Sunday 25^th May – Almerimar (Granada & The Alhambra)

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When we arrived in Almerimar we wanted to visit Granada and the Alhambra and made enquiries; all advice was to book before you go and, when we tried to do this, it was next to impossible to get tickets before 1 June.  We decided to wing it.  So, this morning we were up before dawn and driving to Granada.  We arrived around 9am after a two hour drive and went straight to the ticket office.  After a wait in the ticket queue, Richard managed to get us tickets and we were off into the Alhambra. 

The whole complex consists of the ‘alcazaba’ (fortress), the ‘alcázares’ (palaces), a small ‘medina’ (city) and the Generalife (another palace just outside the walls).

The only drawback to our tickets was that our entry time for visiting the Nasrid palaces was at 10am (everyone is given a half hour slot for entry that must be adhered to) so our planned picnic breakfast remained sat in the back of the car whilst the four of us headed off quickly to the palace entrance.  Fortunately Carola managed to grab the chocolate croissants so that we could have them after the palace visit!

The weather was quite cool (and felt quite cold at time) but we didn’t mind as it made it easier to walk around enjoying the gardens and palaces of Alhambra.  It’s a very impressive place and well worth the visit - the sculptural decoration is very elaborate in the palaces and the views out across to the Sierra Nevada spectacular.

We left at around 2.30 pm and drove down into Granada itself in search of lunch.  All the restaurants nearby seemed full or shut but we found an Italian restaurant that was open – not exactly typical Spanish but never mind. 

After lunch we decided that we could just about manage the short walk to the cathedral.  When we turned the corner going towards the cathedral, we suddenly passed hundreds of restaurants, all open and even serving Paella which Peter earlier had said he would like – we’d simply walked in the wrong direction - you’ve got to laugh.

We drove home early evening, shattered after a long but enjoyable day.