Mini Adventure To Granada – Part 1

The city of Granada is a little under a three hour drive away from us, located in the North Eastern Andalusia Region within a part of the Sierra Nevada mountain range. We already knew in advance that our three day trip would not enable us to visit certain areas of the famous UNESCO World Heritage Site that is the ‘Alhambra’, as all the tickets had been sold out and there were none available for several weeks, but there were other areas inside this massive hilltop enclave that we could have a wander around, and which did not require us to pay an entrance fee, so that suited my wallet very nicely thank you very much. As it was, I didn’t feel particularly disappointed at not getting tickets to see the three main Palaces or Gardens, as I already felt that we had seen these on numerous occasions anyway, after already watching several ‘Netflix’, ‘You Tube’ and television travel related programmes about visits to the Alhambra, the two most very recent ones being ‘Michael Portillo’s Andalucía’ and ‘Anton & Giovani’s Spanish Trip’ and, to be completely honest, after now having actually been there and witnessing the hoards of organised tourist groups that visit on a daily basis, literally crowds of them occupying every bit of space on the internal pavements and roads with even more alighting from tourist coaches every couple of minutes, just serving to expand this already gigantic mass of bodies, backpacks, walking poles and camera bags, no I was not particularly disappointed at all, although I think Shazza would have liked the opportunity to have said that she had actually been inside at least one of the Palaces. To be completely honest, we had probably already had a much better view of these Palaces and Gardens from watching the television programmes anyway although I guess it cannot replicate actually being there yourself and viewing it with your own eyes 🤷‍♂️ Even before the Covid Pandemic, neither Shazza or myself particularly enjoyed being in over crowded environments, but probably now even more so since that Pandemic.

As you may imagine, the Alhambra attracts visitor’s from all over the world and from what we saw, and the crescendo from the multitude of loud voices, they were predominantly Asian and American, although their was a reasonably sized presence too from European countries. In our hotel we discovered people from Turkey, Greece, Romania, Hungary, Poland as well as the more usual French, German, Dutch and of course British and Irish contingents, it was more like a United Nations gathering for some sort of Global Conference, if only Putin had known, he could have taken a large chunk of the Western Population out with just one strike, although I was rather hoping that he wouldn’t, well not until after breakfast on Thursday morning when we would have departed the City.

We had a simple travel plan, although we hadn’t told my OCD buddy as we would be attempting to leave him behind on this trip and just trying to go with the flow, rather than having a pre-prepared and timed itinerary. We we would depart home at around 9:30am and, as we were in no particular hurry to arrive in Granada, as we could not check-in to our pre-booked hotel until 2pm, so on this outward leg of the journey we would take the AP7 (Toll Road) to Malaga, then North up the A46, where we knew of a decent stop to get our usual late breakfast of ‘Cafe con Leche y Tostado’. From there we would then head East, along the A92 which would take us through the spectacular and very scenic mountain ranges before finally dropping into Granada from the North down along the A44, arriving at our hotel at somewhere close to 13:30pm, didn’t I just say that we didn’t have a timed plan 🤭 This is actually another one of those routes that is very familiar to us, having driven along it on numerous occasions over the last nine years or so, in both the Motorhome and the car, when driving North, via Madrid, to get to the ferry port in Bilbao, by way of a change from the Seville route. But we should of course know by now never to make plans, it was just a matter of complete luck, and good fortune, that for some reason before departing home that morning, I had decided to check the route on ‘Google Maps’ on my iPhone, where I discovered that a part of the A92, heading East, was completely closed due to motorway improvements, so we went to Plan B, which we quickly hatched and was to just stay on the A7, the Coastal route, all the way to ‘Motril’, where we would then turn off on to the A44 and head North into Granada, although that now meant that our mid-morning breakfast stop, between Malaga and Granada, would now have to be a ‘Pot Luck’ sort of affair, as we were not as familiar with the service stops along this particular coastal route.

