Granada, Cordoba & Seville 21st-25th January, 2009

Rupesh and I met up with Melinda and Mark in Madrid to spend some time with them on some of their travels around Spain and to explore a few places we had not seen in Spain.

Madrid to Granada

Our morning in Madrid began with Churros (long skinny donuts) and chocolate dipping sauce for breakfast! We then started our road trip towards Granada. We stopped briefly in Aranjuez where there was a not so spectacular palace. We continued on to Linares, a small village where we stopped for lunch. There was a small bar and we ordered some Tortillas (potato and egg based omlette). We continued on to Granada via Parque Natural de Cazorla. The view of the scenery on route was spoilt by heavy rain.

That evening in Granada we had a relaxing dinner and discovered some very exciting news! When Mel refused a glass of wine with dinner in Spain I knew something was wrong! Mel also didn't feel very well in the car today and was incredibly hungry at lunchtime! Mel was having a baby and due in September.

We spent a morning in Granada

Seville

exploring the Alhambra - the fortress from the 19th century. We dodged a few rain showers in and out of the amazing buildings. The gardens were incredibly beautiful and surrounded by orange trees. In the afternoon we drove up to the Sierra Nevada Mountains - a popular skiing area in Spain. The rain then really started to come down and the visibility when driving up the mountain wasn't great. There was certainly plenty of snow on the mountain but the weather was not appealing at all to go skiing. Instead we enjoyed patatas bravas (fried potato cubes with a spicy tomato sauce) and a hot drink in the village before driving down the mountain.

Rebajas (Sales) seemed to be everywhere so Mel was in her element with lots of shopping to be done. I also did a bit of shopping and enjoyed just wandering around the streets of Granada. Unfortunately smoking is still permitted in a lot of places in Spain but we did manage to find a smoke-free Italian restaurant.

Granada to Cordoba to Seville

It was nice to see the sun out again as we left Granada for Cordoba. There were lots of cute

Rupesh's pizza in Cordoba!

cobbled streets around Cordoba, only accessbile by foot. After pizza and paella for lunch we explored the Mezquita - the mosque with a 16th century cathedral plonked right in the middle.

We continued on to Seville from Cordoba, arriving in the late afternoon. We found a great vegetarian restaurant for dinner only we had to wait until 8pm for it to open. Mel was starving by then!

It was a wet morning in Seville as we ducked in to the cathedral and visited the Alcazar (castle) which was impressive. In the afternoon we did an organised tour of the Plaza de Toros (bull ring) which was interesting - we started off in the stadium overlooking the ring and then moved in to a museum and then on to the area where the bulls are kept before they enter the ring. It was very quiet as it is not bull fighting season at the moment.

Rupesh and I flew back to London later that evening and would see Mel and Mark in about a week when they stopped by London for the day on their way back to Singapore.

Additional photos below

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