Spain 2011 Day 8 Monday May 30

Spain day 8 – Monday May 30, 2011 – on the road from Valencia to Granada – 344 miles

M.A. Nazaries Hotel, Maestro Montero 12, Granada E-18004

http://www.hoteles-ma.es/en/hotel-ma-nazaries-business-spa/home/04b94f77fd494/

“Globus: West towards the mountains. Pass troglodyte cave dwellings hollowed out of the soft tufa stone near Guadix and Purullena, and over Mora Pass on your way to the splendors of Granada. (Breakfast, Dinner)”

It was a long long day on the road with only two stops along the way, both at highway rest stops, not very interesting or eventful. We finally got to Granada in Andalucia around 3pm and the optional city tour left at 4pm, however we did not choose that as we had had enough of buses.

So we left around 4:30 for a walk to the Center, and it was nearly a half hour walk since the hotel is just outside the center of town. Saw the cathedral with lots of gold and white interior, found a little market, found some postcards, and finally found a bar to sit down at and rest up and use their restrooms. Granada is full of little winding streets with hoards and hoards of young girls shopping and young guys hanging out at their motorcycles. A main square has a statue of Queen Isabel and Columbus, but is ringed with cars zipping around it. We did not visit the Arab quarter, the Albaicin, being warned about pick-pockets, and also we were rather tired.

Going back to the hotel was tricky and the streets are narrow and winding and we got rather lost, and asked several people for directions, but no one spoke any English, nor could they read our map. Finally found a street that I knew from the map, where there was an English bookstore, so we stopped in it. Obviously we made our way out of the maze eventually, just in time for dinner at 8pm. In fact we walked about two and a half hours altogether and were dead tired. Dinner was buffet style so sampled lots of tasty unknowns! A group of musicians serenaded us too.