Hey Folks. Working conditions as we travel our quite tough - we're currently in Salema, Portugal with a beach view of the Atlantic Ocean and are finding it difficult to sit down at the computer. Don't worry about us though, we will make it somehow... Back to Spain, our favorite city turned out to be Granada, home of the palace and fortress complex Alhambra as well as the pomegranate (feel free to impress your friends with that fact). We picked up our rental car in Madrid and drove about five hours, stopping in the small town of Baeza for an hour. Interesting point in Baeza - after parking our manual car on a hill we later learned that we apparently had not mastered the art of the manual transmission. Luckily for us though, we definitely knew how to roll backwards down the hill with the car in neutral, while looking out for other drivers.
A few stall-outs, grinding gears, roundabouts, gray hairs and heart palpitations later due to congested traffic, we parked the car at the first garage and grabbed a cab to our "cave abode" apartment at the top of Granada's Albaycin Barrio (yup we felt like hibernating bears). This was our first ever booking through the website airbnd (apartment / room rentals by owner) and it turned out to be a huge success. It was a really nice place set into the mountains with three terraces, a good way to cool off and enjoy the sunset in the 95F+ weather.
That evening we checked out a Flamenco show with dinner at Jardin de Zoraya. It was kind of touristy and definitely upscale pricing (60 Euros total for two appetizers, entrees, deserts and drinks), but still worth a visit. Next day we visited the Alhambra, a palace and fort from the 14th century, set above the city with a ton of Moorish architecture and great gardens (Jazz was happy for the 2 hours we spent walking through those). Actually it was similar to the palaces in Rajasthan, India, but instead of inlaid semi-precious stones they painted their walls and used tiles. We also visited a local market and stocked up on food like fresh fruits and salmon for quite cheap (we're planning to cook our own breakfasts and lunch or dinner each day). Taking the Spanish siesta approach since that's the only way to avoid heat stroke it seems, we cooked a big lunch (yummy salmon!) and stayed inside for a few hours in the afternoon. Most Spanish cities do shut down from around 2 pm to 5 pm, so either take a break from the heat or visit a museum where you can be inside.
The next day we walked the town a bit more (lots of cobblestone, small alleys and hills - yup it was a workout, no need for the gym here) and visited an Arabic bathouse for 2 hours of relaxation... Wish we could show some photos, but no cameras were allowed inside. They had a cold bath (aka toe numbingly frigid), warm bath, hot bath, sauna and a huge hot stone to lay on - think of reptile hot stones but for humans :), perfect for falling asleep on. The warm bath was large enough to swim around in, the hot bath was about 2 feet deep with a rim to sit on at about 1 foot of depth (yup Lee took measurements since we've decided that wherever we have our house, we'll be building one of these in the basement). I don't know how deep the cold bath was because there was no way I was dunking in that, although Jazz fell in (go figure), but it was nice to stick your feet in or splash on your face. They also served mint tea in a cooler area and infused the sauna steam with mint, which really cleared your sinuses. That night we spent some time on the terrace with our housemates (a cute couple from Sweden) and went out for dinner with them.
So overall Granada is currently our top city in Spain (v.s. Madrid and Seville - commentary to come). It's a beautiful setting, friendly people and laid back atmosphere (didn't have the fashion madness of Madrid). There are probably better cities to live in full time, but it would be a great place to vacation for a week or so. Next up: Sevilla (Seville).
