Southern Spain Oct 2013 (Granada/Nerja)

Day 1

Granada / 25 Oct 2013

Travelling the South of Spain with Ana

What could be better? Getting in touch again with a great friend, add some good/free Spanish tapas and bring on lots of tinto de verano with a douse of Alhambra and Mediterranean sea.

First, let me say Free Tapas are great! Not just that they are free, but they taste great.

In the south of Spain, it’s common to give a free plate of food for every drink that you order. The food changes with every drink.  Although some restaurants allowed you to pick from a selection, some places said “it’s a gift. So be happy with it” =)

It’s simple food, nothing fancy but it truly reflects the life style of Spanish. Good food with fresh ingredients, great hospitality with a hint of playfulness. The drinks are not pricy (Typically at $2E), and to get food for that price is mind boggling.

These are some of the free tapas that we got.

Unfortunately, we both don’t drink enough to get filled up with the free tapas. So we do have to order some in order not to go hungry. Not that I didn't try, but there’s only so many tinto de verano that you can drink a night.

Granada took me by surprise, specifically Alhambra. The palaces’ grounds are breath-taking. This is a sunset view of the castle from the city area. 

The sunset is also very pretty that night, with the city of Granada below it.

Day 2

Alahambra (Granada)

We visited the castle early in the AM @ 830am. It was raining a little, so we took the bus to the castle. It was fortunate that Ana booked the tickets in advance through the hotel and we avoided the long line of 30 people that’s going slowly (priority are given for advance booking).

The castle took 7 hours at a brisk walk. There’s so much to see and I’m blown away by the architecture.

It's made up of different castle, one of them being Charles V castle that reminds me of Colosseum except that it's much nicer.






There’s water running all around the grounds and inside the castle and it’s still a mystery how that’s achieved. The fountain of lions has some explanations inscribed that apparently didn't make sense.

Anyway, the main castle is restored painstakingly and it reminds me of the Arabian nights.It is hard to capture the beauty of the castle through a camera but here are some attempts anyway. 

These are another castle/s that's part of Alhambra outside the main castle.

The gardens and the fountains are also playful and very pretty. It's surreal walking through the gardens imagining a city full of people walking through them in old times. 



We had lunch at Paradores restaurant inside Alhambra as a treat. Ana told me that Paradores is famous for building hotel and restaurants at historical sites.

http://www.parador.es/en/restaurants-eating-in-paradores

We had duck risotto and a fish dish that's really good. Together with a pasta dish that's a complimentary amuse-bouche.

Day 3

Granada/Nerja

First aim: Breakfast at Ysla.
This has piononos which is a specialty pastry in Granada. However, i can't say that i enjoy it as it's really sweet. This is all you would ever want to know about piononos
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pionono



We walked around Granada city that day, visiting the cathedral

and the Arab streets

After that, we took the bus to the airport to collect our rental car before driving to Nerja.

Nerja is really lovely and touristy. It’s a typical white Spanish coastal town that’s at off-peak season in end October.

The weather reminds me San Diego, as it’s by the ocean and flanked by a desert on the other side. It’s dry with moderate temperature fluctuations.

Day 4

Frigilliana/Nerja

We knew that the hostal Don Peque provides breakfast. What we didn’t expect was a terrace roof top breakfast view, with a full Spanish breakfast brought to our table. The French couple who ran the B&B is very nice, the room is spacious and the food is great! All for 55E a night! What a steal and a delightful difference from the 119E Sant Cugat H&R Hotel.

We hit the town of Frigilliana which is another touristy white town. 

But it’s lovely roaming the streets taking pictures of striking blue doors, Spanish decorations and having a good time.






The weather is very comfortable (t shirt and shorts weather) which is amazing in end October.

After that, we went back to Nerja and spent the afternoon lazing on the beach. I even took a swim in the Mediterranean Sea, with a “refreshing” temperature of 20 C. Brrr…

Day 5

And we are off, going home

We had another lovely breakfast at the roof top, this time with homemade yoghurt.

We also made a couple of sandwiches for lunch, from the leftover bread and enhanced it with some store-brought salami and gazpacho.

We made our way to Nerja caves which is impressive for its sheer size. The biggest column is in the Guinness book of record.

After that, we drove leisurely through a few Spanish coastal town on our way back to Granada airport. 

And here's a couple of shots of me/Ana goofing around just for grins