Andalucia in Winter

Andalucia in winter can be a bit of a disappointment.  People expect that it is pretty much like summer  - that you would need a calendar to be sure you´re in winter. I remember walking up a street one afternoon in Guadix, a large historical town near Granada, a few years ago, with a pair of Brits.. It was August, about 35 degrees C in the shade.  Even the flies were walking listlessly, to save energy.  Peter mopped his brow and said:  "I suppose it´s like this all year round?"  I was in real estate at the time, so I compromised a little.  "Well, it can get chilly in winter."  He nodded wisely: "Need a sweater sometimes, I suppose."  I lived in Guadix for a while and, though 35 degrees is a typical summer temperature, a typical winter one would be below zero.  The winter I spent there, there was over a foot of snow on the pavements and the temperature dropped to minus ten at night.  Nevertheless, the snow-topped Sierra Nevada mountains that overlook the town compensate for the cold in January in Guadix.

Now, I live in Velez Rubio (Almeria), an attractive small town of 7.000 inhabitants.  It´s only just off the Granada-Murcia motorway, about 45 minutes from the coast, so it´s not remote.  At 814m (2670 Ft.), it can get chilly in winter here as well.  It was, and to a lesser extent still is, a local agricultural centre - surrounded on all sides by almond fields stretching into the distance.