Malaga - Meeting more friends

Malaga was our next stop after Gibraltar. We were to meet up with a friend (Agostino, who was volunteering in Malaga, he is originally from Italy) we had met in Morocco whilst in a pension in Fes. He very kindly offered to put us up for a couple of nights at his place, which he shared with a couple of other people; a girl from Holland and a girl from Newcastle.

We arrived in Malaga in the afternoon through trusty blablacar again, and made our way to his apartment, which is very close to the train station and bus station. We were shown into his apartment by one of his housemates, the girl from Holland. We then relaxed for a bit until Agostino came home from work. We had a nice catch up with him before he showed us around the local area; where we could buy food and some of the things nearby.

A night out with friends

We then headed back to the apartment to meet with his last housemate from Newcastle, called Jen. She was very friendly and talked about what she had been doing in Spain and how she had learnt Spanish from scratch, it was very interesting. We then later went out with her and Agostino to explore Malaga by night. They told us all about the different tourist attractions that were nice to see and some nice lesser known spots as well, whilst showing us around Malaga city centre.

The cathedral located in the city centre

We went to a couple of bars to have some drinks and tapas too, by far our preferred of the two was the second one where you got some really cheap drinks and you could order some big tapas for just 1 Euro! There we also met up with another girl we had met in Morocco who was with Agostino at the time, Maria, who was with her brother and his wife. We had a nice evening with them before all heading back later on to bed.

Our second day in Malaga was fairly action packed as we tried to squeeze in as much as we could. We saw the famous one towered Cathedral, which has several myths as to why it only has one tower, some sounding very outlandish. One of my favourites was that the money for them was gambled away. We also visited Picassos birthplace and saw a small museum dedicated to him and some of his very early works, as he only lived in Malaga for a very short period of time.

Carmen sitting on Picasso's knee

We also visited the Alcazar and castle in Malaga, both of which are perched atop the same hill with some lovely views out over the city and onto the seafront. We were also able to see the bullring from atop the hill as well.

The view from atop the hill over the port

The final place that we visited in Malaga was the Roman theatre ruins, which I must say were a lot better than the ones we saw in Cadiz earlier in the week. They were well preserved and had a lot of really interesting information at the site to tell you about its history. As an added bonus the ruins are right in front of the Alcazar walls, which really give it a nice setting.

Roman Theatre with Alcazar walls in the background

After a long day of looking around we headed back to the apartment and had a quiet relaxing evening and an early night as we had to be up the next morning for another blablacar to our next destination; Cordoba and the Cruz de Mayo festival!

Gibraltar - Back on British Soil

Having left Canos de Meca we made a short trip to a little village called Vejer de la Frontera. We had a nice Spanish music teacher pick us up from the side of the road to save us walking about 10km. On arriving we had a little explore of the village, which apparently has been voted one of the most beautiful villages in Spain. The village incorporated with medieval walls and other buildings, with little winding streets, all set on top of a hill, it was easy to see why it had gained that accolade.

Fountaun in the main square in Vejer de la Frontera

Unfortunately, we were only making a short stop in the village as we had a bus to catch to take us to a place in the very south of Spain called La Linea de la Concepcion. The reason we were heading there was not actually to see the town of La Linea but to in fact visit an entirely different country that is located right on its doorstep. The country in question; Gibraltar!

Visiting Gibraltar was an interesting experience for us both. Firstly because of some very "tight" border control, secondly because of the language difference, and thirdly because, we were technically back on British soil! So how did it feel to be back on British soil? Well let me first tell you a little bit about Gibraltar before I give you my opinion.

Gibraltar is a British overseas territory. What this means is that all natives of Gibraltar will have a UK passport and will attend schools that are structured the same as in the UK and the official language is English, and the currency used is pounds (although they are Gibraltan pounds, which although they have the same value as the UK pounds, they cannot be used in the UK). Apart from this, Gibraltar is self governed.