I am not sure wether the ‘Works of Fiction’ for our part of the Costa del Sol was trying to tell us how sad it was that we were once again leaving it behind, but once again, after days and days of the more usual awakening to Sunshine and Blue sky, the morning of our departure was rather overcast, the same as it had been when we departed on our day trip to the Faro de Trafalgar just a week or so ago 🤔 However, it was still warm, a very pleasant 20 degrees(c), Granada, albeit in the mountains, was forecast to hit 28 degrees(c) by mid-afternoon 😎 I had elected to do the first stint at the wheel, although for you my reader’s that may not have been the best decision as Shazza, as you already know by now, does not have a very pro-active camera clicker finger and, as it happened, there also ended up being no breakfast stop either, resulting in no change of driver, so unfortunately there are no photographs of our outbound trip through the snow capped mountains ☹️ But as you will discover, I more than adequately make up for that 😉

Having no stops and with pretty much clear roads all the way, we made good time and arrived at our hotel at 12:15pm, so we were not sure wether we would be able to check-in early to our room. As it was, it turned out that our timing was perfect, not only was our room available but we also managed to obtain the last available secure parking space at the hotel, otherwise it would have been a case of parking across the road in the extensive, but insecure, Alhambra car parking area. In the hotel we were greeted by two very friendly and personable ladies at the reception desk, Susana and Ines, now wether it was because we spoke to them in our bestest Espanol and produced our Spanish Residency permits, instead of British Passports, I do not know, but they seemed to go out of their way to provide us with lots of information such as the best entry gate to use to get into the ‘Free’ areas of the Alhambra grounds, the location of the bus stop, with relevant bus numbers (30 or 32) to get us in and out of the City, they also highlighted the walking routes through the well paved, and lit, forest paths in case we preferred to walk in and out of the city, also some ‘personal’ advice on Cafes/Bars & Restaurants to steer clear of in and around the Alhambra, and also within the central parts of the City, which they told us were expensive, not good quality or not particularly tourist friendly, although in truth, as far as we knew, it could just have been a case that the establishments they were recommending were actually owned by family members, or friends, or is that just a case of the more cynical side of my nature 🤷‍♂️ Although they marked some of their ‘Recommended’ establishments on the street plan that they had provided us with, we would just leave it to chance to discover the good, or the bad, for ourselves once we went on our explorations, what is it they say about ‘One man’s meat is another man’s poison’, well I for one certainly hope we don’t come across the latter 😲 it won’t matter to Shazza as she doesn’t eat meat. They also asked if we were intending visiting any ‘Flamenco’ venues, although we have already been to a Flamenco show in Seville, we had done some research on the different venues that there were in Granada as I knew Shazza would quite like to go to one, there were numerous venues all around the city which came with some very mixed reviews, some where you paid over the odds for a one hour show, inclusive of one drink, for upwards of €50 each, I would expect Shazza to get a dance lesson thrown in for that price 😲 We told them that we were considering it, they then told us that they could book us a trip if we wanted them too, or we could just do it ourselves. The cheapest and most basic that they offered being €28, which meant finding your own way to and from the venue, alternatively, one that included transport which didn’t depart the hotel until 9:15pm and combined a short walking tour of the ‘Sacramento’ area, which is the traditional historic area of the city where the Flamenco originated, the tour also included a visit to a ‘Mirador’ that had the best views of the Alhambra at night (See photo at beginning of this Ramble), then we would be taken to a traditional Cave House where we would see a Flamenco show, which included a drink of our choice, and then the transport back to the hotel, this would cost €35 (each) which actually sounded like good value, or a final choice of a 7:15pm departure by bus to a Restaurant, where we would have a 3 course Dinner, followed by a walking tour, the Flamenco show and then transport back to the hotel, at a cost of €65 (each). We said that we would let them know, which would give us time to check out the individual tours, and all important reviews, online 😉

Shazza had pre-booked us a Standard Double Room with a Terrace and had requested a ‘Quiet’ area of the hotel, we were given a room on the 5th floor right at the end of a corridor, away from the three lifts, and positioned on a corner of the five-storey building. When we entered the large room we saw that there was one massive double bed and a single bed (I allocated the single to Shazza 🤭), there were the usual en-suite facilities, a fridge, tea and coffee making facilities a flat screen TV and free WiFi, generally all the usual stuff provided by a four star hotel and the room was immaculately clean and, as we were to discover during the period of our stay, our room was serviced every morning whilst we were enjoying the very nice self-service buffet breakfast, which catered for all dietary requirements. I went to look at what view we had and to see what size of terrace we had, expecting one of those small Juliet style balcony affairs, so you can imagine my surprise when I discovered a large very sunny balcony, with a table and chairs with views over part of the pool area with far reaching views overlooking the snow capped mountains and on the other side, a view over an extensive orchard sweeping down over the valley, very nice, very nice indeed.

