Spain - Day 10

Today we toured round Almería city. First we walked to the centre, on the way we saw a striking mural on the side of an apartment block.

We went to the main market. It was quite small.

We wanted to go to the Civil War air raid shelters but were too early, so we had a coffee in the main square.

Then at 10.30 we went in, only to be told it was open for school parties only during the day and the first tour we could get on was 5.30pm.

We went round the corner to the Arab cisterns, which was free to enter. This was where the water was stored when the Moors occupied the city.

We then walked to the Alcazaba, the Moorish fortress and castle on a hill above the city. It's a free attraction and an amazing thing to visit. First you walk up steps and through double doors into the outer courtyard.

This has plants, trees and water features, and from the walls there are good views over the city.

You can also see down into the gorge where there's a deer sanctuary, and across to the ruins on the next hill over (which we visited later in the day).

The inner courtyard has more pools and also the remains of houses which comprised the original city. Some are restored to the original layout.

The old water cisterns are also here.

The third and highest part is the palace.

We made our way back to the city centre, and had our lunch in 2 tapas bars near the market. In the first one the tapas menu was on its napkins. We had grilled pork and croquettes in one, and cheese and Serrano ham in the other.

After lunch we walked to the San Cristobal hill opposite the Alcazaba. It has a statue of Jesus and good views back to the Alcazaba itself.

We walked a long tour of the city then, and bought an ice cream. To kill time before the air raid shelter tour we went to the archaeological museum. This was free to enter and quite interesting.

We went on the Civil War air raid shelter tour (which was only in Spanish). This is an amazing network of more than 4km of tunnels used by tens of thousands of people during the Spanish Civil War. It also has cooking and medical facilities.

We then made our way home, having walked over 16km over the course of the day. We made dinner, chicken cooked with lemon and wild thyme, with vegetables and chips.