Getting into Gibraltar is a tough task indeed (I will highlight here that I am using sarcasm), at least by foot anyway. Firstly you have the onerous task of finding where the border is (huge signs and a rather gigantic rock sticking up 400+ metres into the air. Secondly you then have to get past the strict Spanish border guards, who briefly glance up at you if you are lucky, as you walk past with passport in hand, in a continuous stream of people. Finally you then have to go past the Gibraltan border control, where they don't even bother to look at you as you walk past!

We have entered Gibraltar!

Once in Gibraltar you see things that remind you of being in the UK, like the policeman and the red telephone boxes and things written in English, and English shops and restaurants advertising fish and chips everywhere! But apart from this you would not feel like you were in the UK at all. In a way, it feels like being in a subtropical UK with hot temperatures, not a cloud in the sky, clear blue waters and lots of barbary apes. Even the language isn't really English, (although they all speak it perfectly) at least when locals speak to each other. It is in fact a language based on Andalusian Spanish with a strong influence of British English and elements of many other languages. They call this language Llanito. I found it very disconcerting to hear it spoken as one minute you are following the conversation whilst the next you are utterly confused!

Aside from all my sarcastic remarks about Gibraltar, we really did enjoy ourselves very much there (we only visited for one day). It is a very small place, where I think if you were to try and see everything comfortably, without any rushing you would probably need a maximum of two days. The highlight of Gibraltar certainly being the Rock (the very original name given to the big rock that sticks up 400+ metres into the air, right in the middle of Gibraltar). From on top of The Rock you have fantastic views south across the Gibraltar Strait to the North African coast, stunning views to the north of mainland Spain, and great views to the west of Algeciras and the southern tip of Spain; Tarifa.

View towards Spain from the top of the Rock

The views however are not the only attraction of The Rock. You can easily spend the whole day up on the rock just walking around and exploring the different paths and trails through the protected reserve. We infact walked on a beautiful trail that circled around the south side of the rock and met several people coming the opposite way to us, who looked exhausted from the hike up the cliff face.

Walking on the Rock face trail

My favourite highlight of the Rock was the cave of St. Michael, which is the most famous of the 150 caves in the upper nature reserve of the Rock. The first man (prehistoric) to have set foot in the cave was dated back to 40,000 BC! There are also several legends associated with the caves, one being that the ancient greeks thought they were the Gates of Hades, an entrance to the Underworld. This was due to the fact that the Rock of Gibraltar was believed to be one of the Pillars of Hercules. The cave now is not only used as a tourist attraction, but also an auditorium where live events are performed due to the caves natural acostic properties.

Auditorium inside the cave of St. Michael

We also visited the war tunnels from the 1700s that were constructed because of the war between Spain and Britain to recapture Gibraltar after it had been given away to Britain in a treaty in 1713. Here cannons were installed to fire upon the Spanish invading forces, but additionally they were constructed for protection as well.

Inside the war tunnels

The last highlight that we saw on the Rock were the famous Barbary apes (Barbary Macaque). Found only in North Africa and Gibraltar. The apes (although they are actually monkeys) are quite the mischevious creatures, who will quite often steal tourists hats off of their heads and food off theirs plates, or even out of their hands. There are even signs up to warn people of this danger! Luckily for us we did not encounter either of these problems.

Barbary Macaque sitting on the wall

It was a long day in Gibraltar, but a very enjoyable one, and as an added bonus we finally found some peanut butter!!!  (PS: I apologise for the long post)

One last view from the Rock

Canos de Meca - A reunion with Team Gustav

Our next stop on our exploration of Spain was a little place called Canos de Meca. Leading up to our arrival in Canos de Meca we had been looking forward to it quite a bit. The main reason for this being that we would be meeting up with some old friends of ours that we had met whilst travelling around Morocco. We wanted to surprise them, so we did not let them know that we were coming to visit them.

