ALBACETE

Albacete! Perhaps not the most obvious destination choice for a tourist in Spain, but during my time in the country as an English Language Assistant it happened to be the biggest city in my region and the only place in the area with a professional football club! I therefore felt that it was a rite of passage to mark my time in Castilla La-Mancha by making the pilgrimage over to Albacete from my base in Alcázar de San Juan in order to experience the city and see the local team play. Given it’s only a small city I decided I would only need one night to get a flavour of the place, and I tied it in with a Friday night game in mid-February.

After arriving at the big train station on the edge of the city I made my way on foot to my accommodation on the other side of town. My journey took me through the city centre and whilst it was a bit unremarkable as expected, it also appears to be a pleasant place to live. A cosmopolitan feel with lots of nice-looking shops and restaurants. When I say unremarkable, I mean it in a way that is measured to Spanish standards. It’s such a beautiful country with so many historic towns that even an unremarkable urban area in Spain is often very pleasant compared to other countries.

Once nearer to my accommodation I came across a gloriously big park (Parque de Abelardo Sanchez) with really beautiful imposing trees. It seemed to be the centre piece of the city. But unfortunately, it was closed due to weather warnings, so I was only able to walk around the outside perimeter. It was quite a shame actually because after walking around the city for a long time it reaffirmed my opinion that it must be the centre piece of the city. The weather was very glum, but it didn’t seem dangerously bad, so I was surprised to see that another large park was closed for the same reason in a different part of town.

I enjoyed some food and a few coffees to keep me energised on my long walk, and then I was planning on going to the local museum on my way back towards my accommodation. But I messed up my timings and it was closed! Anyway, it was almost time for the evening kick off and with that I headed off to the stadium for Albacete’s fixture against Zaragoza. The next morning, I had another attempt at entering the park on my way back to the train station, but it was still closed. Walking back through the city I did have a chance to take some photos of the very pretty Lodares passage, and that was about it for my time in Albacete. It’s a nice little city and definitely got a thumbs up from me. As well as being a neat city, it is also very well connected by bus and train to most of Spain, so you can often find yourself there for an hour or two when travelling around the country.