June 28, 2018 Almeria, Spain

I'm in Almeria, on the Mediterranean coast. Portugal and Spain are different. Portugal, at least south of Lisbon, is manecured so to speak. Of course I was in somewhat touristy areas, vacation destinations. Here in Spain things are a bit more rugged. From what I saw from the windows of buses and trains reminded me of the southwest USA, but with the agriculture of more Northern states, like Wyoming. The mountains weren't as treed and purple as those back home, but brown without trees, but oddly high enough for snow, i spite of this being southern Spain.

 I did get a swim in today, thank goodness. It's a two mile walk round trip from the edge of downtown Almeria. It's pretty nice with plenty of plaza type streets (pedestrian/bicycle traffic only, bicycle paths separate) and shade trees and sea breezes to keep it cool. The walk takes me down to a port and a little further is a beach at least a mile long. The beaches and water fronts are well developed with wide lanes for pedestrians a bike path, but no cars. Very cool. The beaches have nice showers and bathrooms. The water isn't the cleanest but people are swimming in, so I do too.