By the time we had parked the car, checked-in and settled in to our room we were beginning to feel a little hungry, having not found a convenient stop en-route in which to partake of our usual late breakfast. As the hotel was only a short walk to the Alhambra, no more than five minutes, we decided that for the remainder of the afternoon we would first find a place for a coffee and a snack and then we would explore the areas of the Alhambra that we were permitted to, leaving us two full days to then concentrate on exploring the City itself, from the map we were issued with, the layout of the City looked like most other’s we have visited, being divided into separate quarters, but it looked vast so how much of it we would get to explore we didn’t know. We discovered a nice Cafe opposite the Alhambra main entrance so that was our first stop. Now we are both usually pretty much accomplished at deciphering tourist street maps and finding our way around, I say ‘usually’ because on this occasion we got it totally wrong and so, instead of finding our way to one of the two ‘Free Entrance’ gates that led into the Alhambra grounds, we ended up on one of the many forest paths that lead in a steep downward direction towards the City, the clue of course should have been that the Alhambra is located at the top of the hill and we were definitely going in a downwards direction. We would need to do a little more detailed familiarisation of the map I think 🙄

However, it was quite a pleasant scenic walk, once we reached the bottom where our calf muscles and knees could be heard sighing in relief. The very narrow streets were crowded, with both people and traffic, the narrow cobbled roads did not have enough space for more than one car width, so when a car, or a shuttle bus came along, pedestrians had to stand with their backs to building walls, taking in a deep intake of breath, some more than other’s 😂 or dart into doorways, it was a bit of a battle to make much headway at first until we got closer to the city centre and to the much more spacious pedestrianised areas and Plaza’s.

Now I have to just say that this visit to ‘Granada’ was one that was on Shazza’s ‘To Do’ List and not mine. Don’t ask me why, but it is one place that has never actually appealed to me, probably because I had seen it on so many television programmes and apart from the Alhambra, wasn’t that impressed and whenever we had looked down on it, from the Motorhome or car as we passed it on the A92 when we were travelling towards Madrid, it didn’t shout out at me ‘That looks a nice place to visit’. BUT, Shazza and I have always agreed that if one of us wanted to do something, or go somewhere, and there was no good reason for the other person not to do it, then we would do these things together. Let’s face it, how many Castles, or Lighthouses, have I dragged Shazza around over the last twenty-years 🤔 So, she had wanted to do this visit and there was no good reason why I couldn’t or shouldn’t, so here we are.

Now our usual method of exploring large Towns or Cities is to just not have a method and to just wander aimlessly up and down streets, getting lost, several times, finding somewhere to have a drink or getting something to eat, whilst perusing the street map in order to find our way back in the general direction of where we wanted, or needed, to be. And so it was that after wandering through numerous maze like, narrow cobbled streets and alleyways, that tended to all look very much the same, although they all had some amazing building architecture, apartments built in stone that still looked much like they would have done when they were first built, very ornate stone, small balconies, wooden window shutters, iron railings garnished with colourful plants and shrubs. They certainly have lots of Monastries, Convents and Churches in this City, on almost every street, and it was whilst we were wandering along one of these narrow cobbled streets that we came across the very small but pretty ‘Plaza Trinidad’. There was a small ‘Kiosko’, which sold a variety of soft drinks and snacks, however, in one corner of the Plaza there was a little pavement Cafe nestled under some Orange trees which shaded it from the heat of the sun and, as luck would have it, there was one unoccupied table, that very quickly became occupied, by us !! We were appreciative of the shade as we sat with our cold beers, from the local brewery of course, ‘Alhambra Especial’, what else ? Although we discovered this particular brand in a Promenade Cafe down in our own local town on the Costa del Sol and I have to say that we prefer it to some of the other’s on offer. We spent some time just enjoying the calmness of what was now fast becoming the late afternoon, with a spot of people watching thrown in for good measure, well it would have been rude not to 🤭 There were lots of Backpackers scurrying around with their heavy loads on their backs, maps in hand, probably attempting to seek out cheap overnight hostel accommodations, and they were of all age groups and not just youngster’s, there were men and women in suits dashing to and fro, probably on their way back to their work locations after their 2 hour ‘Siesta’ lunch periods and of course lots of tourists, like us, clearly obvious with their tourist street maps in hand and stopping briefly to check and orientate themselves as to where they were, even here their were the ‘Lookie, Lookie Traders’ going from table to table, or park bench to park bench, attempting to sell their ‘Tourist Tat’ and then, just as prolific, were the street buskers, some not so good as other’s, but it all added to the ambience.

