On a clear day you can see Africa

.....or so we had heard. The Sierra Nevada is Spain's biggest National Park and has 45km of range above 3,000 metres. We got the bus up to a high plain, well above the treeline, 2,700 metres.  Nice views towards the Mediterranean 30KM away and up to Mulhacen. On the way up the guide on the bus had pointed out the, just visible, outline of the Rif mountains in Morocco. The guide by the way was Paco, a local with a wicked sense of humour. He was threatening to throw some Catalans off the bus for contradicting him about the uniqueness of this environment....sub-tropical coastline to high altitude harshness in 30K is fairly unique.

Our plan had been to walk to the Refugio, a hut along the Poquerio valley that hosts our town. However when we saw it started downhill and would be uphill to finish we changed plans and headed up to Mulhacen, Peninsular Spain's highest mountain and Europe's second highest. With Marjan's plantarr fascia playing up, we had no intention of going all the way, more because of the elevation than the distance.

The area is huge and almost treeless. The dark patch at centre left of the photo is a pine plantation to give you and idea of scale.

We got to about the 3,000 metre mark, if my map reading is correct, and stopped for some lunch with views all around.Up and down below. Apparently I am a bad person because I have a high haemoglobin count and did not struggle with breath as Marjan did.  I cannot help being a god in human form.......albeit an old, arthritic god.

On this first photo there are at least 10 people who continued to climb to the top.........helps show the scale.....they are lost, unless I magnify the photo significantly.

The weather, whilst mild was very unforgiving. No shade anywhere, and Marjan decided to wear my pant legs as a fashion accessory. She rocks!

We had lost the butterflies, and blue tinged grasshoppers somewhere on the climb, but we started to see them on the way back. The clouds closest to Marjan are on the Spanish Mediterranean coast, the further ones are on the African coast.....and yes, well below our altitude.

The flora was interesting for it's toughness. We spotted several different species, but all hardy, spiky, ground covers. Six months under snow and three months without water is tough.

We made it down in time to catch the 4PM bus back down the mountain.......the bus is a national parks service so that they can close the high mountain off to cars and motor bikes. By the time it arrived we were glad to get out of the sun......unfortunate for some people who thought they could spend more time up here and had tickets for the 7PM bus....not all could be accommodated....they looked very forlorn as we left them up here.

On the way down, without the interest of the new environment, Marjan noticed how narrow and unmade the road was...and how close to the edge the wheels got......it was a little tense.

An afternoon dip, refreshing, and a nice dinner followed. I have to tell you about dinner. We decided to treat ourselves a little, and eat at a proper restaurant rather than a bar. I ordered a mixed sausage grill as an entree, expecting 3 or four mini sausages. That was the first mistake. They brought out a tray with 12 mid-sized sausages. I forced myself to eat the 6 morcillas, and a couple of others. Marjan and I looked at each other as our pork skewer main came out and we realised that we could have fed 4 people easily on one entree and two mains. Luckily our hotel was downhill, as we rolled back and are currently contemplating never eating again....till tomorrow.

The high country

We left Granada after a leisurely breakfast. The road quickly became mountainous. We were skirting the Sierra Nevada and heading into it. The aim being to get up into the high country tomorrow.

The haze was a bit of a problem for the scenery, but more importantly the steep roads had Marjan clenching every clenchable muscle...as well as keeping me tense with her sotto voce cursing of darned Spanish mountains.

We soon got a look at the villages we were headed for. We stopped for a cuppa and a bit of a shop at the first one, Pampaneira. We had our normal wander about as well.

Back to the windy roads to Capileira. At about 1450 metres it is the highest town in this part of the world. A really lovely village. We settled in and had a dip in the pool, before having a bite and a wander. Today was a bit of a rest day, so just walking around the village was enough, Even up here the agriculture continues, and uses the Roman water systems, improved by the Arabs.

