Dam it all

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We don’t need an alarm clock to wake us up today. The neighbour’s dog starts yapping at 6am and pretty much doesn’t stop. Hmmm, I thought we came on holiday to get away from people’s noisy pets?

We would like to make a reasonably early start because our next hotel has limited parking options and we’d like to nab a parking spot nearby if possible.

We go down for breakfast and our host greets us. What would we like for breakfast? Well what does he have? All sorts…perhaps an omelette or avocado? Mmmm, yes please. Ian will have a plain omelette and I will have avocado. Tea or coffee? I order two teas. We sit in the guest area and wait.

Half an hour has passed and we are still waiting. Our host appears to be clearing up the kitchen after last nights party. It seems rude but I have ti ask…Will breakfast be long? Yes, he is cooking it but meanwhile everything else is ready fir us in his kitchen table! Oh sorry, I didn’t realise we were to come in here (yesterday when we arrived he had indicated that the kitchen was private territory). No, my fault he says, I forgot to tell you!

OK, so we take our cold cups of tea and some delicious Moroccan pancakes with strawberry jam. I take my avocado and Ian’s eggs are coming soon. Ian’s omelette arrives. It turns out to be four fried eggs! Ian manages two and I help him out with one. The other has to be left.

To be honest, I think the guy was preoccupied with the music event he held last night. Apparently it was an attempt to bring isolated people together from the village. It’s a multi cultural place so he invited people from all different faiths and backgrounds. Really we should have gone down to join in but we thought it was a private party. There is a general air of zen about the place and it’s a good thing he is doing.

Ian goes to collect the car from the parking area. Apparently now full of cars so I guess it’s a daytime use kind of a place. He checks the car over and it’s all still in one piece. Oh and yesterday’s downpour has cleared off the sticky spots from the windscreen. We load the car and we are away.

There are two ways to reach Granada from here. We decide upon the slightly longer route which takes in the new dam and the three bridges. Sadly we decide against going to the three bridges viewpoint as it’s down a long winding single track road including a single track tunnel, neither of which have any passing places. We can do without that kind of stress!

Due to our slow start, we are much later than anticipated and the sun is baking. The dam is interesting and we can see just how dry it has been here as the water levels are very low against the tide marks that we see on the concrete of the dam.

Now we are heading to Granada. We pass the three bridges so, in effect, we have not missed out on seeing them, we just weren’t in that perfect position for photographing all three in the same shot.

A very good road speeds us on to Granada with a small detour to fill up with fuel and pick up a few items from the supermarket. Fortunately there is a junction with both literally off the slip road. Today google maps is behaving itself.

We have reached the turnoff for Granada and I am giving Ian directions off the map. It’s nit too difficult and we manage it with no mishaps. We are required to climb a very steep hill, turn a switchback at the top and them make our way down a steep narrow side road. Our hotel is located about half way down.

there is not a single space to park near the doorway and now we are committed to driving to the bottom as there’s nowhere to turn. The side roads are steep as hell and we don’t want another clutch burning incident! Finally we see a side road where a several point turn might be achieved and then it’s back up the steep hill to the hotel.

Ian parks in an unofficial space and we offload the cases into the hotel lobby. I thrust my iPad at the receptionist and say, I’ll return…nowhere to park! He nods in sympathy, clearly he hears this lament from every other guest that arrives here! Maybe down the next side road, he volunteers?

We continue up the hill. We know there’s a space some distance up as we passed it on the way down. As to the side road, no way on earth are we taking our car down there…it’s practically vertical! I get out and help Ian to manoeuvre as close to the edge as we dare and he folds in the wing mirror. It’s the best we can do.

Now to our room. It’s pretty snug but it’s clean and the bed is a lot more comfortable than the one we had last night. We jumó in the shower and chill out taking our siesta like all the Spaniards do.

It’s 5pm and we emerge for a wander. Our room is on minus two floor (as we are in a steep hill) so we take the lift up to the reception and the terrace area. the views from the terrace are stunning…we can see right over Granada as if we were in an aeroplane.

We walk down to check out the entrance to the Alhambra. We have tickets for tomorrow and we want to be sure where we are going. We reach the Justice Gate. It appears we can go inside a little way as some areas have free entry. The man at the ticket office does nit speak English but it would appear we are allowed in this gate tomorrow. The main entrance is a lot further so this would be better.

It’s finally getting a little cooler and we decide to wander around the free areas as we will need all our strength for the main event tomorrow!

It had been our intention to take a taxi back up the hill to the hotel but as usual there’s no taxi in sight so we end up walking it. Actually it’s not as bad as people were claiming on negative reviews about our hotel. People seem to either love it or hate it. I think it’s because they don’t like climbing hills! From our perspective, the hotel does offer spectacular views over the region, there’s a bus stop right outside and we’ve just witnessed the most spectacular sunset over the city.

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