To Granada

"The night before I had received an email from our hotel in Granada reminding me that there was no parking on site and that you couldn’t even drive to the hotel.  A special permit was required to even drive near the hotel.  They recommended a couple of parking lots a mile away but Apple maps let me down again.  This time we ended up turning into a parking garage beneath a Carrefour Express in the city.  I was nervous for good reason as we descended the narrow lane.  It makes me anxious even looking back at that driving experience.  With many turns and assists I managed to get into the garage and find a spot, but it was soon apparent we couldn’t park there overnight. I left the family on foot to see if I could find the right parking lot. I didn’t find the one with the subsidized rate, but found one that was nearby so we continued on.  On the way out I scraped the van mirror on the concrete wall in the tight confines but we made it to a reasonably accessible garage and consolidated to a few small packs and Lisa and Lily’s suitcases for the mile walk to our hotel. Old Granada is a maze of winding narrow streets, many of which are only open to foot traffic or the adventurous local driver."  

I can see why they told us not to bring our car - you can't actually get anywhere near our hotel in a vehicle.  The walk was arduous for those nice boys pulling my suitcase 😳 but it was incredible.

"Our hotel structure dated back several hundred years and had plenty of character.  Each room had a staircase to a loft above so we had a bit more space.  After a few moments to relax and decompress, we were on our way again."

"Alhambra is a massive fortress, castle, palace, and garden complex set on a small hill above Granada.  From our hotel it was a very short walk down the street to the stream that marks the edge of the complex, but it was another 20 minute walk uphill to the far side where we could enter. As we explored Alhambra we could see the distant snow-capped Sierra Nevada mountains. The Nasrid Palace required specific ticketed entry time but the Moorish architecture was well worth the wait and money. The views from the alcazaba or castle were impressive in every direction—out over the city with the cathedral, down to the old city where we were staying, or back across Alhambra." 

Jeso is super cool.  Natali and I might have eased dropped on some other group tour guides.

I read Tales of the Alhambra amount several other books in preparation for our trip so I was thrilled to be in this amazing ancient place.

At some point the kids started getting worn out but were rejuvenated when Andrew started stabbing Lily over and over and over again. The stabbing may have spread and there was a lot of death.  But suddenly all the dead kids had found their second wind.

"We sent the kids out to dinner on their own—a luxury afforded with adult children and a Spanish speaker. Lisa and I enjoyed the evening alone at an Arab bath. There were a variety of pools with different temperature water and a sauna in an almost cave like setting deep within an ancient edifice. We had a massage with bubbles and scrubbing at the end the session. Greatly refreshed we had dinner on the street a few minutes from our hotel."

Our view of our hotel from our outdoor dinner table.

The kids enjoyed a quick Italian meal and ate every bite.  The water was so expensive so they enjoyed Fanta.  

The girls were asleep when we got back. Lily slept on the floor on a pillow bed because their bed wasn't a pull out bed.  Andrew slept in the pullout drawer bed in his room.