Granada

Granada

A 3 hour train ride and we were out of Seville and in Granada. After checking in to our hotel, we filled our bellies with some tapas (mussels, anchovies with vinegar, tortilla, pimentos) and a large plate of salad.. Yum!! We're constantly amazed how good salad actually seems to taste after so much rich and oily food. We strolled around the city, chilled out at the hotel then we went out for drinks & free tapas for dinner. Bars in Granada give out free tapas with every drink. The only other city we've been to that does this consistantly is Leon.

Day 2: Valentines Day

We had organised tickets for the Alhambra a few weeks earlier, as we were told that it would be hard to get tickets on the day at the door. The main reason we came to Granada is to see the Alhambra. Unfortunately I (Michelle) had a date with the toilet bowl the night before and all day on Valentines Day, so i was tucked in bed at the hotel to vomit my guts out while everyone went to check out the Alhambra. But i did get lots of reflexology foot massage and a narrated video of the Alhambra to make me feel a bit better. Still.. a pretty average way to spend Valentines day...

The Alhambra
The Alhambra was a Moorish royal palace back in the 14th century and is going to take up at least half of your day! We arrived at 11am and didn't leave till 4pm and that was moving through pretty quick. We pre purchased our tickets with a reserved our Nasrid palace entry time so all I (Blake) had to do was swipe my credit card on the machine and out they popped. Far better than standing in the queue for half an hour! The three of us got audio guides and started our treck. The Nasrid Palaces were definitely the highlight along with the Alcazaba and the Generalife palace.

Nasrid Palace

view from the lookout tower in the Alcazaba

The Generalife gardens an Palace

Day 3

Thank goodness I was feeling much better today, because we had booked in for a bath session in the Arab bath house. I missed out on the Alhambra but at least i had a photo with it.

We had some spare time before the baths so we decided to stroll around and get a proper look at the Alhambra from Mirador de San Cristobal. There were musicians singing & old ladies flamenco dancing in the square and the sun was out which gave the place a great vibe. We had lunch at the nearby square then made our way back down the hill, ready for our Bath session.

Hamman time: We sort of forgot that Aileen (Blake's mum) is claustrophobic.. but she managed to stay in the bath the whole time, and we're glad she did. This bath house is way better than the one we went to in Seville. Less people in the session and the baths were a lot nicer. Blake, Aileen and I had the traditional exfoliating scrub + massage while Dave had the 30 minute massage. We came out feeling so clean, and our skins were as smooth as the proverbial baby's bottom .

We finished off our trip to Granada with more tapas for dinner: tapas; salad; trifle cake dessert. We also had grilled squid which was very nice, and Blake had lots of free jamon

xoxo M&B