El Alquimista Loco from the outside

We arrived in Canos de Meca in the late afternoon/early evening, and we went straight to their bar, which they named, El Alquimista Loco (The Crazy Alchemist). When we entered the bar we found a seat and sat down. Bianca then came from the bar to take our orders thinking we were another couple of customers and was very surprised to see us. After saying hello and hugs all round, we had a couple of beers and some food and had a brief chat as she was very busy. This was all before Matteo arrived, as he had been in Sevilla for the day with his family who had come to visit them for a few days. When he arrived back from Sevilla and came into the bar, he was even more shocked to see us than Bianca and there were more hugs and kisses all around. We stayed at the bar some more to chat with them whenever they had a spare moment before retiring for an early night in the pension behind the bar, as we were very tired.

Bianca and Matteo working behind the bar

The next day we left our bags at the bar and went for a trek south of Canos de Meca along the top of the cliffs towards a place called Barbate. There were some truly stunning views along the way and we saw some lovely sandy beaches with clear blue waters which were deserted. (We were later told that during high season though these beaches are packed) . We kept trekking until we reached a tower on top of the cliff that overlooked the ocean, with again some lovely views. We then headed back and spent the evening at the bar until Matteo gave us a lift to their place to sleep for the night.

Stunning views over the cliffs

For our last day in Canos de Meca we went to a market that Bianca had told us about just out of town that had a lady who sold Moroccan bread. This we thought was too good an opportunity to pass up as we had loved the Moroccan bread a lot. At the market we bought some of the Moroccan bread, although we had to pay an outrageous price for it. Admittedly it was worth it after we had half of it for lunch!

Faro de Trafalgar

Our afternoon then consisted of a trip to the beach where we relaxed for a bit, and tried to go in water. Unfortunately the water was a tad on the cold side so we decided to just sit on the beach instead.  We also made a trip to the bar in the late afternoon as well to have a nice crepe and Moroccan mint tea to relive Morocco again. Once evening came around we went to visit the Faro de Trafalgar (lighthouse) to see the sunset. (An interesting fact here that not many people may know is that this is in fact the location where the battle of Trafalgar took place). After seeing the sunset we went back to the bar as they had a DJ that night and it was our last night so wanted to spend more time with Bianca and Matteo. It ended up being a nice night, but unfortunately we had to head to bed to get up early in the morning to leave.

Sunset on the beach

We hope that we will be able to see the pair of them again sometime, but until then we wish them all the best with their bar and hope business stays good. If anyone ever goes to Canos de Meca be sure to look their bar up!

Cadiz - The Oldest city in Spain

Cadiz was a short visit as we were passing through. Luckily it is a small city, which allowed us to look around most of it in within a day. Cadiz was one of the cities in Spain that I was looking forward to the most when first planning to visit Spain. However, since coming to Spain other places have really surpassed my expectations, and unfortunately Cadiz did not turn out to be one of them.

We arrived in Cadiz about 11am after getting the train from Jerez (only just catching the train 2 minutes before it left!). Carmen was very impressed with her first experience on a Spanish train and was very excited and happy (she is a big fan of trains if you hadn't realised by now). The trains were very modern, with lots of added extras for passenger comfort including: plug sockets for every passenger, coat hangers by the seats, and fold away tables. It felt very upper class!

Carmen looking very happy on the train to Cadiz

 The vast majority of attractions in Cadiz are within the old centre of the city which covers an area of only 1.45 square kilometres. We first saw Puerta de Tierra, followed by the Roman theatre, which we were a bit disappointed with as it was shut and in a bad state of repair. Considering the emphasise that Cadiz tourism does on the oldness of the city it didn't look like it had been well looked after. We also thought that some of the renovations, totally destroyed the original look of the place as well. There are much better places to see this kind of thing around Spain.

The rather disappointing Roman Theatre in Cadiz

The highlight of Cadiz was probably the cathedral though, which was done in a different style to the rest of the cathedrals we had seen in Andalucia so far. The main difference being the addition of a Cupola on top of the cathedral giving it a slightly more Islamic look. It was a nice location for photographs and seemed like the main meeting point within the old centre where locals and tourists gathered to have a meal and a drink in one of the many cafes and restaurants around it.

