Just back from the marina having been told that Café Noray is closing after Sunday. NOT the restaurant part, but the original cafe. More accurately that are going to merge the cafe with the restaurant, so they will still be a cafe, just not the original one. Have to say it is a shock and a shame as it was one of our favourite cafes from way back when and it will be shame to see it go. Good news that the restaurant is remaining though!!!!

Today it is a year since La Plaza opened, and I’d like to say congratulations to Lee and Heather for creating such a great little restaurant bar.

Situated in the busy square in Almerimar, La Plaza is one of my favourite places for a drink and interesting tapas, coffee and scrummy home-made cakes, a girlie salad lunch, breakfast or a relaxed supper. It always has a friendly atmosphere, and being small and cosy more often than not we find we bump into someone, whether it’s English friends, people on holiday who are Almerimar life readers, or last week a big tables of Spaniards we know.

Spain really isn’t the place to be a vegetarian! I actually love vegetarian food but I also eat just about all kinds of meat and fish in moderation. It is definitely tough to get a vegetarian meal in Almerimar, and it is also very tough to enjoy any kind of tapas which is one of the fun ways to spend an evening here. My niece, a vegetarian, is over for the week and as you will see form Chris’s main article we opted for the Chinese buffet. Al-rruz do a vegetable paella which is ok but nowhere near as good as the meat and fish options, and Laura would have needed someone to share with her. I remember having lunch with a business colleague of Chris’s in Barcelona who was a fish eating vegetarian. He however still ate Jamon as if that was a given for Spanish people! I also smiled yesterday when Laura ordered a Vegetal sandwich in the Milenio. It came with lots of vegetables, and she enjoyed it apart from the rather surprising large slice of chicken! So Almerimar is not easy for vegetarians on holiday. I go for lots of beans and vegetables when I cook at home, and enjoy the slightly less healthy meat and fish when I am out and about in the marina.

About Almerimar

Almerimar is located in the region of Andalucia, Spain. The nearest airport is 30km away in Almeria. Other airports that are within 3 hours include Malaga, Murcia, Granada, and Alicanti. Other holiday resorts in the region include Mojacar , Aguadulce and Roquetas de Mar Almerimar is a great place to live as an expat amongst the expats, or to work amongst the Spanish. There are all kinds of properties including villas, apartments and town houses for rent or sale. It is a very traditional part of Spain, with traditional Spanish foods so if you plan to travel to Spain either to look for jobs, for your company to trade with companies in Spain, or to learn Spanish and enjoy the Spanish weather then come and take a look. If you are interested in purchasing a property in Almerimar please visit our sponsor Mediterraspain. If you have purchased a property and need it furnished please check out our Sponsors DBJ who will give you a Exclusive 5% discount with the code AL2008. If you want to learn Spanish, get help with anything to do with the legal issues in Spain, or want WiFi access in the marina please check out our sponsor CentrePoint who will give you a 10% discount off all services with the code AL2008. If you want an amazing activity based day out in the mountains and to learn how to ride a motorcycle off road then check out our sponsor The Long Way Round and get 5% off with the code AL2008. Almerimar is also one of the largest marinas in Spain with over 2,000 births and excellent boatyard facilities.

It has definitely got much hotter in the past week, so much so that I now do need to get up and get running before breakfast. Today I didn’t get out at 8.30am which was my intention, but around 10am, after tea and a banana I managed it. It WAS hot but as i am only running around 3km at the moment it was bearable and once I hit the beach I forgot how tired I felt and thought … wow … isn’t this fantastic? It is easy to take for granted the mountain views and the sea when you live here in Almerimar most of the time, but every so often I remind myself how lucky we are to be able to do this. Of course I miss things about the UK, but running along a beach in the sunshine, definitely beats running along a busy road in the UK, sometimes in the freezing cold, or even on snow! To get to the beach I ran around the road by the conservation area, and thought how great all the landscaping looks around the Hipico; they are really trying to finish things off so well here now. I also had an actually rather pleasant smell of warm wine to enjoy as I ran past one of the green recycle bins. I think someone must have had a party last night and deposited rather a lot of empty wine bottles! Having run round the conservation area road, I got to walk it with Chris who is still slightly re-habbing after the football tournament. At least I got another wiff of that warm wine! Chris fancied a bacon butty so we wandered down into the port to La Bahia, which is always open and great for breakfast. I’ve written about this many times, but I love the village atmosphere here in Almerimar. While we were walking down 2 friends stopped in their cars to say hello and offer us a lift (declined!), we then bumped into more friends in the square, and finally another friend joined us for coffee and thankfully offered us a lift back UP the hill!

