Granada

Saturday 9th February,

Our main purpose of the day was to visit The Alhambra in Granada. We were advised by the guide books that you must book as there are a limited number of tickets issued each day and the Palace was one of Spain's top tourist attractions. It was another beautiful sunny day. We as always, took the scenic route, from Cabra through Lucena and Iznajar. The area was hilly, full of olive groves and with grey rocks but Iznajar was stunning with a beautiful reservoir. We stopped for a coffee and phoned our respective mothers; we had now formed a habit of phoning each Saturday morning and then we ventured our way onto Granada. While Mike parked the van I went up to the ticket office and find out that there were 450 tickets left for the afternoon session which was only two hours away. I queued up and despite the sun froze waiting for the queue to diminish. Nearly an hour later we had our tickets and still 30 minutes to wait we ate some fruit, crisps and the all famous Spanish "Creme Caramel" -  all Mike could find in the van, to keep us going. We were let in at 2.00 pm although we could not get into the Palace Nazaries until 3.00pm. So we first explored the Garden of Generallife.

  

This was beautiful and enchanting.

 The summer gardens of the Sultans, where there were many shaded patios all connected with running water and fountains. From there we walked to the Alcazab which is the main fortress. Mike moved a barrier so I could take a photo of the mountains. With the barrier removed other visitors to the palace followed us and thus we created an unauthorised part of the Alhambra tour (oops!). At 3.30pm we queued again to gain entrance to the Palace Nazaries. This was as good as we had both anticipated. Regrettably there were many people viewing at the same time but the place was absolutely stunning. Full of detail and history. You could feel what life was like for the Sultans and their families. We were both very cold by the time we finished our visits so we headed back to the van for tea and toast with honey. We then deliberated what to do next, as we had gained a day.  Finally we agreed to boldly go into the Sierra Nevada, into the snow with the van, a climb of 3,500 meters to the top.   

  

We had been admiring the mountains all day and we knew there was an Aire up there. There was only one road up and one road down and it was very treacherous with sheer drops and no barriers in many places added to the fact Mike was driving a right hand drive vehicle which caused its own judgement difficulties when we were so close to the cliff edge. Fortunately we managed to reach the top and just find a space to park up the van. It was quite surreal with the snow many feet higher than we were all around but the views were well worth it especially when the sky turned pink as the sun set. We settled down to what was a very cold -3 night. It was still freezing when we got up.  Jacqui went to explore this small ski resort while Mike prepared the van for the dwonhill journey.  it was a beautiful day and already people were to the lifts with their skis and many cars were beginning to arrive.  The place was slowly coming alive with the passionate skiing fraternity.  it was only a small ski resort but there were many small apartments.  The air was cold, fresh and crisp.  There is nothing like it.  Our plan for the day was to head down the mountain safely back to the coast.  we stopped on route to access wifi and identify some camping spotsand to skype Millie but it was a poor signal.  We filled up with gas and Jacqui took a turn driving and we set of for Aluminicar on another scenic route which took us to the western end of the Sierra Nevada. I dont think Mike realised  how precarious the drive was going to be when he asked if I wanted to drive.  i was stuck in 2nd gear limited to 30kph for about 40K.  The scenery was dramatic with huge gorges out of limestone. I really had to concentrate quite hard.  We arrived at a non descript campsite but we needed to book in as Jacqui needed decent wifi to work.