Sunday (Domingo) 26 Julio - Granada

Granada´s city central (centro) is very tidy. After grabbing a taxi with a chatty cabbie (we managed to have a pretty decent conversation with my limited Spanish - yay, for all that studying!) to the three star Hotel Jean Miguel on Acera de Darro (Puerta Real), I settled into my modest room and went out for my usual survey of the city.

Hotel Jean Miguel was within pretty easy walking distance to most of the shopping and restaurants in Granada central and I was grateful to discover that my three star accommodation affords me a standing shower and en suite - aaah, much as I loved Senora Gordillo´s colourful home, I really enjoy being able to take a hot shower at the end of the day of tourist traipsing :)
(She had a lovely large bathroom, but no shower fixture.)

Back to Granada; the blooms dressing the elegant lampposts here are a rather French touch, and the facades of most of the buildings with their decorated iron balconies and narrow shutters definitely reflect a francophile accent. Walk a little further out from the centre though (as I did later and as usual got lost) and large tracts of the city seemed to be earmarked for upgrading as half streets were plowed up and netting skirted all of the work to protect the relatively oblivious pedestrians - maybe the civil engineers are putting in a light rail or metro?

Anyway, after about two+ hours of walking, I did eventually circle back to my hotel - since dusk only settles in Spain at about 10pm, I pretty much tell myself that if I don´t know where the heck I am by nightfall, I´ll catch a cab.
However, there were loads of families and the senior set walking around (with friends or family or pets - or all three in some instances) so I didn´t feel too exposed as a lost tourist (key, look like you know where you´re going, even if you don´t!) and I managed to find an internet cafe (they seem to double as public multi scale phone booths over here.)

I decided to do some solid research and booked the rest of my Spanish hotel stays (I didn´t want to chance getting into a location with nowhere to rest my weary head) and set up my rooms for Malaga, Cordoba, Toledo, Madrid, Bilboa and Barcelona online with Zuji travel. They had been pretty helpful when I had been looking for my two week stay in Beijing last year, and had found me something central, available and cost-effective during the Games - quite an impressive search engine feat.

I think I´m going to have to take to the roads as well for a few of my travels intercity. While I´ll use rail when I can, coaches have been recommended as being just as good and comparable in time to trains here, and are usually cheaper. (I´ll save the extra dosh for my accommodation.)

My one worry was the stretch from Bilboa to Barcelona. It will be a 7 hour bus ride (6.5 by train) and an minuscule 1 hour by air...but Iberia Airlines seems to be the main airline flying out of the northern Basque city, and after they dropped the ball and delayed my luggage for FOUR days in Seville, you´ll understand if I don´t want to take the chance of the same thing happening on the final leg of my Spanish trip.

So, I´ve just finished breakfast and now it´s off to the Alhambra!

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Wow, am I glad I didn´t try to walk up to this location! I had been pounding the pavement last night trying to get my bearings and see if my hotel was within walking distance to Granada´s famed monument, but since I couldn´t find it (despite seeing signposts on a few of streets pointing vaguely left), I decided to catch a cab instead to save on the sweat and frustration.

I never would have found it on my own.
It´s up a hilly incline and through narrow streets barely open enough to take two cars; but 5 euros later I was in the very well organised ticket entrance to this Moorish legacy with an all encompassing ticket that seems designed to track you wherever you went throughout the estate. (You have to show your ticket to be scanned before entry just about everywhere).

Almost like Disneyland (!) you were given a time stamp as to when you could enter the main Palicio de Nasrid as they only allow about 300 or so people in at any one time to wander through, I guess to not overburden the building and maybe to also allow for decent personal pics not starring a mass of anonymous tourists.

The Alhambra is still undergoing some restoration as it has suffered decades of pillage and decay and an attempt by Napoleon´s troops to blow it up (hah! I knew the French were here at some point); but the exquisite craftsmanship is evident, and the delicate cravings of floral motifs and Arabic script still survive in their bleached beauty, though here and there you can see evidence of painted sections which hint at what this wonder would have looked like under the ruling caliphs of antigua (antique) Spain.

It is an incredibly hot day here today, about 37C; and while I enjoyed wandering through the Yannat al Arif or Generalife, the palace gardens located on the Alhambra´s northern side; I tried to keep in the shade as much as possible and kept dipping my hands in the cool rushing water of the numerous fountains circling through these once upon a time orchards and pastures.
The location is currently set up for Granada´s annual music and dance festival (oh, to see a flamenco show here!) and I can imagine that it would be a fantastical backdrop to showcase some of Spain´s performing artists.

Off to the playa (beach) tomorrow! :) (Not really)

I´m on the bus to Malaga, the port city of Southern Spain.