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The Ayuntamiento de Almeria, Junta and other government bodies that want the glory have announced a huge redevelopment plan for the port and coastline of Almería city.

The project plans -no budget yet set- include the redevelopment of the coastal road, expansion of the port and marina, integration of the new conference centre into the marina, new administrative centre, two thousand parking spaces and a large new mall style leisure shopping and eating area.

The project is not just about building a huge new port, it contemplates integrating several different projects (such as the conference centre – you will remember the fuss over Norman Foster and the mayor’s friends cousin) into a macro plan to create a truely pleasent environment.

Should be nice, and good to see a bit of forethought for once. Unlike our beloved Llano Central.

Later- turns out not everybody thinks this. Local community group Almeria Mira al Mar (Almeria looks towards the sea), formed by locals and supported by such groups as Grupo Ecologista Cóndor, Asociación Ecologista Rakis, Ecologistas en Acción-Almería and la Asociación de Vecinos Bastetania has issued a press release denouncing the plans and promising to fight them on the beaches. As it were. Ah-hem.

Costasol, Husa Hotel, Almeria city

I was recently in Almeria for a meeting with the Provincial Delegate of Industry & Innovation, as part of the Levante sin Cables Aereos campaign (www.levantesincables.org). There were 6 of us, and we had some time to kill after the mornings demonstration, so off we popped for lunch.

Since we at the bottom of the Rambla anyway, somebody suggested Costasol, a pleasant restaurant and hotel, about 150 m up the Paseo de Almeria (number 58 -> Google maps). So, once we´d been ushered back out of the main hotel and directed downstairs to the restaurant, we got a decent table in the corner of the private dining area.

An interesting menu was presented, possibly best described as typical Andalucian fare. After some discussion, we all plumped for menu del dia, and a couple of bottles of some decent Rioja.

There´s been some fuss recently, over a study by Consumer.es that claimed that Almeria serves the worst menu del dia in Spain. (Article in Spanish) As far as the capital goes, it´s possible. I´ve never really found a restaurant here that does a good one. While there´s nothing wrong with the quality of the food, the variety and the dishes tends to be rather limited. And this was much the same. I chose the fried beans and jamon Serrano to start with (oily), followed by lomo con patatas fritas (quite nice) and flan (of course). Not really anything to write home about (so why am I?), but not bad for lunch. And probably better than anything else that end of the street. Mind you, I wouldn´t mind popping back sometime to sample the A la carte, it seemed to be quite a good Andalucian menu. Oh, and it was 9.50€ for the menu del dia, which was nice.