En route to Granada, S + I also realized that we needed a music CD, pronto. We stopped in the small hill town of Antequera, as recommended by a friend. It’s a cute little town with a bullring. We stopped to have a quick lunch and quick stroll through town. Did I mention that it’s in the mid-90Fs by now? Instead of seeing the castle, all I could think of was, “AC! I need AC!” So we skipped the castle and continued on our way to Granada.
the bullring in Antequera
Finding our hotel in Granada was not as bad as Cordoba, thankfully. Though our digs for the next two nights weren’t in the center of town and it was geared towards business people, we had free parking, a thoroughly modern room, a television with CNN (yay!) and a pool. We settled in and mapped our route to the cathedral area. HUGE mistake. Maps don’t tell you if a particular street is a zona peatonal, or even a one way street. Again, the streets weren’t labeled as prominently as you expect for a metropolitan area. So we said, eff this, parked the car in a random, but true garage and walked to the center. As we walked around a bit and I was able to pull a klutzy kellybean in front of the cathedral. To my defense, I believe that they polish the stone steps everywhere in Spain…and that is why I managed to slip and fall on my ass in front of the tourist spot that is the cathedral. Nice.
The next day we opted got the last two spots for the late afternoon tour of the Alhambra (we failed to get our tickets beforehand) – which meant we could putz around in the morning and lay out by the pool before we had to head out.
Alhambra details
Our tour of the Alhambra was led by Marco (Polo!) who conducted the tour in English and Italian (for the 4 Italians in our group). I think that for something so big, an organized tour is nice because you get more of the story behind the structure and purpose of the room you’re in. As beautiful as the Alhambra is, S + I still thought the Mezquita was more impressive. I think that Marco, at some point said that the Generalife gardens rivaled those of Versailles. Now, wait just a minute…maybe, just maybe in it’s heyday, but the Generalife pales in comparison to the gardens of Versailles.
After the tour was over, S + I made our way to the beautiful Alhambra Palace Hotel for drinks on their patio, as recommended by my uncle. It was a perfect place to unwind after walking the palace and gardens all afternoon. We ended our stay in Granada with a tapas dinner at Cascanueces and a late night stroll along the Acera del Darro. Again, a chocolate ice cream helped me forget that it was 92F at 11pm and that there were bats flying above my head as we crossed the bridge back to our hotel.
post tour refreshments
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