An Unplanned Year

The day after arriving in Europe we headed off toward Ronda and Grenada.

The initial section was bendy, windy mountain roads…an easy choice for the first day driving on the wrong side of the road in a new car!

We made it to Ronda, probably a bit later than we otherwise might have, but  we did indeed arrive. Found the optimal viewpoint for the Puente Nuevo bridge, then continued on to Granada.

Granada

With the Sierra Nevada mountains looming, snow covered peaks and all, we found our way to a Carrefour and bought some groceries for dinner and a few other things we will need this year.

We then negotiated the incredibly tight streets to our accommodation. Now we’re ready for visiting Alhambra tomorrow.

Alhambra

We walked up a 1000 step staircase on our way from our AirBNB to Alhambra today. Ok, maybe it was only about 150 steps straight up, and then the steep road, but our legs argue otherwise!

Alhambra was really interesting, especially to learn most of it was either rebuilt or redecorated in the last 200 years!! (Napoleon’s army did some looting) Doing a guided tour was definitely a plus. Also the only way we could get entry at short notice!

We visited the fort,

the palaces

and Generalife (not pronounced “general life”, but “henera-leefa” which basically means ‘planned garden’) the sunmer palace of the kings.

After about 4 hours of walking and steps, we needed some food so stopped at a Cafe for lunch of Iberico ham and croquettas, followed by a piece of Granada cake. Yum.

Then it was back down the hill and the 1000 step staircase!

Heading to Seville tomorrow.

Seville

Did a bit of back-tracking and headed to Seville. Largely uneventful drive aside from heavy fog – about 50m visibility- that appeared out of nowhere and ended a few km later.

Decided it was wise to pull over and learn the headlight controls, which we did a bit later. Arrived in Seville and stopped at a sports store to buy some beach towels and water shoes, then at a grocery store to buy some food for breakfast, lunch and dinner whilst here.

Made it to our AirBNB parking garage (missed a turn and had to do a giant loop back to it), then managed, with the help of our host, to get the car into that garage, down a ramp that required a 5pt turn to align the car, the mirrors retracted and then micro adjustments to prevent the car hitting the walls on either side. There was literally a couple of cm either side, so no room for error. Will get a photo on exiting! Once the car was in the garage it was fine and today’s stressor was over.

This evening we went to a flamenco show. It was fabulous, we both loved it, it was worth every penny! Could it be any more Spanish than Flamenco with Sangria and Tapas?

Today we had a little bit of a lazier morning, then headed out about 10 to walk along the Rio Guadalquivir to the Torro del Oro where the gold and cinnamon used to be stored when arriving on ships before it was spirited away to the Real Alcázar (King’s palace).

At that time cinnamon was worth more than gold.

We then went to meet our guide for a tour of the Seville Cathedral and Giralda Tower.

After that tour we had a hot drink and a bite to eat, then went to the Flamenco Museum. After that we met our guide again for a tour of the Real Alcázar.

After a day of walking we heading back towards our accommodation. Our feet were fairly sorry by this time, so an emergency beer stop was made, purely in the interests of health obviously.

Off to Portugal tomorrow.