Places of worship feature prominently in sightseeing trips for the unsurprising reason that religion is a great catalyst for architecturally significant structures. Almería is no different, so when we were there, we decided to visit the cathedral. This one would be the first of several cathedrals we would visit in this trip.
The interesting thing about cathedrals is that they also do siesta. This means that the building is actually closed for a few hours during the mid-day. So we had to go in the afternoon after waiting it out a little bit in a cafe. But that's not too bad. When it was open again, we procured entrance tickets and went in.
Entrance to the cathedral - at least as a tourist - does not involve going through the main door but rather through the back compound. There's actually a little cloister attached, and this cloister is the first section of the whole compound that a visitor sees.
Eventually, one finds the entrance to the main cathedral, and together with an audio guide, one can go around the cathedral and explore its nooks and crannies. As is typical with Catholic churches, there is a fixed structure regarding how the layout of a cathedral would look like. So as I entered, even though the surroundings look new to me, there was nevertheless no element of surprise when reviewing the overall layout.
As I said, this was the first of several cathedrals we have seen during our trip. Stay tuned for the rest.
