Granada, Spain

This is my first Yahoo Trips journal, so please forgive me if I don't cover enough, or too much. (See more pictures at http://public.fotki.com/bm14582/travels/spain-1/)

My wife and I currently live in Germany and we like to travel a lot. Fortunately for us we live within 1 hour of a great cheap airfare airline called Ryan Air. The particular airport we like to use, Frankfurt/Hahn, is a major hub for Ryan Air in Europe, which allows us to see a new country once a month (or so). This weekend we decided to go to Granada, Spain because it was currently the warmest destination with the clearest weather.

Getting Out of Germany

We arrived at the Frankfurt/Hahn airport around 4:30 am for a departure at 6:55 am. Check in was easy and we managed to wrangle two seats in the middle of the plane (Ryan Air doesn't assign seats, you have to “fight” other passengers for them -- if it's a crowded flight). Even though it was ridiculously windy the day we left the flight was uneventful.

Day 1 - Arriving in Granada

We landed at the Aeropuerto de Granada around 9:30 am (20 minutes ahead of schedule) and immediately rented a car. This would prove to both a good and bad idea. We used Avis and got a Renault Clio for 39 Euro per day (about $50/day). The Avis customer service rep was very nice and helpful, even going so far as to tell us that there was a lot of construction in the center of Granada and told us the best way to get into the city, and to our hotel, with the least amount of difficulty. When she was unsure of where we should park for the hotel she called our hotel and asked them where we should park.

With our hotel directions in hand, and our portable GPS unit as a backup, we exited the airport to find our hotel, which seemed simple enough by looking at our Avis map. Within a couple of minutes we realized that the map was not to scale, and not very easy to reference, so my wife quickly fired up the GPS to make sure that we didn’t get too lost.

It took us about 15 minutes to arrive at the city of Granada, which was actually very easy to get to via the highway. But as we entered the city we were overwhelmed by how very European it was (by that I mean that the streets are not gridded and simply snake their way around the city). It was also very dense with vehicles and pedestrian traffic. We immediately looked at the GPS and hoped that it would show us the way.

As the GPS guided us to our hotel, and not seeing a SINGLE free parking spot anywhere in the city center, I started to get nervous. I became even more anxious as the roads became narrower and I had to battle the other traffic and pedestrians for road space. When we finally got to our hotel we found that there was no place to unload our luggage and check in because this section of the city had no immediate parking and was closed off to all traffic that wasn’t public buses, taxies, or construction vehicles. After another 20 minutes of searching we were able to park in a parking garage and hiked 5 minutes to our hotel.

While we are on the topic of parking, you will have to use a parking garage if you ever decide to rent a car while staying in Granada. There are a lot of them, and they usually charge just over 1 Euro per hour to park (or 18 to 32 Euros per day), but they don’t all operate 24 hours a day. And the farther away from the center you go, the cheaper the daily rate. A taxi may be a better option, as they are everywhere.

Day 1 – Checking into the Hotel Macia

The hotel was ideally placed in a nice plaza with three restaurants. It is also located at the base of the Alhambra, which is where most of your interesting sight seeing will be found. Initially the desk clerk seemed a bit irritated that we had walked into the door, but she quickly completed our paperwork and got us a room key. The room itself was not the smallest hotel room we’ve ever stayed in (that honor goes to Venice, Italy), but it was clean and had a nice bathroom with good water pressure and very hot water (you never know how important water pressure is until you don’t have very much of it).

Day 1 – Alhambra

I had originally intended to start sightseeing around 10:30 am, but we didn’t get going until 2:30 pm. So, thinking that it would be easier to drive up the steep hill (or small mountain, depending on how you want to look at it) to the Alhambra we quickly trekked back to our car and used the GPS to get to the Alhambra while the light was still good. What should have taken a couple of minutes took about 30 minutes as we had to drive out of the city and up the side of a mountain. But once we arrived at the parking lot for the Alhambra we found that it wasn’t very crowed at all.

Be prepared for a lot of walking because this compound houses three big sections: the Albayzín, Palacio de los Leones, and the Generalife. The Palacio de los Leones is heavily controlled for foot traffic and you will be told to make a beeline to it because you will only have an hour to look at it.

The Palacio de los Leones is spectacular, with some of the more photographed interior scenes associated with the Alhambra . There is a lot of detail work on the ceiling and walls that might take a while to really comprehend. And some of the “pool courtyards” are especially impressive. But if you are an amateur photographer be prepared to work overtime to get a well exposed picture because there are a lot shadows cast by the high walls (depending on the time of day and season). It gets even worse when you try and take a picture of someone and also get a nice background. Flash fill helps.

The Albayzín offers some really great views of Granada. But you better be in shape because there are a lot of stairs to climb.

Finally, if you thought that the Palacio de los Leones was hard to take a good picture of at the wrong time of day, you’ll love the Generalife. But the court yard leading up to the Generalife is really cool. The designers created elaborate walkways using tall bushes and other various plants and flowers.

Day 1 – Granada at Night

This city is busy at night. VERY busy. People are practically spilling out on the streets with shoppers, both local and tourist. It’s actually pretty fun to check out the many, many stores found in the city center.

Here’s a special note for the American’s reading this journal: If you like to eat before 8 pm, be prepared to eat snacks or McDonalds because nothing is open. We wanted to eat at around 7 pm and ended up just walking around for an hour before a restaurant called the Bodega opened. The restaurant itself was very nice looking and the staff were all very nice (especially since they spoke very little English and we spoke no Spanish). The food and wine were both good and the price for a dinner for two was about $55.

Day 2 – In Search of Lunch

The next day we decided to stroll around the city and found that there were a lot of interesting buildings and statues to see. Around 12 pm we got hungry and tried to get something to eat. This wasn’t easy because most of the restaurants didn’t open for lunch before 1:30 pm, or so. After 45 minutes of trying to find a place to eat we simply decided to eat at McDonalds.

Day 2 – Learning about Science

Running out of things to do, we stumbled upon the Parque de las Ciencias (Science Park). We thought it was just for kids, but it had a tall tower, a planetarium, and a Titanic exhibit, so we decided to check it out. When we got started we found that there were a lot of really cool demonstrations of how a lot of physics principles and phenomena work as well as some interesting Moorish technology that made its way into Spain after 711 AD.

The Titanic exhibit is also pretty cool, but expect to be involved for about 2 hours.

Day 3 – Leaving Spain

We checked out around 7:30 am, got our car, and arrived at the Granada airport. Returning the car was as easy as dropping off the key. Then we waited for our flight.

Final Thoughts

Despite the frustration I had with driving in Granada, trying to park the car somewhere, and maneuvering in a really small city environment my wife and I really liked this town. It has a lot of character and is more populated than my research originally lead me to believe. The Spanish were very friendly and the food was interesting to try. The biggest problems we had was getting used to the eating schedule (we don’t like to eat dinner later than 6 pm) and dealing with the beggars (who were numerous and, sometimes, overzealous). But overall the character of this “little” city is intoxicating and worth the effort to adapt.