Almeria. Who knew?
24/1/13
Why did we come to Almeria? Fate? Destiny? Coincidence? Who knows? We were planning on going to Grenada but snow warnings forced us to stay near the coast with a planned assault on Granada the next day. We changed plans and were going to spend a night in Motril but the winds were so severe we called an end to the day's ride once we reached Almeria.
We're found a little hotel that is a bit of the main drag and much to our surprise we discovered a statue of John Lennon outside the front door. I got down on my knees to read plaque, but of course it's in Spanish. D'oh! you dope.
Why is the statue there? We asked at hotel reception and it turned out that John Lennon lived in Almeria in 1966 while he was filming "How I Won The War", a movie by Richard Lester. A little more research and we discovered Almeria has a long history of movie making. Movies shot here include Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Conan, Lawrence of Arabia, Cleopatra, The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly. and many, many more.
Now it gets interesting. When John Lennon lived here, he wrote Strawberry Fields, and the house he lived in is now a cinematic museum called Casa del Cine. Guess where we are going tomorrow?
With the detective work out of the way I settled down in a nice spot in the sun for breakfast. A plate full of calamari, octopus, cheese, chips, and bread, topped off with a egg. Can you believe I'm actually losing weight here? All of this was enjoyed while listening to some Flamenco music. Then I just sat back, enjoyed a couple of cups of coffee, and watched the world go by.
What did I notice? Scooters! I counted fifteen scooters ride past in one five minute period. Yes I timed it. Piaggio and Vespa are by far the most popular. Scooters just make so much sense. I'm definitely getting one when I get home.
The other thing that struck me was the kid's school bags. No one lugs a heavy school bag around, they all use little wheely bags, like suitcases. No crook backs for he kids here.
We headed of for a casual walk. We had a look in a few fashion shops (They do it so well here).
Then just as I was saying "We should keep an eye out down the side streets for anything interesting" I spied a BMW dealership. We walked in and the two sales staff didn't even acknowledge us. If they were smart they would have noticed Suzanne was wearing her well worn motorcycle boots, so we were obviously riders. The 650 GS was cheap, suited Suzanne perfectly, and if they were any good at their jobs they would have had half a chance of selling us one for Suzanne to ride for he rest of our trip. I really want to contact he owner and let him know. Lazy sales people, one of my pet hates.
We chose to dine in tonight and found a supermarket to do a little shopping. We have a new winner in the quality champagne at the cheapest price...
24/1/13
Why did we come to Almeria? Fate? Destiny? Coincidence? Who knows? We were planning on going to Grenada but snow warnings forced us to stay near the coast with a planned assault on Granada the next day. We changed plans and were going to spend a night in Motril but the winds were so severe we called an end to the day's ride once we reached Almeria.
We're found a little hotel that is a bit of the main drag and much to our surprise we discovered a statue of John Lennon outside the front door. I got down on my knees to read plaque, but of course it's in Spanish. D'oh! you dope.
For those of you that don't know Suzanne very well,
she is a huge, huge John Lennon fan.
Now it gets interesting. When John Lennon lived here, he wrote Strawberry Fields, and the house he lived in is now a cinematic museum called Casa del Cine. Guess where we are going tomorrow?
With the detective work out of the way I settled down in a nice spot in the sun for breakfast. A plate full of calamari, octopus, cheese, chips, and bread, topped off with a egg. Can you believe I'm actually losing weight here? All of this was enjoyed while listening to some Flamenco music. Then I just sat back, enjoyed a couple of cups of coffee, and watched the world go by.
What did I notice? Scooters! I counted fifteen scooters ride past in one five minute period. Yes I timed it. Piaggio and Vespa are by far the most popular. Scooters just make so much sense. I'm definitely getting one when I get home.
The other thing that struck me was the kid's school bags. No one lugs a heavy school bag around, they all use little wheely bags, like suitcases. No crook backs for he kids here.
We headed of for a casual walk. We had a look in a few fashion shops (They do it so well here).
Then just as I was saying "We should keep an eye out down the side streets for anything interesting" I spied a BMW dealership. We walked in and the two sales staff didn't even acknowledge us. If they were smart they would have noticed Suzanne was wearing her well worn motorcycle boots, so we were obviously riders. The 650 GS was cheap, suited Suzanne perfectly, and if they were any good at their jobs they would have had half a chance of selling us one for Suzanne to ride for he rest of our trip. I really want to contact he owner and let him know. Lazy sales people, one of my pet hates.
We chose to dine in tonight and found a supermarket to do a little shopping. We have a new winner in the quality champagne at the cheapest price...
...a bottle of Moet for 31.50 euros.
Back in the hotel we enjoyed our casual dinner while watching TV. It was a shock to hear just how bad the economic situation is here in Spain. Unemployment is currently at 26%! That's not really accurate because a lot of people have left Spain seeking work elsewhere. This compounds the problem because with less people here spending and paying taxes things just get worse. I'm starting to understand why people here look at me strangely when they find out I resigned from my job in Australia and don't expect having any problems finding another when we go home. Things don't look like improving here in a hurry either.
It's a wonderful country, with fantastic people, but it has it's problems right now. We'll try and inject a few more euros into he system tomorrow to help out.
It's a wonderful country, with fantastic people, but it has it's problems right now. We'll try and inject a few more euros into he system tomorrow to help out.
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