(Abundant, fragrant trees and plants fill the city of Granada...)
Last month I went to Granada to celebrate my sister's 50th birthday with our two best friends. The first night we ended up in the vibrant, orange painted Alhambra Palace Hotel drinking cocktails, sat overlooking the city’s twinkling lights from the terrace rooftop bar. This was after walking steep steps and stone cobbled streets to reach the top of the breath-taking hill - all breathless. Our hotel was located right near the Alhambra Palace and we had magnificent views from our bedroom balconies, across the mountain range fringing Granada. Our hotel had pink marbled floors and a pool outside in the sunshine. We loved lazing by the pool, reading and basking in the sun. It is my favourite Spanish city so far - even though all Spanish cities are wonderful in their own way. I loved how clean it was, how safe it felt and that jasmine scents followed everywhere you walked, through luscious tree lined walkways and past overflowing fountains with a warm breeze keeping you cool. There were colourful hanging baskets at the top of lamp posts, orange and lemon trees surrounding the spectacular sandstone Alhambra Palace, which was set within beautiful gardens filled with roses, fountains and ponds fit for a fairy tale princess. The architecture of the palace and the city is enchanting and intricate and the plentiful fountains so magical.
(View from top of the Alhambra Palace overlooking Granada...)
(Court of the Lions at the Alhambra Palace...)
(Fountain within the courtyard at Alhambra Palace...)
(The Court of Myrtles within the Alhambra Palace...)
(The Alhambra Palace gardens...)
(Fountain outside the Alhambra Palace walls...)
Glossy tiles in azure and shades of green drew your gaze, along with shops selling silky patterned dresses, fans, castanets and flyers for flamenco shows, which we went to see one of on the last night. Food and drink on offer consisted of ham croquettes, cava, cheese, prosciutto, calamari, beef tomatoes, panini, ice-cream, churros with chocolate and espresso. We ate in a variety of different restaurants, all dining al fresco, which was perfect for people watching in the old town square. On the bad side, the cobbled streets were unwise to wear flip flops on, as you risked life and limb just walking around but much worse than that, two of our party suffered food poisoning after eating paella for lunch one day. Our friends had to spend a whole day in bed recovering, after being sick all night long, which was really lousy and learned a lesson that you need to eat your paella piping hot rather than luke warm.
(Calamari with tomatoes and lemon...)
(Tomato and mozzarella salad...)
(Scrumptious ice-cream for sale from one of the city's parlours...)
We all enjoyed a fabulous holiday but our evening flight home was delayed until midnight and then cancelled - the gate just closed, after sitting for six hours in uncomfortable plastic airport seats. The reason was due to thunderstorms at Heathrow and it was deemed too dangerous to fly. The airline organised a swift departure to a local hotel, to include complimentary accommodation and free food vouchers, so not all bad. We slept well, considering we didn't know what time our rescheduled flight would be and potentially could miss it if we overslept. But, we showered, then cheese, ham, croissant, coffee and juice fuelled, returned to airport for a deja vu experience through security to catch our plane. I had a bottle of olive oil confiscated, as I didn’t have the receipt to prove I’d only bought it the day before at the airport and didn’t realise I’d need one. I let it go, though, as I was holding up the queue and had a scary looking man behind me who was getting restless. We heard that we could be reimbursed £400 but later told that was not so as it was seen as an act of nature, so the airline were not covered after all. Whoops, because I had treated myself to a nail varnish plus an expensive new sun hat, counting on the compensation. Oh well, never mind - worse things happen at sea. At the eleventh hour, there was a medical emergency on board and so the pilot got a spot to land earlier than planned. The paramedics were waiting on standby to come to the rescue for the ill passenger. It was all quite surreal but the passenger got the help they needed when we landed and we were all free to go.
Even though there was a twelve hour delay, I still had the best time away on holiday. It was such a fun, responsibility free trip. We are all feeling refreshed, replenished and ready to go. I was supposed to pick up my younger daughter from work, take my dog to the vet, take my older daughter to visit my parents and do Pilates but because of the flight delay, my daughter had to walk home from work, my husband got time off work to take our dog to the vet, I’ll have to wait to visit my parents another time soon with my daughter and do my Pilates recording in the evening. In end we could have flown to Australia in the time it took to leave our hotel in Granada to return home - we left at 5pm and arrived 5pm next day but I’d do it all again. Granada is gorgeous and all the airline staff were so helpful, kind and patient.
Now to get home…grab my swimwear from my case, jump in our campervan and drive to Wales, find a campsite, all before catching a ferry to Ireland tomorrow…