Lanjarón to Granada – 47 km
I am posting my journals backdated to the day I wrote them, so read from bottom up if you have just arrived. Keep checking back, I have two weeks of journals to upload.
I seldom sleep so soundly as I did last night. It was a bit hard to get out of bed, but despite that I feel surprisingly strong today.
We sat on the patio of the hotel this morning waiting for breakfast. Lines of old men and women streamed out of the hotel past us with small plastic bags under their arms on their way to the baths.
The ride out of town was incredible, a little bit of up, but mostly fast, twisting descents. We ticked off the towns on the way to Granada, one after another. I stopped on the side of the road, picked a few lemons and squeezed them into our bottles, the acid cutting our thirst.
The roads got busier and busier the closer we got to Granada. Riding into the city, the traffic got insane and we ran into endless construction. Working our way through the work, we got cut off from Dave and lost him. We circled back, but he was lost in the confusion, so we continued on to the hotel hoping to meet him there. We kept getting cut off by roads closed to construction and ended up winding our way through back alleys and backtracking to find the hotel.
The Abadia Hotel is on a tiny street and hard to find. It took a bit of circling before we finally found it, but it was worth it. It has a beautiful courtyard in the middle on which most of the rooms look out. We sat waiting for Dave, had a bite to eat, then headed in for showers.
Dave doesn’t actually know the name of the hotel and it looks like it is not waypointed in his GPS or he would have arrived by now. Hoping that he will stick to the original plan and meet us at Alhambra at 2pm. The thought of Dave separated from us and alone in a city this large is scary, but I try to be as positive as possible for Mari.
When we arrived at Alhambra, Dave was waiting for us in the shade by the entrance. He quickly changed then locked up his bike and bags and we headed for the palaces. Alhambra is a Morrish castle and palaces overlooking Granada, built in the 14th century. It was the final seat of power of the Muslim rule in Spain until 1492 when it was finally taken by the Christians in the Reconquista.
Alhambra is one of Spain’s most well known tourist attractions and a fine example of Islamic architecture from the period. The palaces are all intricately carved marble, multi-coloured tiles, serene gardens and breathtaking views over the city. It was interesting to see the differences between the Islamic and Christian architecture in the different parts of the palace.
By the time we got out of the palaces and into the gardens, we were all hungry and tired from too much sun, so we retreated to a shaded courtyard in the Hotel América near the palaces. The courtyard was filled with lush green plants, fountains and was covered by a weaving of vines.
After lunch, we walked back down through town to the hotel to wash clothes and rest before dinner in one of the large plazas near the hotel.
Download GPX file for the day. [maptype=G_MAP_TYPE]