Our Spanish Hibernation 3:0

Taking a couple of days out of Malaga, we booked train tickets and a hotel for Granada, hoping to include a lengthy exploration of Alhambra as well as see another side of Andalucia. Getting tickets into the Alhambra proved impossible for any of the days, so we did a lot more walking around the actual city than anticipated.

Granada is sprawling and an unusual mix of old and new. Diving off the frantic main streets, you are soon in a network of cobbled passageways, often leading to quaint plazas which bustle with tourists and locals alike looking for the perfect spot to have some lunch or a cerveza. Eating out here in restaurants seems more expensive than Malaga, but the traditional bars give you a free mini tapa with your drink, so a bar crawl could be an option for a cheaper night out.

A speciality worth trying in Granada is the Broken Eggs – Huevos Rotas. An over-easy fried egg sits on a bed of spicy fried potatoes. To eat, you slice the egg up and mix with the patatas. Delicious. The camarero who delivered ours last night, eagerly brandished a couple of spoons and delighted in breaking the egg into our potatoes in a moment of pure restaurant theatre!

Our walk today was a steep climb up into Albaicin. The immaculately-kept narrow streets of this old town lead to a stunning view of the Alhambra palace, nestling below the snow capped mountains of Sierra Nevada. It is a breathtaking sight to behold, wiping out the disappointment of missing out on a tour of the palace itself. Would we come back on another day to do the tour? Maybe, but certainly not in a rush to do so on this stay.