12/06/18 – 13/06/18 – Granada
All I remember from visiting Granada as a young teen was it was hot and there was lots of traffic. Well, those memories turned out to be pretty accurate, although driving around in a 2.4m wide x 7m long Moho certainly added to the spice.
We arrived mid-afternoon in search of a free overnight spot recommended on searchforsites. Having taken a wrong turn, we were soon faced with doing a 3 point turn to get down a steep ramp into town, only to find there wasnt a cat-in-hells-chance of us ever fitting in a space if there was one free, which there wasnt. So, we spent the next half an hour or so driving around trying to find some on-street parking big enough to take us. Eventually, we found somewhere on Paseo de Europa.
It was around 13:30, temperatures were rising. We decided it was too hot to take Marley out in the sun, so spent the next 2 hours getting hotter and hotter in the van – driving ourselves slightly crazy. Before long Lorraine had had enough and decided to go find somewhere we could sit in the shade and cool off. She found a roadside bar, in the shade where we enjoyed a beer and chatted to some very friendly locals. Sadly, we missed out on the free tapas without beers – something that is normally provided all over Granada with every drink!
Looking for somewhere to sleep other than the roadside, we headed up to the Sacromonte Abbey on the hill opposite to the Alhambra only to be met by a security guard saying we couldn’t stay there. We had a quick walk around before deciding to try somewhere near we originally tried to park earlier that day.
On the drive back down, the satnav took us through the narrow cobbled streets of the old town of Albacin. Lovely to look at, nightmare to drive through. Being me, I got a bit tetchy and all I wanted to do was find a nice big carpark to stay the night. I didnt care what it cost at that point (we looked at it would have been around 30 Euros for the night). This is where Lorraine and I differ in our viewpoints. She’s all about the free, I’m more about the convenient (At least at this point anyway) We tried the first place, no spaces….back to the roadside then at Paseo de Europa.
Surprisingly, it was pretty quiet and we weren’t bothered by the police and asked to move on, so the next morning we were ready to see the Alhambra.
I wont bore you with the history of the Alhambra. Its big, its old and it’s impressive – definitely worth visiting. We spent some time walking the wrong around the Generalife gardens (we like to do things differently you know!) before realising you couldn’t get in to any of the buildings as they were on a one-way route…it didnt matter as it was well worth going back round the right way.
Next it was onto the Nazraries Palace, filled with ornate carved plaster and hand painted tiles..amazing. I hope the photos do it justice, probably not.
All this before lunch and heading off to our next stop.
