Sunday 31 March 2019

The weather was due to change today, and the forecast was correct. The wind had died away and been replaced by grey clouds and occasional rain.  We knew that there would be no progress with the work on the boat today, and so we took the opportunity for a bit of culture.

Last year we were thwarted from visiting the Alcazabar, a Moorish castle that sits on a hill overlooking Almeria. It was closed to the public then, as it was being used as a film set. So this morning was our chance to (re)visit it. We checked its opening times with the local tourist information office on Saturday, and then caught the bus from right outside the hotel.  It’s about 8 km to Almeria, and the fare was €1.35 each, my impression of buses might improve at this rate. We arrived at 10:15, just after opening time and were about the first to enter, obviously dull and potentially rainy days are not popular with other tourists. The castle was apparently built by the Moors in 955 to protect their primary port in Spain, and the area surrounding the castle shows many signs of its Moorish / Arabic past.  It is a reminder of how close we are to North Africa. Initially the castle was placed on the hill, and ribbon walls were erected to enclose the port area.  Over the centuries, each succeeding ruler, both Moor and later Christian have developed the site to improve the security.  The entrance is particularly well secured, at the top of a steep, winding path, and the other walls all overlook steep drops that would make attack very difficult. On the site there are 3 distinct zones, with defensive positions between each, and an area that was used as residences in the middle zone.

There has been ongoing development even in the 20 century, with ornate gardens and water features being installed in the lower zone in the 1940’s.  Apparently there was little in the way of integrated archaeology until later and but now there is a multi-disciplinary team working at excavating the residential area. Two of the houses have been reproduced as examples of the type of dwellings. It is a huge structure, but nothing like as ornate or well preserved as the Alhambra in Granada.  Anyway, well worth a visit.   Now we will have to see the film that was being made there last year.

We lunched in a small local café, with the inevitable multiple screens of football, and took a walking route round historic Almeria before returning to the hotel.

Distance covered today	0	nautical miles
Trip distance covered	0	nautical miles
Distance covered 2019	0	nautical miles
Steve (and Tricia)