About Almerimar

Almerimar is located in the region of Andalucia, Spain. The nearest airport is 30km away in Almeria. Other airports that are within 3 hours include Malaga, Murcia, Granada, and Alicanti. Other holiday resorts in the region include Mojacar , Aguadulce and Roquetas de Mar Almerimar is a great place to live as an expat amongst the expats, or to work amongst the Spanish. There are all kinds of properties including villas, apartments and town houses for rent or sale. It is a very traditional part of Spain, with traditional Spanish foods so if you plan to travel to Spain either to look for jobs, for your company to trade with companies in Spain, or to learn Spanish and enjoy the Spanish weather then come and take a look. If you are interested in purchasing a property in Almerimar please visit our sponsor Mediterraspain. If you have purchased a property and need it furnished please check out our Sponsors DBJ who will give you a Exclusive 5% discount with the code AL2008. If you want to learn Spanish, get help with anything to do with the legal issues in Spain, or want WiFi access in the marina please check out our sponsor CentrePoint who will give you a 10% discount off all services with the code AL2008. If you want an amazing activity based day out in the mountains and to learn how to ride a motorcycle off road then check out our sponsor The Long Way Round and get 5% off with the code AL2008. Almerimar is also one of the largest marinas in Spain with over 2,000 births and excellent boatyard facilities.

Pleasant breakfast at the Milenio cafe this morning with Chris and a very nice American girl who is house-sitting for some friends. I know that i have said this before but I really like the Milenio for breakfast. OK so coffee and a tostada is not mega unhealthy but an integral one a some good decaf is better, which is what I tend to order there! We were actually out and about pretty early for a Sunday and got to the Milenio before 11am, so it was good to find it pretty full and buzzing, with lots of Spanish people and sunshine. I love the way children are integrated here and Sunday morning is no exception, with parents out for breakfast with their babies and children, and unlike so often in the UK, the children here seem so well behaved, maybe because they are so used to being in restaurants and cafes.

This is one of those posts that will benefit from the more people that comment on it! Tapas is a huge part of the social scene here in Almerimar, and you can get some great Tapas in a wide variety of bars and restaurants. As a ‘rule’ restaurants tend to give Tapas in a specific order i.e. you don’t get to choose what you want, and very often they are a sampler of their menu.

Just back from breakfast (yes I know it is 3pm, but that is the way it goes sometimes) and thought I would write about the various breakfasts that you can get here in Almerimar.

Personally I have never been a big eater of breakfasts. I need to have been up and about for a couple of hours before my body can accommodate food, but from time to time I do like a ‘fry up’ or brunch.

It is frequently said of Almerimar that it is a place that you either Love or Hate. Maybe that is a bit strong but funnily enough, when I was at the airport on Sunday, a couple of people that used to own a Franchise in the business that I was involved with came up to me. To say I was surprised …… Anyway they live in Mojacar, and he said to ME about the area that you either love it or hate it.

We went down to the new cafe the other side of Dársena 1 for breakfast this morning. It is a very modern style cafe, with the emphasis more on a bar than a cafe as far as we could tell, and they have a huge terrace that at the moment they aren’t using but I imagine will be put to good use in the summer. It isn’t immediately obvious where they could attach an ‘awning’ but I think they may need to if they want to attract clients throughout the winter.