We had previously arrived at Alicante airport but had never been into the city and as it turned out we had not missed much. There are a couple of castles and we drove in heavy traffic round one of them with no hope of parking anywhere. The castle – Castillo de Santa Barbara – did not look as though it was worth the effort of searching for somewhere to park so we drove inland to Elche which is the centre of date production in Spain and is famed for its palmeries. After the beautiful palmeries we had seen in Morocco they were disappointing!
We continued south to Guardamar del Segura. On this large site we met many “swallows” – mostly people from UK, Holland, Germany, France and a few from Scandinavia who, like the birds of the same name, spend up to six months over winter on a site here in Spain, returning to their home country for the summer. Many had huge American RVs (the size and shape of a single decker bus) and several were just leaving.
This is an ideal site for a long stay if you are not worried about the views – there are none! It does have free use of a good indoor swimming pool, hydrotherapy pool (lots of different water jets to massage the body), excellent sauna, gymnasium, WiFi on every pitch, flat roads, a big supermarket as well as Lidl and an open air market within easy cycling distance and an English church a short drive away. There is also the river estuary – a popular fishing spot (unfortunately nobody has told the fish what they are supposed to do!). We stayed a week and made the most of the facilities before heading inland again to Murcia.
We were about to give up the search for somewhere to park in Murcia when we came across an area being developed with new office blocks as yet unoccupied. There was plenty of space to park and an easy 15 minute cycle ride into the centre, mostly on dedicated cycle tracks.
The Cathedral, which was closed, is an extraordinary example of Baroque architecture.
And in the river was an interesting fish!
Returning to the coast we spent a windy night at Isla Plana and then drove down the coast through some very pleasant, not overdeveloped little holiday towns, including Garrucha where we stopped for lunch literally on the edge of the Mediterranean.
From there we entered a rather arid Natural Park – Cabo de Gato – where the vegetation was scrub suited to hot dry conditions and the only agriculture was tomatoes grown under acres of polythene netting to protect them from the sun and wind. A short drive down the coast brought us to Almeria – a large port with ferries to Morocco and elsewhere. We wanted to see the huge Moorish fort and after driving through the town headed for the beach in the hope that we could park there. The beach ran from the port area north-east for several kilometres. Obviously a popular spot with the locals it had car parks all along it and on-street parking which was easier for us because of our size.
We cycled back to the Cathedral, picking up baguettes for lunch on the way. The Cathedral was interesting having been fortified for protection from the Turkish and North African pirates who terrorised the area in the sixteenth century.
The fort – the Alcazar – is magnificent.
Built on a solitary hill and now completely surrounded by housing ...
... it has been sympathetically restored and developed with beautiful gardens reminiscent of Morocco.
It was originally built by the (Muslim) Moors and added to by the (Christian) Crusaders ...
... and in front of the Christian fortifications can be seen remains of housing uncovered by archaeological investigation. At its height 20,000 people would have lived within its walls! Now the only residents are several cats and beautiful green frogs in one of the cisterns.
Almeria was where we had to say farewell to the Mediterranean and head inland before turning north for our journey home. A few kilometres drive took us through real desert which has been used as a set for a number of Westerns including “A Fistful of Dollars”. Some of the sets are now incorporated into a theme park.
As we drove onwards and upwards we could see the snow covered peaks of the Sierra Nevada on our left and from our site for the next few nights we have had stunning views of these mountains.
It is a few kilometres from Granada where the Alhambra is surely one of Spain’s “must see” ancient monuments which we are going to visit tomorrow. On Tuesday we move on, so you will have to wait a few days to see the photos of it.
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| Sunset on the Sierra Nevada |
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