February, 2015
On my return from Ronda, I met at the Malaga bus station Carlos, originally from Argentina, but living for the last decades in Andalusia, Spain. We kept in touch ever since and when I told him I wanted to go to Granada, he offered his companionship, which I gladly accepted. Carlos visited Granada on a few other occasions and he was able to guide me the right way, as I had no clue where to go to! So we met at the bus station in Nerja and we drove via the new highway, into the mountains to Granada, which is an enormous city and without Carlos I would have been completely lost. You have to follow the road around the city, direction Jaen and finally take a right into the city. Parking is free at the Shopping Centre “El Campo”. From there you can either take two buses or take a taxi, which will bring you right to the entrance of the Alhambra, our main purpose for the visit of Granada, although there are many more things worth seeing. It is advisable to buy the tickets on line, as even in this time of the year, we were standing in line for more than an hour. Also, there are certain hours that they allow people in. We arrived late in the morning and the next entrance time was 2.00 p.m.
At 6.00 we had to leave again and we needed the full 4 hours to explore all the grounds and the palaces. Carlos had seen the Alhambra on a few more occasions, but he really enjoyed it again, as we took time for every detail during our tour around. There is so much to see and we first let the all Japanese, Chinese and Korean people take all the pictures of each other, in front of every beautiful background and then we had time to take our own pictures, without the whole crowd on it. It is such a special place with beauty all around and even the gardens are well worth exploring.
After closing time, we walked down to the center of Granada and I decided I have to come back once, to discover all the other interesting sides this city has to offer. In one of the many small side streets, we found a Tapas restaurant and enjoyed a well deserved glass of wine and lovely food. After so many hours walking, our legs were giving in……
It was late when we got a taxi to El Campo again, which is closing at 10.00 p.m. I still had to drive back to Nerja and even further, to bring Carlos home. A drive of more than an hour, on a road you are not familiar with and in complete darkness, was tiring. Next time, I would stay for the night and enjoy Granada in the evening hours a little bit more!
