The Alhambra Part 2

We then toured the rest of the area and the gardens, many of which were created last century. 

We then walked down the hill to a local restaurant, with tables on a lovely terrace overlooking Granada. 

A superb meal of Olives, Pork Scratchings, Cheese and Ham, Salad Nicoise, Aubergine Chips, Mushroom Mousse, Baked Chicken with potatoes, followed by an unusual Cheese Cake. And beer! 

If you look very closely, you can see odd traces of snow on the Sierra Nevada mountains in the distance:

We then walked down the hill back to the hotel. 

All in all, a good day. 

Granada – The Alhambra

We got a good local guide and a coach to the Alhambra today. It was all very busy with tourists, but well organised with timed tickets so that it never felt that busy. 

We started at Charles I palace – never completed or lived in… 

Then on to the Alhambra itself:

All stunning, and almost too much to take in with a single visit! 

Seville to Granada

The Spanish have apparently run out of money to finish the high speed rail line to Granada, and whilst there are classic trains between the two, we had the joy of a 4 hour coach journey instead..
Very desolate terrain on route, dirt and olive trees mainly.

A quick break on route:

Seville – Wednesday Morning

We were going to visit the Alcazar (a moorish palace and gardens)  this morning, but the entry queues were very long, so we headed to a large park instead. 

A lovely and interesting park – complete with last year’s oranges on the trees. 

Following the route to a geocache, we came across the Plaza de Espania, a purpose built centrepiece for Spanish American World Fair in the 20’s.

A fabulous place, with tiled maps of all the Spanish provinces.

Then back to the park… 

All too soon, it was time to walk back along the river to our hotel. 

Then a quick beer before getting on our coach to Granada. 

Jerez

We got on our coach to Jerez today; a journey that seemed to take forever, but probably wasn’t really that long. Unfortunately, we didn’t have time to really explore the town, but did of course have time for a quick beer. 

Some of the squares in the town are lovely with jacaranda trees. 

We had tickets for a “Horse Show” at the main stables in the town. 

No photos of the show itself were allowed… We didn’t expect it to be the highlight of the week, but watching horses prancing about and pretending to be kangaroos left a bit to be desired!

I’m sure it was really skilled stuff, and that the horses loved it… 

Afterwards, we went to a Bodega (sherry winery) and had a very interesting tour of the barrels, with a good explanation of the process involved. 

This was followed by a sherry tasting and a tapas lunch in a very nice courtyard. 

We then weaved our way back to the coach for the trip back to Seville. 

Weather today: Hot all day with a nice gentle breeze! 

Seville – Monday Evening

We are quite impressed with Seville, lively but not too busy. And very warm, almost like being in the tropics…

We had an organised meal in a nearby restaurant this evening. A fixed menu of 8 different courses; cheese, ham, gazpacho, tuna salad, fried assorted fish, croquettes, pig’s cheek and pudding. All washed down with liberal quantities of wine. All very good.

It was a warm walk back, probably 28° or so.

Seville Part 3

We had a coach from the station to our hotel, and luckily were able to check in early. Then as it was after midday, time to find a beer.

In the afternoon, we had a walking tour of the old part of the city with a local guide. We each had radio receivers and earpieces, which really helped us hear the guide (unless you got too far away!).

The city has a lot of trees and shade – useful in this hot climate.

There also is a lot of moorish architecture in the city:

We visited the cathedral, typical Catholic ‘over the top’

One bonus was that you could climb the bell tower, with good views of the city.

We also visited the Jewish quarter, with many narrow alleys and traffic free squares.

After all that excitement, it was time for a few more beers, then a return to our hotel to get ready for the evening.

Seville Part 2

The long version…

We had a fairly early start in Madrid as despite being in walking distance of the hotel, we had a coach to take us to the station. This took over 20 minutes in the rush hour traffic…

Madrid Atocha station is really impressive. The old train shed has been made into a tropical garden

A welcome change from the usual railway terminus.

The train to Seville was excellent and fast, including a second breakfast that we really didn’t want but ate anyway. It departed on time, arrived on time, and travelled through interesting countryside (the photo doesn’t really do it justice!)