Granada

Up this morning at 6AM, the earliest morning yet and it is Saturday!  Our plans this week-end are to go to Granada which is about an hour drive from where we are in Nerja.  Breakfast done and off we go. 

Drive by shooting, Wendy is driving while I take picture.  Little white village with a castle on top somewhere along the way

We had found a hotel that is just off the highway for the night for 50.00 Euro, we decide we do not want to drive in Granada and this hotel has a bus stop right outside, perfect.

Pretty easy to find the hotel and they actually check us in at 8AM.  We see a bus go by so know we have about 15-20 minutes until the next bus.  We want to head into Granada because we have bought tickets for the Alhambra online and the tickets gives you a time that you can enter the Nasrid Palaces, and ours is 10:00AM.  

The bus downtown is about 15 minutes then we grab another bus that takes us UP to the Alhambra, we decide it is too much up, so take the bus rather than walk, but we will walk down.  

We arrive in lots of time so get to tour a bit of the grounds before our palace tickets.  We start off by touring the Moorish baths, then go to Alcazaba, where the armory was.  Our tickets gave us entry into this, we kept having to pull our tickets out to get them scanned.  Beautiful views of Granada and the mountains from the towers, our first of many climbs up stairs today!

Hotel inside the castle, PS we did not stay there $$$$$

View of Granada from the Alhambra

View of Cathedral from one of the tower

Following this it was 10AM and time to queue for the Nasrid Palaces tour.  Amazing, the plaster and tile work must be seen, I know pictures will not do it justice.  The rooms just went on and on, and they seemed to keep getting better. Even the gardens were fantastic, especially the water effects, I can’t imagine how beautiful this must be when all the flowers/trees are in bloom.  We read that the Taj Mahal reflection pool was inspired by the pools here.

Words can describe.

Generalife Gardens

For Jill

We visited the Palace of Carlos V.  Inside are the Alhambra stairs which are like the Banff Springs Hotel

I believe a dome was to be added

Just like our wedding picture, please imagine Andre there

Following our tours of the palaces we continued touring the grounds, beautiful gardens and trees, we spent about 4 hours here in total, lots of walking, and it got busier the later we were there so we were happy we went early.

Next off we started walking back into town.  All downhill.  We passed by a beautiful fountain, some nice waterfalls, the gate entrance, so glad we walked down or we would have missed all this.

Which one to choose for our fridge

Back into town and we wanted to visit the Albarican area of the city, which is back uphill on the other side of the Alhambra.  Lots of small windy street, lots of stairs, lots of uphill, lots of little shops, squares and bars.  We spent a little time in a couple of the squares, musicians were out with their guitars in one which was fantastic, one woman from a stagette party did some impromptu flamenco dancing which was fun to see, got lots of people clapping.  Many shops selling different spices, but we know we will see these shops in Morocco so will wait until then to buy spices.

The Alhambra

This is the stuff you have to walk on all day long in this area and many places

Next it is time for lunch,  by now all the restaurants are really crowded, or way overpriced so we are turned into wandering hungry tourist, and not so happy.  We have passed many 10 Euro daily specials at the bottom of the hill, but now we are way on top so everything has gone up in price with the height I guess.  We decide to start walking back down, but I know if we went all the way down I would have never come back up, we happen upon a little hole in the wall Moroccan place so stop and eat here.  It was actually pretty good, and perfect timing as we were really running on empty by 2:30PM.

Following lunch we try to follow a walking tour we found online.  Not much success, we are very twisted on the sidestreets, and none of our maps show all the little side alleys of stairways.  We are about to give up and see way up above from where we are there are people sitting on a wall that overlooks the city.  So up some more we go, and come across the caves that we had heard about that people live in above the city.  Kind of like a shanty town, but we say Hola to the few people that are around and everyone seems friendly.  No idea if they have running water or electricity here, but fun to see.

Above this is a Church we think with the most amazing views looking down at the Alhambra, the snow-capped mountains  and the city of Granada.  It was a long hike up here, but so worth it.  Around the back of the Church it seems like some kind of park, quite a few hikers back here, we sat for a bit and just enjoyed the views.  Andre and I are definitely the youngest people here, lots of young people up here having a beer, enjoying the beautiful sunny day.  I started out the day with as many layers as I had with me on, by the end of the day I as carrying many layers in my arms.

Bar on the way doewn

For Liam

Here the menu

Time to head back down to the city.  Much easier going down than it was going up!  We spend a little time touring the city.  Visit the Cathedral, some of the squares, and a few other churches and then we are done.  It is now 6:30 and we have basically been walking since 8:30 up and down hills, we have had it.  We pick up a bottle of wine from a little local store and head back to our hotel. 

Cathedral

We have a couple of glasses of wine, decide to go and get a pizza, from the restaurant, in the hotel for supper.  A couple more drinks in the restaurant, some snails for Tapas before our pizza and I am ready to call it a night.  By 9PM I think I am asleep.  A fantastic day, and the Alhambra is off our bucket list now.

They were good, kinda like a pepper sause