We orientated ourselves with where we were on the map and then made our way back towards the main central area of the City, to where all the main food Plaza’s were located with their vast array of Restaurants, many offering very good ‘Menu del Dia’ options, at, I have to say, very good value prices, a drink (Wine, Beer, Sangria or Soft Drink) with a small tapas, followed by three courses, each of which had multiple options ranged in price between no more than €15-€18 which was not bad for a major tourist city. We were now hungry again and needed something a little more substantial than a snack, but also somewhere that would also fulfil Shazza’s ‘Plant Based’ dietary requirements, although, with her palate now accommodating a wider variety of fish and cheese products, even she had quite a wide choice of available options. She has always said that whilst at home she will stick to her more disciplined ‘Plant Based’ regime, and when at home we do ‘both’ tend to eat the same ‘meat free’ meals, however she is more flexible when we are away from home on our ‘mini-adventures’, and as for me, as you well know by now, I just eat whatever I fancy, I felt as if I had already done my healthy bit by devouring several bowls of ‘Plant Based’ Olives with my Anti-Covid Vaccines 😋

After a delicious meal we were both beginning to wilt, a combination of having full stomach’s, several Anti-Covid Vaccines throughout the day and the searing heat, so we made our way towards where we would hopefully catch our bus back to the hotel. When I say bus it was more a mini-bus that could accommodate twenty passengers, a larger vehicle would not have been able to wind its way through the narrow twisting cobbled roads and up the steep hills, so as you may imagine there were lots of these public mini-buses racing around the city. We found our bus stop, there was quite a queue, but the buses ran every 10-15 minutes so if we were unable to get on one we would not have long to wait for another. Fortunately though we managed to put our Covid fears aside and ‘squeezed’ ourselves, standing room only, on to the first one that arrived and so, after a short fifteen minute journey, we were back outside the main entrance to the Alhambra and a very short walk away from our hotel.

Although we had very good Air-Conditioning in the room, we preferred to just keep the balcony doors open, and a large side window, so there was enough cross breeze to keep us cool, it seemed a shame to lock all the doors and windows on such a beautifully warm evening, and with sunset now not happening until well after 9pm, it was nice to be able to wander out on to the balcony into the cooling air and listen to the chitter chattering of the birds whilst still being able to look out upon the mountains and the valley. Of course, not being at home with access to all of the English speaking TV Channel’s, or ‘Netflix’, we only had the BBC World News channel on the TV, so we found ourselves watching the Spanish ‘Andalusian’ TV Channel, which had news from around all of our Provinces, including our own, but there were also some quite interesting programmes, some similar to the ‘U.K. Countryfile’ nature programme, some on regional travel locations which provided us with some new local travel ideas, their was coverage of the drought situation, which is still quite bad in some Provinces of Andalusia, unlike our own where we now have 75% capacity in our Embalse (Reservoir) which has enabled us to now have an increased ‘daily’ allowance of 200 Litres each for domestic usage, and with the news that the opening of our communal Swimming Pool is likely to be permitted from June 22nd, so things are beginning to look good for the Summer months when the temperatures will be nearer the 40 degree(c) mark 🥵 The best bit though was that we were now both able to sit, watch, listen and understand much more of the Spanish speaking TV channels, not every word mind you, but we are getting there ‘Poco Poco’ as they say in Spanish (Little by Little).

So in the end our first day, although not going strictly to plan, had actually been quite productive and given us an idea of the layout of the City, but we were able to be quite flexible on what we decided to do over the next couple of days as it appears that my OCD buddy had not managed to stow himself away in the boot of the car before we left home 👍

As I still have two more days activities to ramble about, and photo’s to include, I have decided to divide these rambles into separate parts, so until I get around to writing Part 2………………..

Hasta Luego mi Amigos (La Vida Es Buena)