Last summer my husband and I flew from Stansted airport on a sunny June morning. It was my birthday treat to go and visit my lovely Sister in Villa Martin. We flew into Murcia airport where as a surprise my husband has a great convertible car booked for the duration of our holiday. Air-conditioning for when the top was up and a great breeze in the hot air with the top down (thank goodness I packed my baseball cap)! We drove the short journey to Villa Martin past the vineyards, farms, old Spanish tractors onto the new motorway and within 20 minutes rocked up at my Sisters apartment. Angie has a great Spanish dinner 'on the go' when we arrived and true to form Michael Jackson playing with a glass of wine waiting for us! We chilled on the veranda and caught up, a very relaxing day considering it was spent mostly travelling. For the following 3 days we chatted, swam in her pool, sunbathed, read books, and ate her new Spanish recipes. All of which were heaven (apart from the Michael Jackson music)!
On day four we started our adventure across the Costa Blanca and Costa Almeria. With the roof down and baseball cap on we set off to cover quite a distance, only stopping for the loos and to grab a sandwich from the roadside cafes. Unlike back home motorway or main road cafes sell good fresh sandwiches at a competitive price so here is no need to worry about making up a picnic. Plus in the heat a sandwich wouldn't be at its 'best' by lunchtime. We hadn't booked any accommodation and decided this would make things interesting and add to the adventure of it all.
The journey was fun on the way we fresh peppers fields mountains in the distance and plenty of green houses. We would stop and buy a watermelon from a van at the side of the road, or homemade olive oil off an old Spanish lady.
On our first night we stayed in Cartagena a fantastic city with tall historical buildings narrow streets and museums, art galleries and shops in abundance there is also the world's oldest submarine on the port of Cartagena. We found a rustic and friendly hotel, had dinner, and crammed as much sightseeing in the next day as possible. And of course visiting any Spanish city wouldn't be complete without popping into El Corte Ingles!
The next day we headed south down the AP7 motorway towards Mojacar through Mazarron, Vera, and Garrucha. We would often stop to stretch our legs and have a quick drink in a local tapas bar. With each drink we would receive a free plate of tapas bar, sometimes sardines, sometimes olives, always bread, a little salad, or on occasion's meatballs. Enjoying the relaxing ambience, and people watching. Often next to the tapas bar there would be an authentic ceramic pottery shop. I picked up quite a few souvenirs in these shops, which have great memories.
No holiday to the Costa Almeria is complete without visiting Texas Hollywood. A film set where the famous cowboy films such as a "Fistful of Dollars" and "the Good the Bad and the Ugly" were filmed. Now I expected it to have a feel of Disney where you were very well aware of being on a film set but Texas Hollywood was so rustic and real you could almost forget you were on a film set! There is a cowboy bar with swing door where you can order yourself a drink and the cowboys come running in a surprisingly shoot their guns and the scare the life out of you if you aren't expecting it. The there is the photography studio where you can dress up as a cowboy and have a memento of the day. I wore white linen which I wouldn't recommend as part of the authenticity of this day is a huge amount of dust!
One day we found a hotel in Roquetas de Mar which is a typical Spanish commercialized Spanish seaside resort with high rise Hotels, water sports, and fine white sand. It is a bit more upmarket than your usual resort and we quite enjoyed chilling on the beach.
On our last night we were in Mojacar and unexpectedly there was a fiesta which finished the holiday off with a bang. Mojacar is a developing city situated on a little estuary. We wandered down to the exclusive port for a drink then back up the steep hillside to a little restaurant with the windows wide open to be apart of the fiesta. Outside there was dancing, stands, bands, and people everywhere. There were a really array of people the super chic Spanish women and the local hippies. After dinner we watched the parades, and headed back to the hotel to pack for our flights the following morning. We flew home from Almeria, simply dropping the rental car that we had collected from Murcia at the Almeria airport. I had a fabulous vacation and would highly recommend it to anyone.
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