From Seville to Granada

Today I set off from Seville to Granada.  Just after leaving Seville, I stopped at Carmona, one of the many old historic towns that make travelling in Spain so pleasant.

After Carmona, I made another stop in Antequera, yet another pretty old town.  This one had a pretty historic centre, where I stopped for a drink………..

….and an old Moorish Alcazaba with great views over the city and over the surrounding mountains.

Antequera also has Roman catacombs and a site with six thousand year-old Neolithic dolmens which I didn’t have time to visit – really it is the town with everything!

My hotel in Granada was in the centre, right next to the Alhambra.  Driving there was tricky, and the managers had sent me detailed instructions with pictures of the route. I had to give my car registration to be allowed to pass the barrier into the old town, and then after navigating many narrow lanes turned up a tiny, steep side road to find my hotel.

After checking in, I popped into town briefly to buy something to cook for dinner, and sat out a thunder shower in my hotel room before heading up the steep hill to the Alhambra for a night-time visit of the Nasrid Palaces.  The Alhambra was really atmospheric in the dusk…….

…..and the specially illuminated Nasrid palaces were spectacular.  They don’t sell many tickets for the night-time visit, and sometimes I even had whole rooms to myself and could imagine that I was one of the Nasrid emirs.  More about the history of the Alhambra in tomorrow’s blog.

I returned back to the hotel at half past eleven, with thunder rumbling overhead and occasional heavy drops of rain falling on my head, but I got home more or less dry.  What a great day!