Almeria has a claim to be the only city in Europe that is technically in a desert. For this reason, the surrounding areas have long been in demand as film locations for films set in the Wild West or Africa. One such film was 'How I Won The War', a World War Two black comedy made in 1967, largely forgettable but for the fact that one of the supporting roles was played by a moderately successful British pop singer called John Lennon. The Almería villa in which he stayed during filming had a large garden, with wrought iron gates, reminding him of a Liverpool park he'd known as a boy. And that, readers, is how 'Strawberry Fields Forever' came to be written.
The house in question is now a cinema museum, and of course something of an unofficial Lennon shrine. As a big Beatles fan and certified music nerd, I'm frankly appalled that I hadn't known about this connection until I got here. Having said that, I've never been to any of the significant Beatles locations in Liverpool either. I've only been to Liverpool three times, each time for a football match: Liverpool FC, Everton FC and Tranmere FC. Inevitably Sunderland lost all three, with an aggregate score of 8-0.
Sadly, as in Granada, Almería's cathedral is currently closed to tourists. But I was able to visit the Alcazaba, a sort of mini-Alhambra, and also the Refugios, a network of underground tunnels in which the locals hid during Civil War air raids in the late 1930s. In the photo below you see the shelter's operating theatre. This was largely occupied with women giving birth, because the trauma and panic of air raids would often induce premature delivery; and of course, this being a Catholic country, in the 1930s most of the women were married and more likely than not to be pregnant at any given time.
I hope you all had a nice Christmas. Mine was certainly unconventional - I went down to the beach for a swim in the Mediterranean. The air was warm-ish but the water was slightly chilly...I got to thigh-deep, and I was in the process of summoning up the gumption to go the rest of the way when a biggish wave appeared out of nowhere and brought the issue to an involuntary conclusion. I did enjoy my swim, although it took me quite a while to convince myself that the big dark object on the seabed underneath me was definitely my own shadow and nothing else. I'm currently reading 'Jaws' in Spanish you see.
As for Almería? Well, it is what it is, as they say. Specifically, it's an out-of-season tourist resort. But it was a pleasant enough place to spend the weirdest of my 45 Christmases to date.
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| Despite this arty grim photo, Almería is mostly quite nice. |
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| Anybody who grew up in Tyne & Wear in the 1980s may recognise this kind of thing... |
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| The Alcazaba and the city. Bit of an uphill hike through the slums to get this photo. |
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| John Lennon statue. Not the best likeness, but it's the thought that counts. |
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| This is where I had my Christmas swim. |
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| Guitar museum |
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Almería Cathedral.
The big white things are the Spanish equivalents of Christmas trees. |
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| Operating theatre in the air raid shelter. |
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Almería digs. Making my money go that little bit further.
My apartment is on the ground floor, and those security grilles are...reassuring. |
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Edd vs Food #97
Chips, kebab meat, bacon, cheese and Caesar sauce at Goleta 55.
Trust me on this - it was really nice. |
