Another early start. Had to catch a bus at 8:10a.m. so we got up about 7:00a.m. and left the hotel about half an hour later. We turned down the offer of breakfast; we didn't have time but also the bread wouldn't be due until 8am anyway. We left the hotel but initially couldn't find the written postcards; Laure went back into the room for a quick check but they were not there. Accepting them as a lost cause (well Ian, anyway) we sent off for the bus station.

Again we got lost in the back streets; even worse than last time as we had a time to meet. We went all through the streets before finding the right one. By this time we were both a little frustrated. Ian ran to the bus station with Laure following with difficulty, arriving at about 8:10am. Fortunately, the bus was a little late (always trust the buses for that!), so in fact we were in plenty of time, not that we could have known that of course!

The bus made a change from the train, although it was a little slow. We actually had to change buses in Ayamonte (just over the Spanish border) but the change was a seamless and organised one (we got direct tickets from Faro but the drivers of the coach had not decided where to organise the change). This second bus (Damas) was a bit nicer than the first one (Eva), although the toilets were unavailable! There was not a lot of difference between Spain and Portugal's scenery in this part of the countries.

We got to Sevilla just after 1pm, and it was typically still raining. We enquired about a bus to the train station (which was a little away from the centre), and after picking up a baguette at some small pub/café place (big enough for four people to sit), we went to catch the bus on the other side of quite a long modern bridge. The fare was 150 pts each and seemed to go all around Sevilla, through the rather flash science / technology park, presumably built for the Universal exhibition a couple of years ago. We also encountered lots of traffic.

Eventually we arrived and found our way directly onto the train, since we'd had to book it. Ian did expect a kind of inter city train, but all we got were two carriages, very smart and sleek, but quite a small train. And until Granada, it seemed to be full of English-speaking tourists! After there the scenery became very rocky and picturesque, some might say lunar. At one point a stone appeared out of nowhere and crashed into the window next to two American girls sitting nearby. After a very brief initial shock they seemed a bit nonplussed about it! After a while the weather cleared up, and we arrived in Almeria to blue sky and sunshine. Just as Ian had promised Laure!

First impressions were of a city cut off from the rest of Spain; it did look relatively different. Near the station there was an odd mix of palm trees and building works, and it appeared that Almeria also has a bad traffic problem; maybe it's a generic problem to southern Spain. We didn't know where our hotel was, so we went into a travel agent and asked them (it closed at 8:30pm so we assume that Almeria is dead in siesta time). We also needed to ask about ferries to Morocco, as only the Trasmeditteranea website had given any indication at all of a ferry to Nador. We were told that the Hostal Nixar that we had booked had become the Hostal Estacion, and that themselves didn't handle Nador ferries, and we should ask at the port. We were told however that the ferry to Melilla that day wasn't running due to bad winds. This was not a good sign.

We wandered over to the Estacion, only to be told that no name change had taken place (this seemed to be the lady's answer to every question we asked) and that the Nixar Hotel was halfway across town. The prices were the same, so we booked in there instead!!! (Obviously not high season!)

After dumping our stuff in our room (106), we set off to find a restaurant. This actually proved more difficult than it sounded; after some time of walking round we only found cafes. Laure wanted paella. We did eventually find somewhere, so we went in and had food. We each had a mixed paella (rice, shrimp, chicken, pork ribs, squid, pepper, petits pois) and some dips. We got a whole load of chips and some chopped sausage and 12 dips to dip them in (two mustards, two blue cheese which Laure liked, two hot spicy which Ian liked, barbecue, tomato, raita, mayonnaise, tartar, and garlic). It was all very nice; some dips got attacked a lot more than others though! We wandered back to the hotel in a dark but very pleasant evening, and went to bed, ignoring the disco in the bar next door.