Cruising up to Granada 🚙 Beep Beep – January 2019
While we were Caravaning on the Costa Del Sol we decide we couldn’t miss the opportunity to visit the Alhambra Palace and Fortress in Granada, Spain.
The beauty of travelling by Caravan for us was leaving it in the park, jump in the car and off we go.
To save time on the two-hour drive we took our breaky with us, a flask of coffee and two egg and bacon butties.
It was a beautiful sunny day as normal and the motorway was very quiet. We have noticed that a lot both in Spain and Portugal, quiet motorways.
We recommend buying your tickets on line. The queues were long. Also recommend taking a snack and water. There were vending machines for sandwiches and drinks but after several attempts we gave up. AND take a jacket or a wrap, It was cold up there !
Some of our European Campsites 🚐
Below are some of our campsites in the UK, France, Portugal and Spain. We had a motorhome for our first year of traveling and did our exploring and shopping using our Honda PCX125cc scooter. We carried this on a bike rack-ramp at the back. We did that for about a year but swapped to the caravan in 2018. We love both forms of travel but with the caravan, you can leave it just about anywhere and go exploring in comfort.
The freedom of having the car and storing the caravan either on or off-site at housesits far outweighs the Motorhome option as far as I’m concerned… except maybe when you are searching for parking spaces.
Marbella, Costa Del Sol Spain 
Campsite Milfontes Portugal 
House Sitting Agua Amarga Spain 
Our Motorhome Lourmarin France 
Motorhome all setup Lourmarin France
Motorhome Holidays Yippee 🚐
Hiring a motorhome just like the one in this video is a great idea for travelling around England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland or even Europe, just like us eh!. We are very aware of the social distancing issues and follow all the rules and advise given.
A little about Granada
https://www.spain.info/en/destination/granada/
Hey, did you know that Granada is the capital city of the province of Granada and it is a self governing community in the province of Andalusia, Spain?
It’s at the foot of the Sierra Nevada mountains at about 738m (2421 ft) above sea level, and amazingly at the confluence, or joining of four rivers, the Darro, Genil, Monachil and the Beiro but only one hour by car from the Mediterranean coast. .
So what’s their population? Inner city 236,982, and the population of the entire urban area was estimated to be around half a million people way back in 2012. Haha… if you really want to know what it is now google might be a good place to look. Anyway, it’s the 13th-largest urban area of Spain.
Google also told me that about 3.3% of Granada’s population aren’t Spanish and one third of them are from South America. I included this because it is very important information.
View over Granada From Alhambra 
Granada Cathedral from Alhambra Fort
Alhambra Palace and Fort
The Alhambra is a “palace city”. It was declared a World Heritage site by UNESCO in 1984. It is one of the most visited monuments in Spain.
It consists of a defensive fort, the Alcazaba, together with the Palaces along with the palace gardens and orchards of the Generalife.
The Alhambra occupies a small plateau on the southeastern border of the city.
Some of the buildings existed before the arrival of the Moors and the Castle of the Alhambra was developed as a completely walled town and a military stronghold in about the 11th century. I’ll save you the maths… that’s 1000 years ago.
When the first monarch of the Nasrid dynasty, Muhammad I of Granada (1238–1273) arrived on the scene in the 13th century the royal residence (the palace) was established in the Alhambra.
This marked the beginning of its heyday. The Alhambra became palace, citadel and fortress, and was the residence of the Nasrid sultans and their senior officials, including servants of the court and elite soldiers (13th–14th centuries).
Alhambra Palace Centre Fountain 
Inside the Place 
inside the Plance 
Alhambra Palace Internal Gardens 
Another Lap pool (??) with fountains 
Looking down inside the fort from the watch-tower . You can see housing foundations from way way back. 
Entrance to the Alhambra Fort 
the Fort walls are in excellent condition after 800 or so years
The Generalife (Gardens) 🌳 🌹
The Generalife is a garden area attached to the Alhambra which became a place of recreation for the Granadan Muslim kings when they wanted to flee the bordom of official life in the Palace.
It occupies the slopes of the hill above the ravines of the Genil, and the Darro river is visible from vantage points throughout the city.
Conceived as a rural village, it expanded into landscaped gardens and architecture. The palace and gardens were built during the reign of Muhammed III (1302–1309) and redecorated shortly after in 1313–1324.
These beautiful gardens are are a pleasure to walk through and of the Islamic Nasrid style and today one of the biggest attractions in the city of Granada.
We took tons and tons of photos. Spectacular !
Lap Pool 
Internal Palace Gardens 
Beautiful Hedge Sculpture Walkways 
Palace Gardens 
Water-Water Everywhere and not a drop to drink 
Beautiful Water Fountains Everywhere
Trusted House Sitters 🐶 🐱 🏠 – Supports our Travels
Fabian and I have been members of Trusted House Sitters since 2015 and have travelled to such places as Spain, Portugal, France, Thailand, Australia, Ireland and England. Why did we join? Well, that’s easy, we love to travel, we love our furry friends and we get to stay in some beautiful homes and villages absolutely free. We live like a local and all we have to do is love our house owners’ animals while they travel worry-free. So would you say that we are happy? Yes, we love it and we just love the people that we have met so far.
