Places with a view: Almunecar, Granada's coast

In Almunecar , a very, very old (over 2000 years old) pueblo blanco on Andalusia’s coast in Spain, straight south of Granada, I lived on the 6th floor of a condo building on the eastern sea promenade called Playa de Velilla.

There the view was of the famed blue Mediterranean (sadly polluted, but the view did not reveal this shameful secret), a mostly stony beach with its fish restaurants and their open pits from which a tempting aroma of freshly caught, grilled sardines waffled all the way up, up, to my balcony.

On the beach there were tourists bathing and playing in season, and outside the tourist season retired expats from all over Europe, but mostly from Scandinavia (Sweden, Denmark, Norway) and from Germany and Great Britain - the cold weather and high cost of living countries - walking, exercising... by the colorful fishing boats and fishermen loading or unloading their nets and fish.

Between the beach and the condo there was a paseo , framed with tall, stately palm trees and full of all kind of open air eateries, where people sipped their hot chocolate and ate churros (Spanish doughnuts) or olive drizzled toasts with garlic and tomatoes for breakfast, or munching on an abundance of tapas all day - and night - long.

On the left side of the bay, in the background, there were slopes of Sierra de Grazalema and - behind them Sierra Nevada mountains, with some of their peaks covered in snow, while oranges and bougainvillea were in full bloom at the coast.

On the lower slopes, the view revealed two pueblos blancos, typical Andalusian white villages, oh, so picturesque with their narrow streets and their white houses climbing the slopes.

Between the villages and the sea there was also a carretera climbing up, up, like a serpent full of moving objects, with tunnels and dangerous curves. It was both exhilarating - and quite often scary - to watch the bravado of cars negotiating the carretera.

Ah, my places with a view … I do miss them all, would love to return to them all, but not yet, not yet. Right now there are still plenty of new places and new adventures awaiting. Or so I hope.