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The cloud of yesterday has cleared away this morning to another brilliantly fine day.
However whatever that wind change and cooling down last evening was it has left behind a new dusting of snow on the Sierra Nevada mountain range which rises up dramatically behind the city of Granada. We hadn’t been able to make the mountains out clearly last night when we arrived as they were hidden by the cloud but this morning with the cloud gone we realised just how close the mountain range is.
We don’t have tickets for Granada’s main tourist attraction, the Alhambra. We hadn’t appreciated the popularity of the place and although we could have bought them online once we knew the dates we were going to be in the city the tickets for today and tomorrow were all gone. We had heard that you might be lucky by just strolling up on the day and so that is how we will have to run on this occasion. We have already been to 2 of the other main Moorish sites of historical interest in the Real Alcazar in Seville and the Mezquita in Cordoba so we won’t feel too disappointed if we don’t
make it inside the Alhambra.
Today however is an admin day with washing to be done and we have a warm sunny day ahead and a terrace to hang the washing out on.
With the washing done we sat back and caught up on some reading and watching the other campers and caravaners go about their business in the camp.Well that is the ones that haven’t gone into the city today. There are a few campervan sites still vacant with most of the ones taken being occupied by people from Holland. We know this because of the number plates on the vehicles!
Just before lunch a couple of young women, probably in their early 20’s, arrived on foot with a bag that contained a two person tent at a site just over the way from our bungalow. They looked like they might have flown in on one of those cheap air fares from the UK as their accents were from that part of Europe.
The women provided us with much entertainment as they went about erecting their small tent. Neither of them seemed to have any experience in this specialised art and we did think of
going across to see if we could be of help although it is only Gretchen with any experience in camping and that was many years ago when it was usually her father and brothers job to erect the tent while Gretchen and her mother got the cup of tea or dinner ready.
The entertainment continued while we had our lunch of asparagus soup on the terrace.
They seemed to be in good spirits all through the time it took to get the tent up as there was much laughter emanating from them and they did provide us with good entertainment too.
We left mid afternoon for a drive out to a small hill town we had read about and as we drove past their site we could see they had achieved the erection of the tent which hardly big enough for one person let alone two!
Our drive took us west along the A92 although again we had chosen the shortest route option on the GPS (we never seem to learn!)and after encountering a road closed and having to find an alternative to put us back on track we endured a maze of narrow streets through
a couple of towns and then a dusty track before we finally made it to the highway.
Turning off to the right and crossing a brand new bridge that had been built for an, as yet, unfinished high speed rail line into Granada we travelled through the village of Tocon and climbed steadily up the hills towards our destination of Montefrio.
Like our drive from Cordoba to Granada yesterday we were surrounded by acres and acres of olive trees except now we were able to see more closely the way they are laid out in many varied patterns that were defined by the contours of the hillsides on which they were planted.
At just over 1000 metres above sea level we reached Montefrio,a town of 7000 inhabitants located on the N335 which had been a strategic route used by the Moors during their years in power in Spain.
The town is actually sited in a narrow gorge and is so compact that the white washed houses all look like they are joined together and there were no streets within the town.
Above the town were the remains of a Moorish fort and a 16
th century
Gothic church. It looked like the only way to get to them for a closer examination was to walk and the climb up was very steep so we opted for a short stroll along the main street to another church that had been designed with the Parthenon in Rome in mind.
At first we thought we were the only tourists in town as the locals who were gathered in groups of males here and females there gave us sideways looks as if to say’ what the heck are you doing in this out of the way place’.
The neo classical church in the main street was well and truly locked up so that was off the cards for a look inside.
As we had arrived in the main street, after parking the car a short distance away thinking there would be no room elsewhere, a man had thrust a leaflet advertising a ‘tourist train’ ride into my hand. At the time I hadn’t taken any notice of it thinking the ride must have been for some other larger town nearby.
But lo and behold as we turned from the locked church around the corner came the’
tourist train ‘ending its previous run with about a dozen tourists o board.
We probably should have taken the ‘train’ ride to take in a couple of other sites on the other side of the town and perhaps it might have got us to the top of the hill that the fort was located on.
However, we didn’t and satisfied that we had had the striking views of the town and the fort from above we headed back to the car and started on our return journey to the motor camp.
This time we chose the fastest route and although the GPS took us on the ring road around the city and about as far away as we could be from the camp it was a much faster journey than the route outwards.
It had been a relatively quiet day with the entertainment of watching the young women put the tent up and then our drive to Montefrio, but a satisfying one at that too.
Tomorrow we will head into Granada and try our luck at tickets for the Alhambra.
PS: trying to get a bit of Moorish flavour with the title song which
is available on Youtube of course
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