Cadiz Cathedral

Our next stop was lunch, and as Cadiz is well known for it's fish we decided to visit the market and see some firsthand and hopefully have a taste. The market had a great range of choice and we saw some huge fish! You would have to be there to believe the size of some of the Salmon, swordfish and others we saw. After looking around for a bit, we then found one of the stalls that sold cooked fish and we bought some hake and mackeral to try, both being very very nice!

A nice waterfall in one of the parks in Cadiz

After a nice lunch we were on our way again (you might realise as you read this that we stop quite often; this would be because of our big bags we are lugging around!), headed past the Torre Tavira (Tavira Tower), the highest point in the city, which wasn't actually that high at only 45 metres. Unfortunately, we were unable to get a good shot as it is surrounded by buildings on all sides and the streets are very narrow. Once past the tower we arrived at one of the two castles along the coast of Cadiz; Castillo de Santa Catalina where we went inside and had a look around, it offered some nice views along the coast of Cadiz, with some interesting bits of information about it's history. The castle also displayed a model boat exposition with lots of famous boats throughout history including Cutty Sark, Titanic, HMS Victory and Mary-Rose.

View of the bay from Castillo de Santa Catalina

After the visit of this castle we paid a visit to the other castle in Cadiz; Castillo de San Sebastian, which is located at the end of a natural pier that stretches out into the Atlantic Ocean. There was not a lot to see at this castle as only the outer walls were still partially intact, but it did have some really nice views of the Atlantic and the city.

Carmen overlooking the Atlantic by Castillo de San Sebastian

Our last stop in Cadiz was Plaza Espana, the square where the Monument of the Constitution of 1812 is located. After visiting this we made our way to the bus station to catch the bus to Canos de Meca to meet with a couple of friends and their faithful travel companion Gustav, who we met in Morocco.

Monument of the Constitution of 1812

Jerez - Our first ever wine tasting experience

After the hecticness of Sevilla, Jerez was a lovely place to escape the crowds and noise. Located about 90km south of Sevilla, Jerez is known worldwide for its production of Sherry, flamenco shows and world class horsemanship schools. Having had a taste of flamenco already in Granada and Sevilla, we decided to instead focus on the Sherry!

The best way to find out and experience this was to go on a wine tasting tour of one of the many bodegas within Jerez. We looked through several and carefully chose one; Bodega Fundador Pedro Domecq. The reason we chose this one is that it offered the best value for money, being a longer tour than 90% of the others and allowed you to try a wider selection of drinks as well, also offering the opportunity of not only tasting Sherry wine but also brandy.

The nice grounds of Pedro Domecq Bodega

The tour lasted about 90 minutes, and we were joined by two other people; a father and son from Exeter in England! The good thing about having a small group was that it allowed us to ask more questions and take more pictures.

To start the tour we watched a 15 minute video about the history of the bodegas and about the region of Jerez in general, learning some very interesting facts. This bodega specialised in Fundador Brandy, Harvey's Bristol Cream and Terry Sherry wine, which comes in different types. The most famous ones are: Fino, Amontillado, Oloroso and Pedro Ximnez. The type of grapes used to produce these Sherry wines are the Palomino grape and the Pedro Ximnez grape in different concentrations.

The four most famous types of Sherry in Jerez

All the grapes used for these Sherry's are grown within the triangular area of the province of Cadiz between Jerez, Sanlúcar de Barrameda, and Puerto de Santa María. Once they are picked and pressed the juices (must) are allowed to ferment for a few months. After those few months the wine is tasted and then depending on how it tastes determines how they will fortify it to make the different types of sherry wine.

This is where the tour guide took over. She first of all took us on a little tour of the facilities before then moving on to show us into a huge room full of casks of Sherry wine. She explained how after they have been fortified they are put into 500 litre casks made of North American Oak, some of the casks are over a hundred years old.

