Wonderful Granada

The last port of call on my trip to Spain, other than Malaga to catch the plane home, was the magnificent city of Granada. Justifiably famous, of course, as the site of the stunning Moorish Alhambra Palace, Granada is a beautiful city even without this jewel in its crown.

Arriving after a journey of around four hours from Algeciras, the last leg of which was completed by bus due to track maintenance on the railways I set about trying to find my hotel.  The train station is a bit out of town but a helpful dude there told me which bus to get to the  Cathedral bus stop on the central Calle Gran Via de Colon, right in the heart of the city.

From here it was fairly easy to get my bearings so I set off to find my hotel and get rid of the rucksack before setting out to explore some of the city.

Hotel Suecia (the rather ironically named Sweden Hotel).

Receiving a very warm welcome from the delightful lady who runs the place I was taken up to my room which proved to be exceptionally comfortable, had a quick shower and set off into town with more directions bouncing around in my head than someone with a limited knowledge of Spanish should have.

Taking a slight detour from the way I had come I found some nice tapas bars just behind the main street and, making a mental note of my whereabouts, headed for the central area again.

Coming along to the Plaza Isabel la Catolica (apparently Izzy was a catholic – big shock in Spain!) I set off up to the right towards the town hall and the area beside the river Darro which lies in the valley between the Alhambra on one side and the old district of Albaizin on the other.

Ayuntamiento de Granada (Granada city hall)

Iglesia de Santa Ana (church of Santa Ana)

The Church of San Pedro y San Pablo with the Alhambra on the hill above.

An ancient bridge over the river Darro.

Paseo del Darro.

Having wandered around for a couple of hours I was getting a bit peckish by now so I went back down past the City Hall to where there was any number of tapas bars and indulged in some cerveza and chorizo to pass the time before the next installment of the day’s activities.

With the temperature feeling like it was still in the high three hundreds I decided to take the coward’s way out and get a bus up to the viewpoint on the hill of Albaizin which overlooks the Alhambra.  This only took a few minutes and soon I was up at the Mirador de San Nicolas, a viewpoint beside the San Nicolas church on the hill, which overlooks the Alhambra on the other side of the valley.

By this time the sun was beginning to get quite low in the sky behind us and was casting a lovely golden glow over the palace opposite.  So, I had to take a couple of snaps of the Alhambra with the Sierra Nevada mountains in the background as the evening finally grew a bit cooler.

Mirador de San Nicolas

Some fellow tourists taking their shots of the Alhambra.

The Alhambra glowing in the evening sun.

Panorama of the Alhambra and the Sierra Nevada.

Alhambra towers and mountains.

Alhambra Palace.

With that done it was back down into the city through some of the back streets of the Albaizin district and a return to the tapas bars I had spotted on my way into town, near the hotel, for some well-earned cerveza and some more of that delicious Spanish tapas.

Albaizin back streets.

Albaizin streets full of tourist wares.