Mark has been keen to visit Granada for months so I’d left all the planning to him. He was keen to stress it was a tootling about place, so he didn’t have my usual long list of sites to see.
Thinking we wouldn’t be too long as it was Sunday and all the shops were shut, we walked the pups with us into the centre, which to be honest is like any city centre with all the same shops…had he forgotten this is the last weekend before xmas and it was bound to be heaving?
We traipsed around, found coffee and thought we would head home for lunch and drop the dogs off before venturing out again. As it happened we took a wrong turn which meant we ventured into the albaicin area with its tightly packed white houses and winding lanes.
This is a much nicer area, and dotted around are fellow travellers selling crafts (though someone shouted police and they quickly scattered).
From the top are wonderful views of the Alhambra (I personally think it looks more impressive from a distance than close up). There is a lovely cafe with views but it’s got tourist prices (€3.50 for an Americano) so we skipped it.
2 hours of wandering and Jasper was tired and glad to get home to the van. We had a quick lunch then pottered out again.
Walking randomly we went down by the river, were told you can’t eat the copious oranges that adorn seemingly all Spanish streets and ended up at the Alhambra. You don’t get the same sense of scale when up close.
Mark also spotted a square named after Joe Strummer so we wandered there and stumbled upon a lovely selection of street art and found a little vegan corner of town where we had a nice locally roasted coffee at Noat Cafe (€1.40).
The following morning we walked down to the river again and popped into a running shop. I’ve been tempted to get some trail shoes as my brook ghosts are looking very worn and aren’t built for the terrain. Turns out trainers are super expensive compared to online (€40 more!), and they only had one pair; a size 6 pair of Inov8 which surprisingly fitted my size 4 feet. Still despite the language barrier I learnt lots about trail shoes. However €100+ is more than I could justify, so we left empty handed and instead treated ourselves to lunch at vegan restaurant called Hicuri which is opposite Noat. The lasagne was average but the carrot cake was quirky and delicious.
Having still not decided where to spend xmas we thought it best to drive to the coast where it would be warmer in the hope of a nice beach walk. Our first stop had glorious views but no beach access so we thought it best to try the next beach along…a nudist beach (my friends will laugh at this knowing my hubby is such a prude).
Perhaps strategically but Mark thought the road access was too steep so we parked at the top and started to walk the pups down before realising it was far too long a walk and would be a nightmare to walk back up. Thus I glimpsed the sea and nothing more, and Mark got to keep his clothes on 🤣
SofaWolves 