Decided to go to Almeria for a whole day and give the place a good visit, so there's plenty of pictures this time. In fact far too many. When SWMBO gets a camera in her mit nothing is safe. She took 67 pictures, thank God for digital, and works on the premise that “One or two of them must turn out alright!” I will include some of her “failures” as well. But aren't these memory cards fantastic? In the olden days you would get back from your holiday and sent off your 4 rolls of 35mm to Boots and wait about 2 weeks before you got them back and discovered that your thumb was over the shutter most of the time. Now it's, remove from camera, stick it in the slot on the laptop (no cables either!) and then there's your pictures. Delete 90% of them and you are probably left with a dozen worth sharing.
I like using my Olympus DSLR but with all the “necessary” lenses, is a bit of a sod to cart around. SWMBO, on the other hand, favours a little Fuji A345 that she “borrowed” from our daughter Heather and just not gave it back. As you can see from some of the shots, she prefers, for some inexplicable reason, any shot that may or may not, depending on her aim, anything that includes, but not in any particular order, cloven creatures (sheep, goats etc), winged things, inc. any water fowl, shepherds(?), far off and difficult to make out views of hills or mountains, flowers, windows with grills, discoloured walls, my backside, pavements and any mural no matter in what state, lamposts with dates on them, arches and any kind of fountain, working or not.
So expect a few examples herein.
As an aside, I had to empty the black tank yesterday, or more correctly last night. During our bouts of illness it got used a lot more than we usually plan on and it was way past the time to be emptied. I choose semi darkness because I had a fair understanding of what was actually in it. Now I've emptied both grey and black millions of times and have it off to a fine art. I instinctively know when to turn off the valve knowing what is left in the hose will top up the waste hog. Not too much as when it's laid down flat at the emptying point you may get a little “overspill”. Now when it comes to “grey” water, which is just water from the washing machine or our dish water, no big deal. “black” water, however, has got to be given a little more consideration and finesse.
So, black valve open, judged to perfection and waste hog at the maximum fill level with no overspill problems on emptying. Off I go to the waste dump next to toilet block #6. “Funny, a bit smelly, I wonder why?” When a got to the block I looked back and there was a long thin trail of, well not to put a too finer point on it, liquid shit! Trailing all the way back to our site because I hadn't tightened up the bottom seal on the waste hog properly! Could not even say it was not me, evidence staring you in the face, man. Spent the next hour or so, carting the waste hog, filled with fresh clean water, up and down the trail to ameliorate the the tell tale signs. Of course the operation also got, “Hey you, your waste hog is leaking all over the bloody place!” Well I think that's what was said, because it was mainly in German.
Back to Almeria. Plan was to find a decent parking place as last time we parked at the Al Campo shopping mall northeast of the city which was a three mile trek to get into the city. Found a “Public” car park which turned out to be €1/hour and was a tight squeeze for the Navara to get in, round and eventually out of. Street parking in the town itself is a nightmare especially for the Navara which a “bit” longer and wider than most of the super minis much favoured around here. Everyone must get in very early in the morning and “shoehorn” their cars into any gaps available, double parking is not unusual!
So we're in and basically head for Al Alcazaba (the castle) which of course turns out to be closed for Mondays only, bloody typical. So we climb the monument opposite it, Carro de San Christobal which as you can see overlooks the whole city and the castle. It was built in 1147 after the Christians had kicked out the Moors from the area.
Wondered around, took in the cathedral and SWMBO managed to buy a couple of Adalusian Indalo men which look like a guy holding a rainbow over his head and represents the state of Andalusia. It was originally found as an old drawing in a cave and was therefore adopted. It's bad luck to buy it for yourself, it must be bought by someone else and given to you.
SWMBO had been banging on about visiting “The olive oil museum”, which she had read about somewhere and put it on her “must see” list. It turned out to be a plain wooden door in a wall, which we had already walked past a couple of times previously and had not noticed it's unrelenting beauty (not), it was also closed.
Today it's just into the port for a coffee and then some serious Lidl shopping. Whilst there I bought some “London Dry Gin” @ €3.99/litre, but it's not for drinking, honest.
I am making my own version of a “pepper spray gun”. What you do is mix gin or rubbing alcohol (but gin is cheaper!), cayenne pepper and baby oil, whisk it together and strain resulting liquid. Put this in a kids water pistol (non pump type) and you have yourself a pepper spray gun. Fires this mixture about 3 meters and if it gets in eyes puts the scrotes out of commission for some time.
As far as the cops are concerned you have a water pistol. Kept at door of MS and in front cab of Navara. Call me nervous but there have been a number of reported “hold ups” and break ins wrt motorhomes recently and my baseball bat might not cut it.
I have a shotgun license and would love to be able to carry a shotgun. Imagine you are pulled over on the motorway as happens. “Hey, hombre, give me your wallet!” You stick the business end of a shot gun in his face, wait for three or fours seconds, “What you really want, is a clean pair of underpants, isn't it?” I can only dream.
The cathedral, a wall with windows and grills
No comments:
Post a Comment