A surprise around every corner....

Sometimes when you are travelling around you have preconceived ideas of what a place will be like before you get there only to find that it's surprisingly  different to your expectations. Our next destination after 'turning the corner' of Southern Spain was Roquetas de Mar, I was expecting a typical busy tourist resort filled with tacky souvenir shops and loud bars, what we did find was much more relaxed, not a tacky souvenir outlet in sight and the bars and restaurants looked very inviting.

We found a place to park a little way from the many motorhomes crowded together in  the huge car park by the beach. We were right next to the cycle lane and the long promenade where it seemed the world and his wife were out walking, running or cycling! In fact you needed to be careful not to step out of the van too quickly for fear of bumping into one of the passers by! We discovered that you could cycle for miles either way along the coast and the weather was warm enough to spend the day out on our bikes with a picnic lunch.
After a couple of days the novelty of being in a rather public place wore off so we moved a mile or so along to a quieter  spot right on the beach.

Looking out over the bay of Almeria in a more secluded place suited us much better - when people pass by they can't help but look in on us, after a while you feel like you're living in a goldfish bowl.
At night you are lulled to sleep by the sound of the rolling waves and in the morning woken by the sun rising on the horizon. How perfect is that.... well perfect until they have a running race pass by you on a Sunday morning that is!

At least the runners didn't have time to stand and stare...