Blogs from Granada, Andalusia, Spain, Europe - page 6

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. ... read more

*Part 2 of Andalucía trip. Read previous entry for info about Sevilla and Semana Santa processions! We headed to Granada by Alsa bus on Saturday morning. Our trip there passed through dry, hilly landscape, with a lot of red earth. What you see a lot of are olive trees. Apparently, Spain produces 40% of the world’s olive oil, and most of the production in Spain is in Andalucia. As we got closer to the city, we could see the snowy Sierra Nevadas behind the city. I wasn’t expecting such a beautiful, dramatic landscape! We left our bags in luggage lockers at the bus station and then took a city bus to near the Cathedral. We stopped at CaixaBank to print our tickets for the Alhambra (which my friend had bought online a couple of months earlier—and ... read more

The Hotel Abba was a whirlwind of students checking out this morning. We spoke briefly (in English) with a beautiful Female French student from Strasberg who was checking out to go to Alicante, on the Southeast Mediterranean coast. She had enjoyed her stay in Granada. Yesterday we rode the city bus to an absolutely beautiful area of centro Granada that we had not been to before. We found a stunning boulevard about a half a mile long bookended by two massive fountains. On one side was a huge El Cortes Ingles department store and of course we had to look in there. They are the Nordstroms or Macys of Spain and have everything you could want, but at fairly high prices. We looked at clothes and are lunch in the cafeteria. LC bought some cologne he ... read more

Spring 2016 extended tour of Iberia My husband and I are looking forward to our third trip to Spain and this time we want to connect with more even nor locals and Expats. We will be visiting our British and Dutch friends near Barcelona and Valencia and then head back to Granada, Jerez de la Frontera, The costa del sol, and then over to PORTUGAL for 10 days, finishing the trip with 8 days in Madrid. I will be adding to this blog as we near March 1st, 2016... read more

Wczoraj wieczorem przeżyłysmy chwile grozy. Próbowałyśmy zarezerwować bilety do Alhambry. Wiedziałam że jest ciężko, wszystkie poradniki o tym pisza, ale sprawdzałam każdego dnia i było jeszcze dużo biletów. Problem jednak miałam gdy próbowałam zapłacić za bilety, ciągle wyrzucalo mnie ze strony. Kiedy przyjechaliśmy dwa dni temu pani w recepcji zaproponowała, że może nam pomóc w rezerwacji biletów do Alhambry. Szybko pobiegłysmy do niej. Było tuż przed 22-gą i powiedziała że może być już za późno bo tylko do 22.00 sprzedają. Szybko włączyła komputer, jeszcze szybciej wprowadziła wszystkie potrzebne dane i nacisnela OK. Chwila nerwowego oczekiwania i SĄ! Kupione o 21.59.37. To się nazywa wyczucie czasu i szczęście! Bilety do zwiedzania pałaców Nasrydów zostały zakupione na 12.30. Ważne jest aby się nie spóźnić, bo nikt nie zwróci pieniędzy za zmarnowany bilet i już się tam nie wejdz ... read more