This cask was over a hundred years old

The sherry is then left to age for a minimum of 3 years using the solera system. This is where there is a stack of 3 rows of casks on top of each other and as the wine ages a third of the wine from the top cask is removed and put in the cask below it and left for another year to age, and so on till the bottom cask where a third of the wine is taken out, (which would be after 3 years) it is then put into bottles and is ready to drink!

The solera system with the oldest wine at the bottom and the newest at the top

We were then taken around some casks that were signed by famous people that had visited the bodega in the past, there were some very well known names like Charlton Heston, Bo Derek, a past King of Italy and Pablo Picasso's daughter.

Barrels signed by famous people, you can see Picasso's daughter and Charlton Heston here.

The last part of the tour was what most people would consider the highlight; the tasting. For us this was an experience in itself as neither of us had had sherry wine or brandy before. We were given two of each types of drink to sample. First of all were the Sherry's, the first sherry neither of us were particularly keen on, but we both quite liked Harvey's Bristol cream, which was a blend of sherry and brandy. We then tasted the brandy's, (the highlight for our tour companions) the first one was a normal brandy, which again neither of us was very keen on, but the second, the Fundador brandy that our tour companions had raved about so much was really smooth and was surprisingly good for a brandy!

To finish off we were shown to the Bodega's shop where our tour companions from Exeter were kind enough to buy us a magnet as a souvenir.

The magnet we were given as a souvenir

So if you are in Jerez in the future and are thinking about having a tour of a bodega, we would highly recommend it.

Sevilla and its world famous Semana Santa Celebrations

On arriving in Sevilla and stepping out of the car, we were hit by just how hot it was. The temperature was 37°C and was quite a contrast from where we had just come from. Fortunately for us, this was the hottest day during our stay in Sevilla so it didn't cause us too many problems, although it was a sign of things to come in Spain as summer starts to get closer and closer! Sevilla along with Cordoba are Spains two hottest cities, where temperatures in the height of summer can climb to 45-50°C. Something to look forward to!

The main highlight for us staying in Sevilla was of course the Semana Santa celebrations, arguably the best and biggest in the whole of Spain. Semana Santa, also known as Holy week is celebrated during the week leading up to Easter day. It is celebrated not only in Spain but also in Latin America. The festivities in Spain begin on Palm Sunday (Sunday before Easter) and continue throughout the week until Easter morning. Major towns and cities will have processions every night of the week, whilst smaller towns and villages will only have processions from Maundy Thursday till Easter morning. Antonio Banderas even returns to his home city of Malaga to celebrate it every year.

Float with the weeping Virgin Mary

The processions involve the brotherhoods from the churches wearing robes and hats very similar to ones that were worn by the infamous Klu Klux Klan. However there is no association whatsoever with this. The members of the brotherhoods carry various different things including, crosses, candles, incense, and most importantly the huge floats that depict scenes from the week leading up to Jesus' death and then resurrection, as well as a the Virgin Mary weeping for her son. This is accompanied most of the time by a band playing solemn music (at least in Sevilla).

As we arrived in Sevilla on Thursday we were just in time to witness the biggest processions of the week; El Silencio, Jesús del Gran Poder, La Macarena, La Esperanza de Triana and Los Gitanos. These processions begin very late in the evening and go on until the morning of the next day, the longest lasting 14 hours (we did not stay to watch it all). These processions were amazing to see and what was even more astounding was the amount of people from all over the world that turn out to watch them. The streets are packed with people, leaving hardly any room to move at all. Pushing your way through the crowds is a fight in itself. But getting a good view is well worth it.

Processing through the streets of Sevilla

Each procession has similarities to another, but has its own individuality as well. Some of the most notable ones include El Silencio, which is done in total silence, and when the procession approaches everyone around starts telling people to shhhh and be quiet. The other, which was probably our favourite was La Macarena, which sounded really grand and was colourful and filled you with a sense of sorrow and loss hearing the music. We also witnessed the largest brotherhood in Sevilla with over 2000 members process past us, this took about 2 hours just for them all to pass us! We eventually left the crowds at 5am in the morning to get some sleep.