We booked tickets on the bus to take us into the national park and drop us on on the high plain, about 2,300 metres (higher than Kosziousko), from there we can choose a number of walks. We will NOT, I repeat NOT, be climbing to Spanish mainland's highest mountain , Mulhacen, at about 3,500, but some on the bus will. You can just make it out through the haze

A long day in Granada

So with no booked tickets for La Alhambra, I rose at six had a quick shower and trotted off in the dark to get some tickets. There were already 35 people in front of me at 6:40am, in the credit card line a whole other bunch in the cash line. Still the early morning paid off and I got two morning tickets with a 12:30 entry to the Nazarine Palace.....the Wow bit.

Back to the hotel for breakfast with Marjan, and off we set about nineish. For those of you who do not know the Alhambra is a complex of palaces, gardens and buildings from the final days of Islamic Spain. Started in the 10th century over a Roman ruin, it reached its zenith under the caliphate of the Nazarines in the 12th and 13th century. When the rest of Europe was in the dark Ages this was a flowering of Islam in Spain. Anyway we started at the Generalife, the private retreat for the royals from the court. Quiet places, the sound of water everywhere and symmetry an almost mandatory component. I loved the Escalera del Agua (waterway stairs) where the water flowed inside the u-shaped balustrade.

We then checked out the other buildings, the baths, christian church, Palace of Charles V (two later additions), the Alcazaba (the original fortification), and enjoyed the views they each afforded. Luckily our hotel was in the grounds....it is actually a building of that period, but not restored to original state.....as we had a private toilet a nice morning refreshment before heading out again.

We finally got in to the Nazarine Palaces for the Wow factor. It is hard to explain or to show the effect this has. It is very crowded and you are basically kept moving through as the 1PM group will be coming soon. However it is a wow place, the water, symmetry and amazing decorative architecture were taken to amazing levels.I was most touched though by the woman reading the Arabic inscriptions. She said it was hard in parts but she could still read the poetry. Nothing I could do on a first visit could do it justice. Many visits and many fewer people, and perhaps I could show you something of the beauty.

By 2PM we were spent, and it was about 39. We headed back to the hotel and actually slept for a bit and felt much better for the rest. We wandered don the hill through the Alhambra forest and into the Albaicin (Arab) part of town. We were aiming for one of the miradores (lookouts) on the hill across the valley, so that we could catch the Alhambra in the afternoon/evening light. Nice climb..........Marjan was looking daggers at me, and it was still hot. The first Mirador looked out from the city rather than in....a disappointment, apart from the fact that there was a nice plaza and a bar serving very cold refreshments. We were not the only ones in need....a very pale Irish family were gasping when they got there, with Mum quite grumpy.

Luckily the second mirador was across the hill....and the views....to die for. Also we had some free entertainment from a local flamenco busking group. We listened for a while a noticed a bar just below with basically the same views, so........two summer reds (tinto de verano ....a combination of red wine, lemon squash and ice) and some zucchini chips with honey and we were ready for another bout of flamenco.

Eventually though, we wandered down the more direct route. An interesting vignette was the young Spanish family, child about 3-4 struggling up the hill and whining. Dad pulled him in by his hat, looks down sternly and says in a very cross voice "Now you know what you have to do during the afternoon rest! Sleep!"

Walked through a really narrow street, that brought forth thoughts of Arabic bazaars. Keyne could spend a week here, even if it was just to laugh at the Granada boomerangs. They did have some interesting crafts, and spices and foods, and.........but all that bracing on the downhill had made us thirsty.....so another tinto de verano.....and we were in the part of town where they serve tapas with drinks, so some meat balls, and we ordered croquetas and a coke...so out came the croquetas....and some octopus. The Ecuadorian bar tender was lovely, and we had a nice chat, so he gave us some toasted ham as well. All up $12.

It was well into the evening, the weather had cooled a little and the bus back up the hill was almost empty....we were dead on our feet, but possibly one of our best days. We did have time to download a copy of Washington Irving's 'Tales of The Alhambra' to read during the trip.

By the way, I updated yesterday's blogs with some pics.

Arrrggghhhhhh!

