. As I suspected, the hotel was right in the medieval centre of town, and took a bit of finding, but we got there in the end and one of the lovely reception staff hopped right in the car to take us to their parking lot so we wouldn't get lost again.

The hotel itself was great, and frankly if you just went here for a weekend i don't think you'd be disappointed. It looks out over the central cathedral plaza, and is a converted building so our room was spectacular - high ceilings with intricate paintings, boutique hotel decor and furnishings, very large marble bathroom with one of those "dinner plate" shower heads. The hotel also had a roof terrace with a small plunge pool and loungers, again overlooking the main square. I was up there straight away with a drink, in late March the temperatures were pushing twenty degrees with blue skies and sunshine. Result.

Over the next few days, we visited just a handful of places but most of them were seriously memorable for one reason or another. Here's my "don't miss" list.
1. The Teterie Al-Medina. A tiny north African restaurant about five minutes' walk from the hotel. I had a lamb tajine with almonds accompanied by their home made mint lemonade, and will never forget that meal. It was just so delicious, the owner and his wife so friendly and sweet, and the surroundings were beautiful, with that real Moroccan vibe. Not expensive, not ostentatious, the kind of place that makes me want to do a little dance of smugness for having found it.
2. Playa de los Genoveses. Beautiful sandy beach backed by Agave, aloes and dunes for that properly tropical feel. It's down a longish dirt track, so will make you worry because tyre damage to hire cars isn't covered by the insurance...but it's worth it! To get there, find the road that heads west from San Jose (on any map, to the east of Almeria) and there are wooden signs showing the way. It was around 25 degrees that day, and wild horses couldn't drag me off that beach despite the lack of provisions or sun cream - not clever, and i got very sunburned in just a few hours. Take stuff with you, and take the sun seriously, this is nearly Africa!
3. San Jose. I really loved this little town, yes slightly touristy, but round here that just means you can get an icecream and a beer. It had a slightly hippy, laid back feel to it and was one of those places that immediately make me think "hmm, i wonder how much just a teeny tiny flat would be ...?!!" The town is built down the side of a steepish cliff to the beach below, leading to lovely views, and had loads of good, reasonably priced restaurants. Sitting and eating an icecream on the town beach, watching the local kids play as the sun started to go down, you won't want to leave.
4. Seafood restaurants, in general. Almost everywhere you go there are reasonably priced restaurants serving fresh seafood - Mojacar sticks in my memory as somewhere we had a delicious paella and a lager in one of the many beachfront restaurants on the road into / out of the main town.
5. Going back to Almeria city: Easter. We didn't know it when we booked, but in the run up to easter there are a week or two of these extraordinary processions and pageants, and we were there across the main period. Most of the time i had no clue what was going on, other than that it was spectacular, but i'll try and explain. There are many "brotherhoods" in the city, religious organisations linked to (i think) particular areas of town. Each one owns a kind of ancient carnival float, maybe twenty feet long, made of intricately carved wood and supporting an effigy of jesus, or the virgin mary, or whatever, surrounded by carvings or candles or immense canopies, or all three. These things are carried through the streets by maybe twenty men underneath them, as part of a procession with the other members of the brotherhood in front and a kind of marching band behind. The Brothers (men, women and children) wear hooded robes which appear very strange to my eyes- including very tall conical headwear which covers the face with just slits for the eyes, basically the same kind of garb that became associated with the Klu Klux Klan in the states. The marching bands play a distinct kind of music which is unlike anything i've heard before and hard to describe, like a blues lament, made me think of New Orleans. Everyone - and i mean everyone, it was like the whole population of Spain was there - turns out on the street to watch, cheer, and socialise. People would just turn and chat to you, unfortunately my terrible Spanish wasn't really up to maintaining a conversation but it was great to be included! Before the parades start, all the effigies are put in the cathedral for everyone to visit, and then over the following few days these processions go on late into the night. Our hotel room had two balconies, overlooking the square, and it turned out that all the processions passed under them. We didn't initially realise and my partner's exit from the shower very nearly turned into that scene from the Life of Brian - flinging open the shutters to see a crowd of thousands looking up at you....another experience not to be forgotten in a hurry!

This region is a relatively well kept secret, although there were a couple of places we stopped off in (might have been Mojacar's main shopping mall) where there were nothing but English voices to be heard, as the large expat population gather for their morning coffee. But it's still very easy indeed to find a brilliant restaurant or isolated beach, and of course the climate is about as good as it gets in Europe. Well worth a few days (or longer) of anyone's time.

Summary: Perfect short break ingredients - weather, character, great food.