Tour de Andalucia III: Almuñecar & Sarabriego

Sunday morning we headed straight to the beach and enjoyed the sun for a few hours. It was great to get a swim in the ocean although the waves were rather big – actually so big the looped me roll over backwards. But none of us has much patience for a beach and just after noon we set of to get back in the mountains. Away from the masses and into the tranquillity we enjoyed the day before. I had managed to buy cheese and chorizo in a supermarket (though sign language) and we had a lunch break in the shade of an olive tree. After a few struggles with the directions we found the way to our pre-booked B&B in the village of Sabariego about 3 quarters of an hours drive north of Granada. Sabariego is not much more than a cluster of houses on the way into the mountains, but here, the British ex-pats Richard and Loulou have lived for four years and offers a nice little room to passer-bys for the great value of 25 euroes. Nice and cheap – if you are prepared to listen to their constant talk about how it is to live in Spain. An interesting acquaintanceship we must say, and for sure supportive of the common impression of British and their ex-pad communities.

We declined to have dinner at their place, decided against their advice to go for dinner in their favourite bar in the nearby Alcaudette, and instead went to Alcala la Real (or Alcareal) as they called it in broad British accent. It is a nice Moorish town with a big castle and over the weekend, they had had a multi-cultural festival in town so the place was full of the gypsies and other travellers, who performed, played and had a market in the old town. It took us a while to find the newer part of town, and apparently restaurants are not welcome in the old part, but we finally found a place for a great dinner of Spanish specialities. It is definitely recommendable to order deep-fried eggplant with honey if you can find out what is called in Spanish. We didn’t know when we ordered, but it’s a very nice side dish.