We ourselves got into the Easter spirit a bit as well, trying various traditional Easter foods like pestiños (pastries with sesame and honey), rosquillas (Easter doughnuts), and torrijas (slices of bread soaked in milk, sugar and egg, fried in olive oil then dipped in honey or syrup), all of which were very nice. We even made our own Mona de Pascua (Easter Cake).

The traditional torrijas enjoyed at Easter time

Apart from the Easter celebrations we were also able to visit many different places in Sevilla. The Cathedral in Sevilla was a particular highlight being the largest cathedral in the world and the third largest church after St Peters Basilica in Vatican City and Our Lady of Aparecida Basilica in Brazil. Having seen some pretty big churches ourselves (St Pauls Cathedral in London and Haghia Sophia in Istanbul) we had high standards, but we were still surprised at the size of the building from the inside. It has 15 doors on the outside and 80 chapels inside, where apparently they had up to 500 services a day! Also located inside the cathedral is the tomb of the famous explorer who discovered America Cristóbal Colón better known as Christopher Columbus.

Sevilla Cathedral - The worlds third largest church

The other main highlight for us in Sevilla was the Plaza de Espana; a huge semi-circular complex that surrounds a fountain with water running around the inside of it. Within this huge complex there are different sections along the walls that show a map of each different province within Spain. A further highlight was the fact that the Plaza was used in the filming of two Star Wars films (Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones). It made a stunning location for pictures!

The beautiful Plaza de Espana

See what we did after Easter in our next post where we see the world famous city of Sherry and one of the oldest cities in Europe!

Easter begins in Granada

Arriving back in Granada again after 4 weeks in the Alpujarras was like returning home for us. It was a place we had fallen in love with in just two short days previously. On returning our love for the city just continued to grow.

Wandering back through the streets of Granada was great, we walked some of the same streets again, but also discovered new ones we hadn't seen before. The different areas within Granada offer such different things for visitors to the city. The real beauty, for us of Granada is the atmosphere of the whole city; it's so relaxed and chilled, but has a feeling underneath it of being alive as well. With a very large student population it also gives it a youthful feel.

The highlight of our first few days in Granada was probably the free guided tour of the cave houses in the Sacromonte district. The guy running the tour was in fact previously from Richmond, London, so was quite a funny coincidence. The fact that he was British however did not affect his knowledge of the city though, (probably helped he had been living there for 5 years). We were shown first around the rich part of the Albayzin area, with him pointing out the old Arab baths and the best places to go and watch Flamenco dancing. We then made our way out of the Albayzin district and up into the Sacromonte district seeing the houses built into the side of the mountain was our first glimpse of the famous cave houses here.

Lovely view over the city and caves

Apparently the houses we could see were not actually owned, but lots of people just set up a home there, some with solar power and other amenities, others very basic. But what they all had in common was a real sense of community and working together. Our guide explained that the authorities each year evicted the people from the caves and sometimes collapsed the caves and filled them in to prevent them being inhabited again. Instead of this putting people off though, it seems to have had the opposite effect. Everyone is working together to unearth the caves that the authorities collapsed and they all grow food together, it's amazing.

One of the caves the authorities collapsed after being unburied by the locals

As we went further on the tour we got to the top of the mountain and enjoyed some beautiful views of the whole city and of the Alhambra, it was beautiful. On making it to the other side of the hill it's surprising to see how abruptly the city stops, it's like a clear line between the two where the old city wall is. On the other side though we also came across some other cave homes. The difference between these ones and the ones we saw previously was that these were actually owned by people and were built like proper homes as people lived there full time without the threat of being evicted. In fact you could buy your own cave for about 10,000 Euros!

Buy one of these caves for 10,000 Euros?

After the tour we went back to Plaza Nueva, which is a popular area for locals to go out and have drinks and tapas at the local bars, we thought we would do the same. We looked around a bit before ending up having a nice beer and tapas at a bar called La Antigualla where we got two small burgers with chips to share with our drinks (you have got to love Spain)! Afterwards we went to another bar and instead of getting a drink and tapas decided to get a bocadillo to share, whilst we watched Granada beat Barcelona 1-0 on the big screen TV, much to the delight of the rest of the bar! This rounded up a great day.

