Tour de Andalucía, Parte 2

Okay, one more!
After hanging out in Cádiz Monday through Thursday so I could “work” (I’ll explain the need for those “ “ marks some other time…), we headed off to Granada, one of the most bragged about cities in Andalucía … or maybe it just seems that way to me because Rosa is from G. and has an extremely high opinion of just how amazing the city is. Despite all this build up and my somewhat inflated expectations, I’m happy to say my I was still impressed with the city and had a fun escape away from the beach to the mountains! We got there Thursday night, so we weren’t able to see too much of anything, but we had time to wander around the city a bit the following morning before going up to the Alhambra for our afternoon ticket entry. That’s right, there are so many tourists who come to see the Alhambra each day that it’s necessary to book tickets in advance and sign up either for the morning (8:00-2:00) or afternoon (2:00-8:00) visiting sessions. I find Lisa’s description of it as a playground/amusement park for adults to be pretty appropriate. Reasons why:
1. The long line you have to wait in forever before entering
2. You really should probably have a map to efficiently navigate from one part to the next (we didn’t).
3. There are new and exciting things around every corner… intricate architecture, beautifully painted tiles, expansive green gardens, oh my!
All kidding aside, it was a really cool place to get to visit and I don’t really have a lot of words to explain everything. I’ll put up the pictures I have of it (and the rest of my recent travels) when I have a little more inspiration… the one downside of our visit is that we had icky weather for it – clouds and intermittent rain do not make for the prettiest of views or the best of pictures, but oh well, not a whole lot we could do to change it!

Fortunately, the rest of our days there were much nicer (i.e. sunny and spring-like), so it made wandering around the Albayzin (one of the old Moorish neighborhoods) and the view of the Alhambra with the Sierra Nevada mountain range in the background quite nice. Other things we saw/did while there include: seeing the cathedral where the Reyes Católicos (i.e. Isabel and Ferdinand) have their mausoleum, going on a tour of this obscure little convent with an unintentionally hilarious tour guide (not anything you’ll ever find in Lonely Planet or any other guide book, but so worth the 5 euro), enjoying some delicious free tapas (as in they come automatically when you order a drink), and relaxing on a park bench in the completely un-touristy and wonderful Parque García Lorca a little outside the city center.

Come Sunday, it was time to head back to Cádiz, go to school on Monday during the day, then go hang out in Sevilla for a night and day so Lisa could catch her flight back to Germany the following afternoon.

Whew! I guess I actually have been kinda busy over the last while! This weekend I am definitely staying here in Cádiz and hopefully going to enjoy some relaxing beach time if the weather holds out! Hasta luego!