Granada 3rd - 10th March

 

So here we are in Granada. We are about 10 miles outside of the city, up in the Guejar Sierra.

This is the view from our campsite, looking over the mountains, some of which still have snow on the top.

It's surprisingly wam here for this time of year. Normally, the weather has been either too cold or wet, or both! 

We are here for a week to do some walking. This is a new site for us, although we have in the past visited Granada itself.

It's pretty remote here, with not a lot going on other than lots of goats everywhere. That makes me happy. It's pretty quiet too but thankfully the site has a mini shop and a bar with restaurant, which has an open log fire 😊.

Tuesday we decided to visit the local viallage, taking the scenic route there, which meant going up and around and dropping into the village walking down to the main square. A typical village, with not a lot happening. 

However, there are a number of walks we wish to do here, so we did a recee to find the start of these walks. We decided to do the via verde walk, along the river. This was a very pleasant walk, but a very steep start going down to the river. As is the way, the walk had loads of beautiful trees in blossom. 

Wednesday we did the Romatic Walk - now don't ask me why its called that as it was not romantic at all. It was a hard slog and the signage was pretty poor, well non existent to be honest, so we followed a very steep and twisty road going up to the top, before deciding that we were not on the right path. We managed to find the correct path, we think, but again it was all a bit hit and miss. After lunch, we continued on this path for another 30 minutes or so, before deciding it was going nowhere. So we retraced our steps, ironic considering it was meant to be a circular walk. Still, we had some lovely views down into the valley.

Thursday, we headed into Granada for a wander around. The city centre had loads of floral displays on the lamp posts, stand alone displays and flower beds, making it look very pretty. We walked around the place, going from square to square, looking at the beautiful architecture and through narrow streets. We eventually went up to the Albrahama. We stopped here for a drink and tapas, just to take in the view and the beautiful place. We didn't have time to do go inside, but strolled around the outside of it. A visit for next time we are here.

Friday, our friends Marina and Steve arrived. They thought they would join us for the 
weekend. Unfortunately, it was going to be a very wet weekend, but we had things planned. A birthday celebration and rugby. So it doesn't really matter if it's wet. Steve and I popped down into the village briefly and when we got back to site, we were very surprised to see our friends Maggie and Trevor had just arrived. Unbeknown to us, Steve and Marina had arranged this. So, we decided to all get ourselves settled and meet at 5pm for a drink and catch up in the bar. Oh dear, it was a long night. Isn't it always the way, the first night you get together, you always go a bit mad. We left the bar and went back to Steve and Marinas, and they cooked sausages for us all. Boy they were good 😄. We arranged to meet the next morning, for coffee and cake.

So we met for coffee and cake.  Thanks Marina.  We were all a little bit jaded. But it was a nice morning. We agreed to meet later for the rugby. 

We then, in the evening had a table booked in the restaurant, which was lovely.

Sunday, well it rained and rained and rained. Thankfully we had the rugby to watch.  At half time, Trevor returned with Paella for us all to share. That went down really well too. I have been totally spoilt this weekend and despite the weather, had a lovely time. We will all be moving on tomorrow, to different places, hoping to get warmer weather. We have thankfully not had too much rain and been flooded, which a number of locations up and down Spain have., so we are quite grateful for that. A weekend of rain. Not too bad really and afterall, it is winter here!