Off to Granada

Hola

A bit of a travel day today as we need to return back east to Granada for the Alhambra booking that we had to make 2 weeks in advance.
We try to take the longer route figuring it will be a 4 lane highway and ultimately just as quick - but in the end the N road (national highway?) is a 2 lane road that twists and turns and winds up hill and down dale but never seems to go straight for more than a hundred metres. But its worth it- the scenery is magnificent characterised by stark mountains, white villages on hilltops with their fortresses sitting at the top of steep sided hills, and olive trees as far as the eye can see and beyond. We drove about 200km today and I don’t think we ever had a section where there weren’t olive trees either side of the road. As the Spanish say, when you think of olive oil you may think of Italy but it’s actually Spain that supplies the world. The area we are in now is one of THE major growing areas (vast plains and hot temperatures).

VIews along our drive:

The other ‘highlight’ of the day is the ‘shortcut’ that the GPS takes us on through the outskirts of Granada down some skinny one way roads, to circumvent going into the city area (because of course it would have been a couple of hundred metres shorter). It does takes us past a Servo where we get 3 things - a surprisingly good baguette for Bobs lunch, the cheapest diesel so far, and, wait for it, A GUY CAME AND PUMPED OUR GAS!! ( younger ones reading this, ask an old person what I am talking about).

The camp ground, Las Lomas, is up one of the mountains surrounding Granada (does Las Lomas translate to last chance?) and we have our doubts as we wind our way up hill. But it turns out to be pretty nice, lovely setting on the side of a gorge with a dam below, good size flat pitches, and a terrace bar looking out at the sun setting over the mountains (but no we don’t stop for a drink as it’s too cold for us - a portent of things to come?).

Views up road to our campsite:

Bar at our campsite - with real fire!

Our campsite and views from campsite:

More photos of the Alhambra in Granada tomorrow.

Adious