Day 337 – Friday 8th February 2019
Yet another beautiful day in Andalusia. Off on Zippy to Nerja.
For some reason I’d got it in my head that Nerja was a beautiful old historic medieval town; not so. It’s a pleasant enough place and it’s full of cafes, bars and restaurants for the visitors but it’s not too obvious to me what the town’s attractions are.
A quick gander at TripAdvisor and I’m told the No.1 thing to do in Nerja was to visit the Cueva de Nerja; sorry I’m all caved out.
No.2 was looking at a river.
No.3 was the Balcon de Europa. Nice views but….
No.4 was Burriana Beach which, in this view taken from the Balcon de Europa, is somewhere over there
No.5 was some beach miles and miles away famous for scuba diving and No.6 was a church,
No.6 Church of El Salvador
We settled for some lunch in a cafe opposite the church in the town square and then had a potter about the shops.
Came across this, the Fountain of Europe. Commissioned to celebrate Spain joining the EEC in 1986 it is made up from stones from the other member states including England!
The fountain used to be on the Balcon de Europa but they moved it in 2015 and haven’t yet been arsed plumbing it in. How very Spanish. Come the end of March I might email the town’s Mayor and ask for our stone back!
If you’re ever in Spain and wonder why your internet keeps dropping out….
Day 338 – Saturday 9th February 2019
Another lovely day. Packed up and set off to Granada, about an hour and a half way.
Granada is up by the Sierra Nevada mountains.
The site in Granada itself doesn’t get great reviews but for me it’s ideal; easy access, gravel pitches, electricity, clean toilets, good showers & WiFi for €1 a day. I can live without everything else.
Cfor liked the site too…
until till he met all the campsite cats, now he’s not so sure
Day 339 – Sunday 10th February 2019
Overcast morning and quite cold. I shadowed Cfor round the site for an hour or so while he explored the nearby pitches then we went into Granada on the bus for a nose about.
We found a cafe that looked popular with the locals
Eventually we made our way up the hill to the Alhambra. I’] have to say I am not a big fan of UNESCO world heritage sites; usually I find them expensive and a little dull.
there was a nice park on the way up the hill
Some good views of the city as you climb the hill
After walking all the way to the Alhambra, it was a hike, we found all the tickets for the day had sold out.
What a pity
the Sierra Nevadas in the distance
Day 340 – Monday 11th February 2019
The sun is back!!!!! An early lunch then into town for a wander about.
We walked through the old part of town up a hill to the Mirador San Nicolas to take some photos of the Alhambra.
I like a nice simple flowchart
At the Mirador we took some photos…
The sun was sat right over the Alhambra so getting a decent shot on a phone camera was impossible
On the way back down the hill I did get an almost half decent shot of part of it
Back down in the old town I decided we couldn’t come to Granada for 4 days and not have a butchers at the Alhambra so we set off up that bloody hill again.
The weather was great, nice and cool in the shade and boiling in the sun. I really don’t how they cope down here in summer.
We needed an emergency ice cream
At the top we went to buy tickets but the ticket office was cordoned off.
There were about 10 people in the ticket office. The guard pointed to the end of a queue across the road so we went and stood in it.
the queue to get into the ticket office
After about 10 minutes in which no one had either entered or left the ticket office. I went and asked the guard how long it’d be before the queue started to move. This was met with a shrug of the shoulders. I went and stood back in the queue.
Then just before 2pm they announced all the tickets for the Alhambra for the day had been sold but you could still buy tickets for the bit nobody really wanted to see, the Generalife.
Later when I checked the official website the general admission tickets were sold out for weeks in advance.
Faced with a queue to get in the ticket office, a queue inside the ticket office and then a queue to actually enter the bit no one really wanted to see we gave up.
Once you had your tickets you still had to queue up to get in
As we were leaving I told the guard all the queuing to get in was an absolute shambles. She spoke good English and told me this was Spain not London!
Granada
Day 341 – Tuesday 12th February 2019
Quite a lot of cloud about; I believe the technical description of today’s weather was sunny intervals.
We hoped on a bus into Granada for a stroll around. Definitely not going anywhere near the Alhambra today.
Pomegranates used to be known as the ‘apples of Granada’ and they are all over the city
Pomegranate fountain
Pomegranate bollard
in the shops
We had a stroll around the old town
Julie copped
we ended the day in a café having one of the local pastries, a pionono, delicious!
Day 342 – Wednesday 13th February 2019
A bright morning in Granada but a frosty one! Up and away back to the coast.
Motril was only an hour south of Granada but it took us just as long to get parked up on the site.
For some reason whoever designed this campsite thought it’d be a good idea to define every corner with a concrete post or tree making it very difficult to get all 8m of Nelly to her allotted bay.
Never mind we made it in the end after providing some much needed entertainment to other campers.
Cfor absolutely loves it here.
Day 343 – Thursday 14th February 2019
Beautiful sunny day, had a zip around the seafront on Zippy other than that nice a restful day.
We are not having much joy finding sites to spend next winter at. In over a month in Spain we have only really found one campsite we’d go back to. Most have tight pitches and a lot, like this one, have access issues. Also I’ve not been bowled over by Spanish sanitation either. I’m not expecting things to improve as we get to the real Costas.