Although we hadn’t planned it, we spent the last five days in Almería. We arrived in the city center on Saturday evening, after the police had sent us away from our spot on the beach. Apparently, it wasn’t allowed to spend the night there, even though it seemed like people do it all the time.
When we got to Almería, we immediately noticed that it was very windy in the city. Our bike cover woke us up a few times during the first night and Sparta really didn’t like that everything around us was moving all the time. Still, we enjoyed the city very much. We visited the Alcazaba, an old fortress on top of the hill, and we walked the long boulevard. Because of the wind, the sea was very wild and still quite cold, so we only took a quick dive.
During the day, when we were relaxing in the van, it was necessary to keep the windows open because of the heat. However, the strong wind made it impossible, because the windows would slam closed all the time. At night, we thought the wind had lied down and we opened a window. BAM! A strong gust of wind blew the whole window out right away! Oh oh…
After a lot of swearing and some angry faces, we realized what had happened: the wind had broken our window off and when it hit the floor, the window had shattered some more. We bursted out laughing, looked for some duct tape and tried to put the window back together. This would at least hold during the night and we would try to find a caravan store in the morning.
So, on Monday morning, we called our SOS camper service. They asked a million questions about the van and finally gave us an address and a phone number. This caravan store was supposed to be close by where we were and was probably able to help us. However, after driving through many tiny one way streets in the city center, we gave up trying to find the place. We googled another store and drove there without any problems.
The friendly mechanic checked out our window, went inside and came back to refer us to another store. Viaglass would definitely be able to help us with a new window. To make a long story short: we went there on Monday, we went there again on Tuesday, another time on Wednesday and we came back on Friday. Every time we came, they said: mañana mañana (tomorrow)! Apparently, they couldn’t find the right window for our van, so it wasn’t there mañana. And neither mañana mañana.
In the time that we waited for the window, we decided to make the best out of our stay in Eastern Andalusia. First, we visited Cabo de Gata, a natural park with beautiful cliffs. Although there were many other campers, we enjoyed the quietness, the lovely white houses and the roaring sea. Next, we drove all the way to Carboneras, a small town far away from the highway. We found a great spot to relax for a while. In addition, we treated ourselves to a plentiful Spanish dinner in a sports bar in the town center. We loved it!
Finally, on Friday afternoon, when we had been disappointed for the third time, we left Almería. If there was no window for us here, we could better continue our trip and try to find a window somewhere else. Maybe in another city, or maybe through a camper store in The Netherlands.
Now, let’s drive to the Sierra Nevada and see another beautiful part of this amazing province!
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