We were heading north to a town called Almoradi in the Province of Alicante where we had a month long house sit looking after two dogs. We had a fair bit of time up our sleeves, enough in fact for a few days in Granada, an overnight stay in the ski resort of Sierra Nevada and a quick flight back to Malta to continue our quest to finalise Linda’s citizenship application.
Granada came with many recommendations. It is not far inland from Almunecar where we had recently spent a month and could have easily gone there for a day trip but from what we had heard, it deserved a few days. Linda had completed her due diligence yet again in finding us the perfect apartment close to town that provided car parking. When we arrived at the pre-arranged meeting spot late in the afternoon of a very wet and cold day our host was late. The afternoon traffic was manic and I was having difficulty in finding a place to stop without annoying the anxious commuters. I managed to park ‘Spanish style’ on the sidewalk when we noticed a crazy woman standing on a concrete barrier that divided the road, frantically waving her arms! The flamboyant woman ran to my window and broke into a long rant in machine gun Spanish that didn’t sound like good news. The only word I caught hold of was ‘problema’! It was in fact, the woman we were waiting for- Was this going to be our first accommodation stitch up?
We managed to work out that the apartment we had paid for had some sort of plumbing issue which meant we could not stay there. She offered us the use of their more ‘premium’ apartment that was located in the centre of the old town. We were to follow her and her husband through the busy streets to our alternative apartment. Linda kept track of our movement on the gps to make sure we were not being led to the boondocks, but as the streets narrowed in the medieval town we felt assured that we were not being led astray. I was seriously beginning to doubt we were going to have a parking space and had the annoying thoughts of driving out of town to park and get a taxi back, but my worries were negated when we arrived at the building in a lane way that was not much wider than the car. I was instructed to do a twenty odd point turn into a lift that took us to the basement of the building where I had to wrestle with the steering wheel again to put it into our designated space. At this point I was not the slightest bit concerned about what the apartment was like. I was adamant the car was not moving until we were ready to leave town. As it turned out, they were not exaggerating about it being a premium apartment, it was very nice indeed and the central heating was most welcoming.
Granada certainly lived up to its recommendations. It is a beautiful medieval city that dates back to the Moorish occupation and on a few occasions we had to remind ourselves that we were not in Morocco! It was still raining as we were walking the streets looking for somewhere to dine. We found a bar that was reasonably quiet and went in for some drinks and tapas. It became obvious that there were preparations going on for some sort of function and the bar was quickly filling up. It turned out to be the launch of an art exhibition complete with speeches. The crowd was a young ‘arty’ type that were enjoying their evening. A guy arrived with a dog that looked more like a horse and we loved the way the dog just mingled with the crowd (ourselves included) and no one was bothered about it in the slightest – even those that were dining.
The rain had eased the following morning which was good because we had a lot of walking planned including the ‘Alhambra’- a hilltop fortress complex that encompasses royal palaces from the Nasrid dynasty. It really is an amazing city and attracts visitors from all corners of the world. Unfortunately with crowds, come the gypsies. We were wise to them now and ignored their advances but when we saw a woman pulling the ‘rosemary’ scam on a young couple, we had to intervene by stepping in between and warning the couple to make sure they still had their valuables telling the woman to be on her way. She was not amused and was yelling what I wouldn’t mind betting were some pretty derogatory things about me but we were satisfied that we at least saved that couple from being fleeced. It was a nervous walk for the next block or two because they normally work in groups so I was keeping an eye over my shoulder for a while.
Entrance to the Alhambra 
Palacio de Carlos V 
Palacio de Carlos V 
Laurie taking in the atmoshpere 
Beautiful gardens surrounding the Alhambra 
“OH NO YOU DON’T!!!”
We needed to do some shopping as well. We had booked a two week trip to Iceland for January as we had a block of no house sits, so we had to get some suitable snow attire. As Granada is located near Sierra Nevada there were many stores that catered to what we were looking for. We found some ski pants and snow boots that were so affordable it didn’t matter that we had to dump them after leaving Iceland, as we were flying to Morocco for a week afterwards. As I was celebrating our good fortune Linda bought some leather boots with the savings!
After a thoroughly enjoyable time in Granada, we squeezed the car out of the basement and headed up the hill to Sierra Nevada. We thought it would be a good opportunity to try out our new snow gear in preparation for Iceland, and because I just like saying ‘Sierra Nevada’. Neither of us have spent much time in the snow and I’m not a big fan – give me a sunny beach on the Mediterranean any day. As it was just an overnight stay I took control of the accommodation arrangements and found ourselves a guest house just down from the peak. I figured we could drive up to the top, check it out, have some lunch, come down to our accommodation and keep driving the next day. As we were driving up the hill we thought we would check-in and drop our bags off on the way. The approach to the building quickly reminded me why I leave the accommodation booking to Linda. It was a tired looking building with a messy garden and junk all around it with a couple of cars on bricks to complete the picture. While I was looking the property up on my phone to confirm we were at the right place (yes the picturesque view was identical) a woman came to the car to tell us that there was a mistake and it was not possible for us to stay! – we weren’t too upset, a bit relieved actually but we had already paid! I guess it had to happen eventually.
We continued on our way to the ski resort and enjoyed a sunny sub zero day but faced the prospect of having to drive off the mountain to find accommodation. Fortunately, as it wasn’t peak season, we found an apartment that was pretty basic but served the purpose and the view was magnificent. We watched the clouds roll in across the valley and over the mountains, and saw the snow machines on the slopes which were working overtime. The convenient location allowed us to walk to a nearby restaurant in the now blizzard conditions to test our new kit!
Quite a nice visit after all, and after several emails and forwarding of documents to prove we had to stay elsewhere, booking.com refunded us for our unused stay at the “Hillbilly Lodge”.