'You can't come in' to La Alhambra! But you can be mislead on 'teetering' houses....


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Europe » Spain » Andalusia » Nerja
May 9th 2016
Published: May 9th 2016
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As we are on holiday and had very little sleep yesterday Claire let me have a lie-in today so she didn't set the alarm to go off until 7am. Spoilt I am!

We were soon out and about in our Toyota Nogo but not very fast....especially up hills. We headed first for some caves at Nerja and soon had a bit of a shock as it actually stopped raining. The day remained predominantly dry too.

Curiouser and curiouser....

As it had stopped chucking it down we of course undertook an indoor activity as we went underground in Cuevas de Nerja. An introductory film showed us some wonderful sights that we wouldn't get to see and we were all given one of those audio things that you have to hold up to your ear.

On entering the caves the commentary began and we were soon all passing out from boredom as one by one people literally fell by the wayside. The guide didn't care and abandoned us after pointing at a few signs and telling us which number to press to listen to more rambling boredom. We stopped listening and managed to make it to the end where our 'guide' suddenly rematerialised again in the opposite of a magical fashion.

The caves themselves were actually very spectactular and contain the longest stalactite in the world at a lengthy 32m. We might have actually seen it but we couldn't listen to the commentary long enough to find out....or ask our guide as he'd...well you know the rest....

After hitting our guide with my audio thingy (not really) we got back in the car and spent 10 fruitless minutes looking for directions to a colourful viaduct we'd passed earlier. We then drove past it anyway and jumped out to take some pictures.

And then to Grenada and La Alhambra we went. Claire had a great time driving round Grenada in such a wonderful car and there was one point I told her she could go, not realising her foot was actually on the floor. What a car!

We finally made it the car park, parked up and then joined a lengthy queue that didn't move for about 15 minutes. We waited patiently and finally we all surged towards the entrance....but not for long...

We were asked for our tickets, which we didn't have as the sign and hence this queue was pointed towards the ticket office. It's sold out for today we were told. Sold out?!?! It's not like it's a gig in the Sugarmill....it's a sprawling expanse of buildings and environs....it's like turing up to the Basque region of France and being told sorry sir, I appreciate you've come all the way from Timbuktu but why not sod off back there cos you ain't coming in!

And where was the sign saying it was sold out or the warning in either of our guide books telling us that out of peak season on a predominantly dull day in May that there's the chance they may just have sold the full allocation of tickets for the day??

I wasn't happy.

We were told that we could go to the free area round the corner which turned out to mean that we could walk around the outside, yeah cheers mate. But we did anyway and we had a very pleasant stroll through town and it was all very convivial.

On finally making it back to the entrance area we thought we'd ask about tickets and heard the security guy telling someone that you have to be there at 5am the next day to get tickets...hmmm....

And so we headed to Alhama de Grenada which is quite a long way from Grenada along windy...and yes, steep roads. Oh deep joy!

The picture of this place showed white houses teetering atop sheer rock faces but turned out to be about as scary as a weekend in Bognor Regis. If you're going to claim to live on the edge put some bloody effort in! They are more dangerous houses to live in our street in Stoke!

Luckily it was quite a pleasant little place but Sloth (the car) had a torrid time trying to traverse up tiny streets that had inclines too. But we finally found the tourist office and somewhere to park right outside. The unimpressive buildings were right behind and sat all comfortable like with no element of teetering going on. There was a bit of a gorge to walk through which was down and then up a really steep hill so Claire was over the moon.

There were also some abandoned buildings which we took photos of and then walked back up a hill so steep I'm sure we actually looped the loop. Oh and Claire saw a cat or two so she was happy. And while she was messing around with one of them, it gave me an excuse to have a rest as it was halfway up a hill. A cat being useful at last!

We went into the square behind our car and saw some elderly chaps walking up and down the square chatting away. They would then turn round, walk back, turn around....and keep doing that. Not a very exciting life but I guess they're getting some exercise. There were four to start with, then another one appeared and when we came back over an hour later there were NINE of them!

In that time we'd been in one place to get something to eat and walked out again after being ignored, not seeing a menu and seeing the state of the place. I can get ill on my own thank you very much without your help.

We wandered downhill to the main square before wandering back (uphill of course) and finding somewhere to eat right opposite where we'd started out. Two drinks and 10 tapas for €12 was a good deal and it was all very nice too.

By now it was after 8pm and we were a long way from home so we headed off through olive groves, round numerous bends and along autopistas, sometimes touching the dizzy heights of 60mph....thank goodness for downhills!

Tomorrow we have to get up at 5.30am....but more of that tomorrow...

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