Where in the World Wednesday: Almeria Province, Spain

Where in the World?

Almeria Province, Spain

This week on Where in the World Wednesday, we travel to the Andalusian region's Almeria Province in Southern Spain. A coastal city with rugged, mountainous terrain, desert-like landscapes, and empty white sand beaches bumped up against the gorgeous dark blue of the Mediterranean sea.

The picture on the left is the Alcazaba Cathedral, built somewhere around 955-995, which is one of the main castles in Southern Spain. At one time, it provided shelter to more than 20,000 inhabitants. Seriously! Then, in the 1520's the Alcazaba Catheral was converted to a fortress, in order to be better defended from North African pirate raids. The stories I heard about Almeria are better than any movie.

This region of Spain is a part of the world that enjoys some of the longest daylight hours known to man. And, not far from Alemeria are rolling hills and fields that look much like Mexico and California. In fact, the Tabernas Desert near Almeria proper a location where several cowboy-westerns were filmed. Many of these full-length features were shot by Italian directors in Spain, which is how they got to be affectionately named, "Spaghetti Westerns." Think: Clint Eastwood in The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly. How cool is that?

On lower grounds, stand some remarkable white sand beaches. The dark blue sea stretches as far as your eyes can see. I loved this place, because of its splendid blue views.

Anyway, back home in Capitola, I ordered some very pretty blue Swarovski crystals in a color called Montana a few weeks ago. The dark blue color of the crystals really reminded me of the sparkling glory of the Spanish Sea. I ended up creating a really great pair of earrings, accented with Silver looped chain earlier this week, and as I wondered about why the crystals were named Montana, the name reminded me of the Western-movie link to Alemeria. So, I beaded up a pair of earrings that I call ANDALUS, which is the Moorish name given to Andalusia.

ANDALUS Earrings
http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=10537869

Enjoy!

(And, be sure to check back next week, for another Where in the World Wednesday)