This is going to be brief........and sans photos....more on that in a bit

We started the day with another flying visit to the Mezquita. A little more crowded on a Saturday, but still amazing. I think I have a photo that might get closer to my ideal than before, but.........

Got to our car, only to discover that our luggage would not fit in the back of the micro Echo we had hired.  OK,OK......I finally succumbed to a car company upsell. Not huge but galling. The upside is that it had a GPS so we did not have to rely on Google.

Got out and managed to see Cordoba from many new and interesting angles. Firstly I lost faith, temporarily, in the GPS when it told me to turn left over a pedestrian mall, then we had a call for a left turn very late when I was in the right lane on a busy section, then it told me to take a slight left.....there were two.....yep wrong one.......so after we finally got on the right road and headed to Granada, Marjan yells out Cordoba this way and I obeyed........of course Cordoba was that way....we had been there......so back over the river for another new view.......All good fun.

We did make it to Zuhero for lunch, we are tourists that lunch. The drive through the country was interesting as it was so different to Iceland. Dusty olive groves everywhere. Zuhero is a lovely little village, perched on a hillside with a 10th century Arab castle on the top. We got lost walking from the public parking at the bottom of the hill, and ended up walking up more hill than was strictly necessary.....calves of steel! The littl plaza was perched next to castle and was serving food, soooo.......deep fried pork filled with jamon is hard to resist. These little towns will feature on the rest of our trip.

But first to the big smoke, Granada, in the shadows of the snowy range, La Sierra Nevada, it houses the Alhambra, which we have not yet seen.

The GPS was doing a sterling job, until we got within about 800 metres of our hotel. I thought it would be lovely to book accomodation inside the Alhambra historic grounds........nice idea, but getting in proved interesting. The GPS told me to take a left into some gardens, I refused. We went around again and tried a different approach. I was on the other side of the hill but more confused.

Finally I bit down and asked for advice from another hotel. He DID admit that the sign for our hotel WAS very small, and faced the wrong way for most people, and it did involve us doing a U turn into a manned checkpoint....so really it was understandable, but we were a little frustrated, by the time we got to the hotel.

The reception folk were lovely and sat us down with a cool drink whilst they did the paperwork and all was going swimmingly....until I discovered I could not locate my glasses, I had my sunglasses but it was hard to see indoors. We searched high and low and wondered how we could have lost them. On a fourth search of the car, we finally found them slid under the centre console....more hot frustrated Melbournian.

To avoid more frustration, rather than driving the car back out of the Alhambra to find a car park, I paid as few extra sheckles for valet parking. Yep we were happy about that part of the day.

After checking in I thought I would ask about good times to visit the Alhambra Palaces. The hotel person looked at me with a worried look. Apparently booking in advance is almost a must. We tried booking by Internet, they did not accept overseas cards, we tried by phone, no luck, we rushed off to the ticket office, no they only sell on the day.....and you had better be  queued by seven! We tried a tourist shop touting tickets....they had primo ones for next week!

Defeated we wandered down into town and did our normal aimless wandering around the old quarter, with views up to the Alhambra. It seemed to be wedding day, we saw at least three separate ones going on this afternoon. The last at the cathedral with the reception at the Alhambra. Nice town.......oh yeah, we found some time for some tapas.

Not being able to face the climb back up the hill, we caught the bus. Marjan went to the room to rest her aching feet, I wandered around the lovely grounds for a while......trying to mooch a free drink at the wedding reception.....to no avail....best I got was a blown bubble bursting on my cheek.  The place seems to be full of cats when the people start to leave.

When I got back, I started my routine.....recharge batteries, back-up photos, write blog.......the bag with the cables, rechargers, power adapters et al was packed with the winter suitcase....the winter suitcase is in the car.....the car has been valet parked......... god knows where.......hence no photos, no recharge of camera batteries, no recharge of PC or phone ....... AAAARRRRGGGGGHHHHHH!!

Just another day on the road. Bye from a happy but tired pair!