Last spring when we visited Bologna on our way back from Corsica I remarked on the city's astonishing colour. Whereas some southern cities gleam white in crystal clear light, like Lisbon or Syracusa, Bologna's arcades smoulder orange and burnt umber in the strong sunlight creating the illusion that the stuccoed facades and shadow-striped colonnades emanate light themselves. Almeria's old Arab quarter manages to do both, blindingly white blocks of cuboid houses interspersed with gaudily painted ones. It all looks very jolly in a dusty back street kind of way.
In recent years the area has experienced something of a mini-revival in authentic North African cuisine. We came across the Moroccan restaurant 'Teteria Almedina' by accident. The reviews looked good on Google, so we decided to give it a try. Though it bills itself as a 'tea-house' - due to specialising in a wide variety of Arabic style teas and Moroccan cakes - in fact the place also serves meals.
Gill chose chicken tajin and I had the intruigingly named Tunisian pasty as our hot course, followed by a pick and mix selection of delectable sweets. The main courses were good, though surprisingly restrained in their spicing.
The sweets were definitely stars of the show, delicious morsels every one - a mix filou pastry wraps filled with honey and seseme seeds and small morsels - nutty biscuits with cinnamon and seseme and a mixture of chocolate covered sweets - truffle and fig flavoured.
The young Spanish couple on a nearby table offered good advice about choosing the tastiest sweets. They were on a weekend break from Jaen. I suppose there is a fair sized internal 'winter city break' market within Spain itself. It's not only Northern Europe that feels the chill, the interior of Spain freezes in the winter too. The couple seemed to know Almeria and this particular restaurant well, mentioning that it had featured on TV. Indeed when we got back to the van and checked our Lonely Planet guide it was the 'top choice' of places to eat in Almeria.
The sweets were definitely stars of the show, delicious morsels every one - a mix filou pastry wraps filled with honey and seseme seeds and small morsels - nutty biscuits with cinnamon and seseme and a mixture of chocolate covered sweets - truffle and fig flavoured.
The young Spanish couple on a nearby table offered good advice about choosing the tastiest sweets. They were on a weekend break from Jaen. I suppose there is a fair sized internal 'winter city break' market within Spain itself. It's not only Northern Europe that feels the chill, the interior of Spain freezes in the winter too. The couple seemed to know Almeria and this particular restaurant well, mentioning that it had featured on TV. Indeed when we got back to the van and checked our Lonely Planet guide it was the 'top choice' of places to eat in Almeria.
When Gill posted some pictures of the sweets on WhatsApp, Sarah posted back that the place had featured in a Guardian food feature about Almeria being Spanish gastronomic capital for 2019. Did we know that she asked. Well, yes, if you are in the city you cannot really miss the two storey high graphics promoting it.
I could imagine Almeria becoming a fashionable place among millennials. It has a youthful energy about it, stylish but a bit grungy. It feels as if a real effort is being made to give the place a creative feel, contemporary art work and sculpture on the streets, lots of live music and theatre posters. It seems quite a 'happening' place.
I could imagine Almeria becoming a fashionable place among millennials. It has a youthful energy about it, stylish but a bit grungy. It feels as if a real effort is being made to give the place a creative feel, contemporary art work and sculpture on the streets, lots of live music and theatre posters. It seems quite a 'happening' place.
As well as the Arabic and 'Reyes Catalico' heritage, the city celebrates its more recent history too. A museum of cinema pays tribute to the role the city and province had in the 1960s and 70s as an important location for film-makers. Of course the nearby desert landscapes are famous as the location for Spaghetti Westerns. I did not realise that a wide range of other movies were shot here too, ranging from French new wave to Monty Python.
This film connection spawned an unlikely piece of music trivia. John Lennon lived in Almeria for a few months in 1967 while starring in Richard Lester's comedy 'How I won the War'. This would probably have faded from memory, however Lennon wrote 'Strawberry Fields Forever here. The city has commemorated the moment with a touching statue of the musician. It is tucked away in a small square, Thouigh hardly a big Beatles fan myself, my older sister was, their songs formed part of the soundtrack of my childhood. I felt impelled to track the statue down, which we did eventually.
After we got back to the van I followed-up the link. Rolling Stone did a piece on it, including early taped versions of Lennon developing the song in his hotel room in Almeria - the core themes of self doubt, disassociation and the isolation of the creative process come through on the early acoustic versions, whereas the final take simply comes over as a bit 'spaced out'.
This film connection spawned an unlikely piece of music trivia. John Lennon lived in Almeria for a few months in 1967 while starring in Richard Lester's comedy 'How I won the War'. This would probably have faded from memory, however Lennon wrote 'Strawberry Fields Forever here. The city has commemorated the moment with a touching statue of the musician. It is tucked away in a small square, Thouigh hardly a big Beatles fan myself, my older sister was, their songs formed part of the soundtrack of my childhood. I felt impelled to track the statue down, which we did eventually.
After we got back to the van I followed-up the link. Rolling Stone did a piece on it, including early taped versions of Lennon developing the song in his hotel room in Almeria - the core themes of self doubt, disassociation and the isolation of the creative process come through on the early acoustic versions, whereas the final take simply comes over as a bit 'spaced out'.
Beyond the youthful vibe, Almeria's pensioners seem like a pretty lively bunch. Marching down Paseo del Almeria, shepherded by police cars at front and back, a group of Spanish seniors demonstraed raucously for improved state pensions.
We like Almeria, it is a vivacious energetic place looking to the future rather than dwelling on the past. This seems eminently sensible since there is nothing we can do about what happened yesterday, and though arguably we don't know for certain what is going to happen tomorrow, what we do today can influence future events for better or worse. You see, just being in Almeria makes you more optimistic. It is somewhere I can imagine us revisiting.
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