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Blogs from Granada, Andalusia, Spain, Europe
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May 17th 2013
Granada We had a sleepy bus ride here a few days ago, entered through the less attractive part of the city and immediately wished ourselves back in beautiful Seville! We walked to the wrong hotel, having gotten confused in our long tripadvisor quest the night before, but found the right one quite quickly. Walking around the neighborhood after checking in gave us a better feel for the city, and we stopped regretting having prepaid for three nights! Morocco in Granada? We are staying in the old Arab quartier, which is now the new Arab/hippie/hipster area. The streets are similiar to those in a Morocco medina, as they were originally built by the Muslim founders of Granada. We are near the Alhambra, with lots of tapas places on our street. It's noisy here until at least 1:00am, ... read more
May 6th 2013
Its been two long days since our last confession, ooops sorry I mean blog, and we've covered some ground in that time. So lets do a short recap. Friday, our last day in beautiful Barcelona, we had a morning of shopping then headed to our pickup location for a half day journey to meet the Monks of Monserrat. Arriving there we were greeted with a confused face and a "Qué, no Monserrat tour today". Quickly checking the emails we realised we are on the wrong side of the city and have to leg it pronto. Leelee in thongs and making some dubious direction calls slowed us up a bit and we arrived ten minutes late which was ten minutes too late apparently! One minute tour.... Nek Minnit no tour! Settled on a Siesta and a sensational ... read more
Alhambra - the Stunning Red Fortress
Published: January 27th 2013Europe » Spain » Andalusia » Granada
January 27th 2013
Took the morning bus to Granada and made sure I wouldn't miss this one by getting to the terminal much earlier. Bus ride was a good 3 hours long, and when breakfast was light and stomach gets hungry easier in the cold, it was pretty enduring. Bought a local 'tourist' map for 1 euro and headed to town. Main hit for today was to the Alhambra and from there, perhaps a few more other sites/sights. Well, as it turns out, I would miss my central bus stop and ended up looking for lunch first. haha. Roamed around in the city centre before taking bus 30 up to Alhambra. The city pretty much reminds me a little of Seville, possesing it's own flavour, yet being infused with foreign brands, making it slightly cosmopolitan. Well, but what draws ... read more
November 24th 2012
As my father and I hadn’t taken a holiday abroad together since 1989 it was long overdue. His two preferences were Ireland or Spain. No offence to Ireland but as I live in England I am already sick of being rained on, so I chose Andalucia – in Spain’s heavily Moorish influenced south. I was conscious that as my father is 75 years old, quite deaf and even more absent-minded than I am, that I would have to step up and take responsibility for the holiday. I made it clear to him that we needed to keep "H.S.C." to an absolute minimum (that is, “Hornblow-style chaos”). We did very well, despite our very nature… for the most part. The first successfully-avoided chaotic incident was the flight to Seville. The last time the two of us started ... read more
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The rain in Spain mainly falls on our long weekend
Published: October 6th 2012Europe » Spain » Andalusia » Granada
September 30th 2012
So we headed to Andalucia in southern Spain to soak up the last of the summer sun. Soaked we were, for most of the time. Sadly there were flash floods in the region after 6 months of no rain and some people lost their lives. We were on a late night flight to Malaga and stayed in some cheap, but clean place walking distance to the train station. It was an airy morning; completely dark at 7.30am and very still. Half way to the station it started hammering with rain and did not stop the whole way to Cordoba about 50mins away, we could not see a thing outside. Our hotel was lovely, situated over an old Roman ruin in an old style building with beautiful designer touches inside with Arabic flare. We were able to ... read more
Hospital de Peregrinos, no 4, Granada
Published: September 24th 2012Europe » Spain » Andalusia » Granada
September 14th 2012
Preface: This post was written about 10 days or so before the solace of the mountains. When I read it now it seems so far away from my current state of mind - but I post it in the spirit of a blog that is documenting the journey and states of mind as well as 'what has happened'. Sometimes during this trip I have struggled with the concept of being 'a tourist'. The catching of flights, negotiating airport buses with unwieldy luggage and limited language skills and the unfamiliarity of a new place - well it just puts this gal a bit off her game. The AirBnB description of the apartment we had rented said it was in the centre of the old town and although quaint and compact on first inspection, it became after a ... read more
September 9th 2012
The tour book that I used when I was planning my trip recommended setting aside 3 hours to see the Alhambra and Generalife in Granada. They were not kidding. In fact, from the time I hopped out of my taxi (I learned my lesson the day before about successfully finding my way there on foot) until, exhausted, I hailed a taxi back to the hotel, it took just over 5 hours to see it all. So much has been said and written about the beauty of the Alhambra that you always wonder if it can live up to expectations. It certainly did, but in a somewhat different way than I had expected. I think I expected to be over-awed from the start, similar to the feeling you get when you first step inside a large cathedral. ... read more
September 7th 2012
Today was a travel day, although I did manage to get quite a bit of sightseeing in. The train ride from Seville to Granada is just over three hours; it left Seville just before noon and arrived in Granada around 3:00, which is a pretty perfect time to be travelling I have to say -- you don't have to get up early and you still have enough of the day left when you arrive to make a day of it. Granada is the third of five Spanish cities I will visit (the first two being Seville and Cordoba). There are similarities between them all, and yet they each have a different feel. Granada has a certain Bohemian and artistic feel to it, and is one of the centres of Spanish guitar so there are lots of ... read more
