BEING located in the Spanish Mediterranean coastline, Almeria has loads of beaches, both conventional and nudist ones. Thus, there are two kinds of foreign tourists and expats here – the middle-aged British men and women who are fresh from retirement and would like to live a second life in Almeria so to speak. They were the baby boomers in Britain in the 1960s that dug into the Beatles before they went to their much-hyped United States tour across the Atlantic. The second group of foreign tourists and expats here are the gays and lesbians from the Scandinavian region who are the patrons of the nudist resorts. Thus understandably, most of the people here especially those working in the hospitality industry know how to speak English with the non-rhotic accent that are spoken in Britain as well as German and its variants which are spoken in the Scandinavian region. Staffs at the beach hotels are top of the line because they are graduates of Swiss hotel schools which are the best of their kind in the world. The resorts are likewise excellent in quality as they are inspected quarterly by European Union representatives for blue flag accreditation.

It’s so easy for the British and Scandinavian visitors to come here in Almeria because coming from Europe; they don’t need a visa to get here. Of course, our friends from Scandinavian countries such as Holland, Sweden and Norway can always get the Eurostar from their respective places which offer daily nonstop trips to Madrid and from Madrid, take a plane going to Almeria. The good news is that not only Spanish domestic carriers fly to Almeria but the passenger plane industry in Spain has already been entered by Irish investor Ryannair thanks to the deregulation of the industry in the country. And it’s not just the plane industry that is deregulated here but also the real estate one. That’s why British and Scandinavian tourists ultimately stay here for good and convert their properties into vacation homes to be leased to their countrymen who will also visit here as tourists. Their only obligation is to pay the annual income tax as well as the monthly garbage collection tax which goes directly to the government in Almeria.

Being a Mediterranean city, the diet here is surely a nutritious and healthy one. It consists mainly of seafood sautéed or grilled with olive oil, the healthiest cooking oil in the world because of its very low fat content. And because of this conduciveness, Almeria is being erected as the language haven of mainland Spain. That’s why people here also know the regional languages of the country such as Catalan and Basque. There are lots of Spanish language schools here for the British and Scandinavian visitors to learn. In fact, they will have their Spanish Linguistics International Conference here this April 3 to 5. Areas covered vary from psycholinguistics to corpus linguistics to computational linguistics to lexicology and linguistics engineering.

The 8th capital provincial capital of Andalucia, Spain is the city of Almeria. The name is historically from the word ‘ Al-Marayat’, which means, ‘ The Mirror of the sea’. It has the Moorish second largest fortress the Alacazaba. The city is encrusted with historical belongings, in terms of properties and sites to go or to stroll. Among these are: the museum, churches, restaurant having satisfying recipes.

Anywhere you go, you could be enthralled with the nature so rounding of the place you are interested in. You could even get persuade to visit all the museums built in the place to see and to enjoy discovering the things with it which are palpable to every inhabitants in the city. Master pieces are could be seen in this place. Anyone who wants to know the historical heroes, handicrafts, paintings ad more about the place,you could try to see them in there. Through the museum also, the skills of every remarkable personages in the city will permanently be recognized, through there continuing life portrayed on there works (either paintings or in other forms of literature).

As a widespread religious affiliation, Catholics are really in much devotion with there faith. Thus, frequent going to church is a must and become habitual. In Almeria, you don’t have to worry if you are one of those devotee, because the place itself has the house of praising which has ambiance of serenity. People could have the serene way of praying with the it’s structure. It’s ceiling is in Gothic style,which reminds to the are when southern Mediterranean was assaulted by the Barbarossa, Turkish and North Africa pirates forces. It’s altar is also in great remark of the palpable person, Ventura Rodriguez. The paintings as well are done by the historical painters before. Therefore, if you will go in in that church, you could once again feel the presence of of sincerity and passion of arts and faith.

Also, after church or you feel like going around the city with full of ambition to taste the delicacies of the people in Almeria, why not try to eat in their restaurants? It could ease the crave you have way to your health!

Their food are somewhat the same with Philippine’s local foods. The most is the “Escabeche e Sardines“, which is made out of fresh fish,spices and tomato sauce (depending on the way, ethnicity or customary one has in cooking it).

After eating, you could have great in any bars and cafe’s near in the town halls- specially during your leisure time and if you want to socialize with other people as well as to the Almeria’s natives in the area. The bars are good, surely, your boredom wont come into your mind.

Socializing with other people there could be much easier if you could have ,even a bit, of chance to know them, who they are , what they are like in terms of culture and also there views and life styles. Accordingly, people here have desire to regional autonomy in wide perspective way. Their accent,customs and history are very not alike with the rest of the Autonomous Region of Andalucia.

No doubt, Almeria is also the best place to spend Christmas. It’s very in demand now a days; especially during the months from -November to February. So , if you are undecided yet where to go this season, try to venture your way to Almeria! Satisfaction and Tranquility will be at your hand when you will experience the historical, serene and gay feeling built in this place.

BEING a Mediterranean city, winters in Almeria are cold no doubt. But it can be a very pleasurable one especially for romantic couples who are into their honeymoon. You may even have your seaside wedding here. And the thing is no one will disturb you and your guests because Almeria’s beach resorts are virtually deserted during winter.

They are deserted because most of the people who have vacationed here can’t stand the cold and rather go to some tropical places like Phuket in Thailand or Boracay in the Philippines or Bali maybe or even across two oceans – Atlantic and Pacific – to Maui. Here in Almeria, temperatures tend to get cold as low as -3 degrees Celsius. It is not unlike the Balearic Islands splashed in the middle of the Mediterranean where it is relatively warmer during winter at 3 degrees Celsius.

What compounds the coldness of the temperature here is Spain’s proximity to the Alps which churns out the cold air going down to the European mainland even reaching as far as the Iberian Peninsula. So when you’ll have your wedding here, remind your guests especially those coming from overseas from Mexico or the Philippines perhaps that you need layers and layers of clothing to protect you from the cold. Never ever wear something cottony for cotton tends to absorb moisture.

But despite the lack of tourists in those beach resorts except those British immigrants, these beaches still strictly enforce environmental guidelines like not littering around. One cannot even park a vehicle with muddy tire tracks in the beach’s paved parking space so even this trivial matter must not be left out in the seaside wedding invitation. Amenities though are so professional because most of the beach resorts here in Almeria have received blue flag accreditation. A blue flag accreditation is given out by the European Union to a beach resort which has undergone and passed strict quality audits.

Besides, Christmas in Almeria can be heartwarming for the locals. Most of the people hear speak English already because of the inducement of British tourists since the 1950s. In fact, they even use the distinctive non-rhotic accent of the British sometimes. So when you share each other Christmas experiences, you will never run out of natives who will hear your story. It is even nicer if you can spend a night or two with a household family here in Almeria. You will be rewarded with very hospitable people and it’s none the nicer if you spend it in a fisherman’s village.

In a fisherman’s port, people would usually queue to wait for the Mediterranean-bound fishermen to return full of the day’s catch. Most of these catch are hauled wholesale to restaurants around here and go straight to the kitchen as much as possible without being refrigerated or frozen anymore because the Spaniards love to eat their seafood freshly cooked. On the other hand, some of the catch go directly to the fisherman’s home and it is really a fulfilling experience to eat redfish, grouper, lobsters, clams, mussels or prawns either sautéed in olive oil or simply brothed.