Almeria - Alcazaba

It's only a 10 minute bus ride from La Garrofa to the centre of Almeria The bus stop is right outside the gate and buses pass by about once every 20 minutes or so. Sadly, the first one shot straight past us. Clearly simply standing at the stop is insufficient, there must be a few flamenco related moves you need to do to signal to the bus driver that you are not simply standing at the stop in the hope of meeting interesting locals, but you are in fact a potential customer. We got to know the bus stop very well in the 35 minutes we inhabited it; it had a nice view of the Med and the bulk carrier moored offshore; oh, and there was an interesting poster for the next bullfight in Almeria featuring  a toreador with a bead of sweat on the end of his nose. Here there may be a cultural difference, I think in Spain dripping noses must have connotations of physical exertion and impassioned effort. Of course an Anglo Saxon would just hand the guy a Kleenex. 

We were planning to visit Almeria's Moorish citadel, the Alcazaba. It predates the more famous Alhambra at Granada, and is more of a fortress than a palace. Nevertheless, the massive walls are impressive, and when you think it was built during the 10th century, predating the Norman conquest of England, you begin to think just how advanced Moorish and Byzantine civilisation was in the Mediterranean compared to Northern Europe. I guess this is not quite so surprising given that even 1000 years ago there had already been trading cities in the Mediterranean for almost two millennia, and the Moors were the inheritors of a culture built on the achievement of the Phonecians, Greeks and Romans. In the north, however, classical civilisation had been imported by a colonising power and with the fall of Rome much of northern Europe returned to a tribal culture centred on subsistence farming rather than trade. How many monumental stone buildings can you think of built in the North before the 10th century? Charlemegne's chapel in Aachen, a few Merovingian cathedrals maybe, but not much else, and nothing on the scale found here.

Typical Moorish 'keyhole' arches.

The  Alcabaza occupies a number of rocky outcrops above the modern city.

A section of the old city wall still remains

the area whaere the Moorish houses were has been developed as a garden

Way Out - time for lunch!

I took some video too:

It will be interesting to compare here with the Alhambra - that's on the list for next week, we're just waiting for a few days of settled weather and the night-time temperatures in Granada to rise beyond sub zero.