The following day we were in for a real surprise though. It started out really nice with a trip to look more thoroughly through the Albayzin district, which is in fact a UNESCO world heritage site. It has a lot of narrow winding roads, very similar to the ones we had encountered in the medinas in Morocco. There were also some lovely viewpoints of the city and the Alhambra from this area as well, although a lot of them were very busy, filled with tourists. In the same area we came across a convent where nuns are still secluded from the outside world. They have next to no contact with anyone, the only contact we saw was where some locals came into the convent to buy some traditional easter sweets from the nuns (Roscos fritos - small doughnuts with sugar and syrup on, traditional at Easter). However they only sold them these sweets through a small window to minimize contact.

In the late afternoon though was when we had a nice surprise. Whilst walking along we heard a band playing in the distance. Heading towards the sound we came across a big crowd of people outside of Ave Maria Church. We had stumbled across the opening ceremony of Semana Santa in Granada! It was really special to watch, like nothing either of us had seen before. There must have been several hundred people taking part in this one procession from this single church. They had three bands, lots of people in traditional dress, women in black, children handing out pictures of Jesus, candles and palms held, as well as crosses and other symbols of that specific church. But the main attraction was two huge floats, one depicting the Virgin Mary mourning the death of Jesus and the other a scene from before Jesus was crucified. We learned that the people that held up these floats train for months to do this. We could see why, as these floats must have weighed a tonne! There was so many people and so much going on that it took them an hour just to get out of the church. This was our first taste of the Semana Santa celebrations, which were to only get better the further into Easter week we went!

Float of Jesus riding his donkey

On our 5th day in Granada we decided to do a day trip to a village 30mins away by bus, in the foothills of the northern part of the Sierra Nevada mountains, the village was called Monachil. Our reason for going there was to do a trail through the mountains, which was supposed to be very beautiful; Los Cahoros. The difference between this trail and the ones we had done in the Alpujarras was that this involved walking over hanging rope bridges, crawling under cliff faces and navigating along a gorge, with a river flowing between it. This was really really good fun as well as offering some beautiful scenery.

Hanging out over the edge of the gorge

Walking on the hanging bridges

Once back in Granada, in the evening we went out with Carmen's friend Jess, (who was visiting Granada as well) and 3 other girls she knew for the evening at a bar for some drinks and tapas. It was nice to meet up with them and learn a bit about our upcoming trip to Sevilla (Jess's friends live and work there).

The following day saw me getting up at the unholy hour of 5:30am to go across the road and queue up for tickets to see the Alhambra. Even arriving in line at 5:45am I was not the first, I was in fact about 40th in line! I then had to wait just over two hours for the ticket office to open. Carmen joined me at about 6:30am to keep me company. Once securing tickets we went inside. Was getting up early to wait inline worth it I hear you ask? I have very mixed feelings on this. The fact of the matter is that the Alhambra is very very beautiful and if you have never been to Morocco before I would say it is definitely worth the visit. The problem for us is that we had been to Morocco and there are a lot of similarities between the architecture of Moroccan buildings and the Alhambra. Having said this we still really enjoyed looking around it and the gardens were very beautiful, more so than ones in Morocco. The history of the place is very interesting as well. But overall it wasn't worth the admission price we paid having already seen similar places in Morocco.

The classic photo of the Alhambra

Picture of the gardens in the Alhambra

Our last day in Granada involved visiting things we had missed so far, the Coral del Carbon, Campo del principe, and having some churros with chocolate, (a bit greasy and not quite what we were expecting). Also in the evening we went to a bar we had been to on a previous night and enjoyed a nice tapas whilst watching Real Madrid win the Copa del Rey Final against Barcelona.

This rounded off a lovely week in Granada, but we will greatly miss it, as so far this has been our favourite city. In our next blog post we shall continue the Easter week celebrations in Sevilla!