HR Consul Hotel Granada

... bus to take to the Alhambra, and after a bit of arguing and a lot of waiting, we finally hopped on the correct bus to get us to the site. Tour times for the Alhambra are scheduled for either 9am or 2pm everyday and due to Mom and Torrey's arrival after 9am, we opted to take the 2pm time slot, which meant we waited for another hour before we could gain entrance. Though there was a lot of waiting to be done that morning, it all ended up being worth it once we ...

After two days of walking the beautiful hills of Frigiliana, we made the trip to Granada so that we could see The Alhambra – the Crown Jewel of Andulusia. The bus trip took us through the Sierra Nevada region of Spain on a beautiful sunny day; it took almost three hours to get there and then another short bus ride to the top of the hill. When we arrived, we purchased our tickets and got 2 audio guides in English. We then entered a world that has to ...

... tapas... wonderful. After a few of these, we caught the bus to Bobadilla, which is a 10min walk to the campsite, and conveniently has a typical Spanish (loud men, even louder women serving) bar, where we continued to consume beer and tapas; 4 rounds later, we had spend just Euros 7 per person and felt sated not just Alhambra (the local beer, very good) but the variety of hearty tapas. We walked back to camp for a well earned sleep.

... and roasted peppers. I should mention that Granada is famous for having free tapas, so if you are poor you might as well save your money for a few drinks because each one gets you a free plate of food. We sipped our wine, chomped on our food and listened to the live flamenco performance occuring down the stairs.
The next bar was more of a social bar, designed like some place youd see in texas with cowboy hats, wooden stools and bull horns over the bar ...

... Marie from Minesota who tagged along with us for a few days in Barcelona. The last day we climbed Montjuic and checked out the olympic stadium, the botanic gardens and the palace. We had to catch a chaotic bus ride at 3am and then wait in the airport a few hours for our 7am flight. Unfortuantely I got sick in Barcelona, nothing serious, just a mild throat ache and a cold ...

... definitely time to head towards Granada. The new highway that leads from the coast to the inland is partially constructed - it will be quite the road once done - but, at some point, the new construction ends, and one needs to backtrack a ways to reach the old road (which is not all that small, narrow, windy or shabby...must be EU funds). We had good views of the snows of the Sierra Nevada, which was nice, as well as of the marble quarries, which ...

... if bags are wheeled over cobblestones - not that I did that (if anyone from Antler happens to be reading this). If I had pulled my bag over the cobbles down the hill to the main plaza, then it might have acted as a second wake up call to everyone in the Albaicin district. Wake up call one had been the church bells, accompanied by the howling of the local dogs who appeared to take exception to the church bells.

... greeting was received with a funny look, I guess you arent supposed to actually kiss the cheek of the other person. oh well. After Tours I made my way to the beach, Biarritz France. after two trains and 6 hours of travel I made it, and walked to the hostel, only to find that it would be closed for the next four hours till the reception opened up again. ****. after mulling about for a while outside trying to decide what to do, someone who worked there was kind ...

... a train ride ought to be. I will add that the line is not electric and the smell of diesel exhaust seems to be ever present on this ride. After arrival in Granada, we headed to our hotel and unpacked. On the way to the laundromat a really severe downpour/hail combo hit for about 5 minutes and was gone. After doing laundry (for a record setting price of 16euro), we found another record setting price, Internet for only ...

... sitting down and eating my dad befriended a bold orange kitty which proceeded to enjoy most of my dad's sandwich. Then we headed into the Alcazaba, the oldest part of the Alhambra complex, and climbed the towers and took tons of pictures. Then we headed over to the gardens of the Generalife. They are amazing. The were not at their best due to the time of year we chose to visit. However, this was the time of year ...