After a quick stop at our local pastry shop for coffee and croissants, we hit the road in search of the beach vaca that the kids thought we were having. They may have looked over Todd’s shoulder while he was looking at hotels and they have been asking us daily “is the next hotel the one on the beach.”
Well today was the day! Day 8 of this trip. After a 3 hour drive and someone yelling at Todd for not pumping gas correctly, or maybe she was yelling because he was trying to pay first, or maybe because it was full service and not self service…who knows. We survived.
As we drove into town, we passed through Almería and Motril we saw acres and acres of greenhouses. It prompted a google search where we found that this region of Spain has so many greenhouses that the white tarps reflect the sun’s heat and are actually cooling the region. How crazy is that? https://geographyfieldwork.com/AlmeriaClimateChange.htm
Behind tourism, agribusiness is the next biggest industry for Spain. The weather is amazing!!! What was fascinating was how it felt a lot like driving through the Central Valley of California with all of the agricultural fields and crops. Oh, AND the road was empty which seemed odd for a freeway and when we got to the tollbooth we paid 10.40 euros. Wth! That was an expensive toll road experience.
Just after 2pm we arrived at paradise. The hotel has a spa and we have ocean views from our room, and we are literally across the street from the beach. Everyone is sad that we are only here for a night. Todd has already told us that we can leave him here and go on without him.
Our hotel concierge was very helpful and sent us down the road for lunch. We had amazing food and an even better location. The food was barbecued on an open flame in a boat that was turned into a grill. Super cool.
And we stuffed ourselves because it was past American lunch time and our breakfast was hours and hours ago. The best thing might have been the fresh mango avocado and shrimp salad which was artfully plated but even more delicious. The fish was amazing and the portions were quite large.
We were absolutely stuffed and decided to walk the streets of town to see what was around here. We came across a cute sculpture park and Todd snapped a bunch of photos.
Next we found what looked like ancient city walls but they were fish salting factory ruins. This town is old! As is all of Europe right?
There is also a castle in town, per usual, but you know, we’ve seen a lot of those so we got a photo from afar.
As we were walking and falling asleep, I thought that the siesta thing is a great idea in theory, but who wants to lay down and sleep when your stomach is so full from that huge lunch you just ate? Instead, we walked and checked out the scenery on the way back to the amazing Helios hotel. Just in time for….GOLDEN HOUR!
Our hotel has a rooftop terrace and a balcony bar and we are in LOVE! It’s too bad that this is only for a night, but now we know that we’d love to come back. The winter rates are like $50 a night. Seriously.
We met a few English speaking guests at the hotel and realized that this might be a smart place to visit for English snowbirds. Kind of like our Arizona for Canadians.
A few games of Phase 10 later and the kids were ready for Mario Cart and the parents were ready for an early bedtime as tomorrow brings us out of this town and onto the next destination!
Just 8,500 steps today!
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