Centro Granada

When it came to traveling in the Andalusia Region of Southern Spain, the train system let us down. We kept waiting and waiting for direct tickets from Madrid to Granada to go on sale, but it never happened so eventually we gave up and reluctantly bought tickets for a first class bus. Our worse fears were realized when we arrived at the Madrid bus station. People in altered states of reality wandered the halls and the atmosphere reeked of dispair.

Things started looking up, though, when we located the departure gate. We were greeted cordially when it was time to board, and the driver placed our suitcases into the baggage compartment with great care. The seats were comfortable and there was plenty of leg room. A woman came through pediodically offering various beverages (including wine), and a meal that was comparable to the one we had eaten on the train was served. Maybe bus travel in Spain wasn't so bad after all, we thought.

When we arrived in Granada, we called for an Uber. The city is known for its Moorish ambiance, but the streets we passed through were unremarkable. Perhaps the driver sensed my disappointment. She began singing along with the lively tune that was playing on the radio. Then she suddenly turned around, looked directly at me, and asked if everything was OK. When I assured her that everything was great, she broke into a big smile. We made a sudden sharp turn onto a street that wasn't much wider than the car. Pedestrians leaped onto the narrow sidewalks and pressed their bodies against the sides of the buildings as we passed. When the street widened, we stopped in an intersection lined with stores and restaurants and the driver indicated that the hotel was around the corner and down the street. I wondered why she didn't just take us there, but we later realized that only certain types of vehicles could proceed further.

This was more like it. I felt like I had wandered into a marketplace in North Africa. Music played and exotic scents filled the air. The hotel, Posada del Toro, was a delight. Our room was fairly large with two doors that opened onto narrow balconies. The beds had ornate wooden frames and the closet was a wooden cupboard.

We enjoyed sitting in the brightly decorated courtyard.

These pictures were taken from the narrow balcony outside our room.

Directly across from our hotel, narrow winding streets led up into the old district of Albaicin - a World Heritage recognized area that retains its Medieval Moorish character. One night we bought tickets to a flamenco performance in a century-old cave which is now a restaurant and theatre. We wandered through a maze of intriguing streets past old buildings and somehow managed to arrive at our destination - El Templo del Flamenco.

It didn't feel right to take pictures during the spirited performance, so I snagged the pictures in the second row off the web.

One morning we walked up Carrera del Darro, a cobble-stoned street which runs beside the Darro River. It's frequently described as the most romantic walk in Spain. The street passes old stone bridges and buildings that date back hundreds of years. Unfortunately, it is not closed to traffic so you have to dodge the occasional motor vehicle.

There were several Moroccan restaurants near our hotel, and I quickly fell in love with the food. Another favorite was the tapas restaurant right next to the hotel where a friendly waiter seemed to take a liking to us. We had read that it is customary for restaurants to serve a free tapa when you order a drink, but this was the only restaurant we found that did so.

Life in Granada was peaceful but, unfortunately, trouble was brewing back in Barcelona. The verdicts for the twelve Catalan leaders who had been on trial had been announced, and people were not happy with the sentences they had received. General strikes were held and angry protestors had even managed to close down the airport one day.

Another general strike was planned on the day of our flight home which would make it pretty much impossible to get to the airport from the hotel I had booked right up the street from La Sagrada Familia so I reluctantly cancelled that reservation and made another in a hotel close to the airport.

We planned to spend a couple of days in Sevilla next so we decided to banish thoughts of Barcelona from our minds and enjoy the rest of our journey through the South of Spain.