Fun in Granada & Sierra Nevada

Not sure where the time is going but last week was particularly busy, we had a break from getting the jobs done on the boat and headed off to have some fun.  We hired a car and decided to drive up to the Sierra Nevada to make the most of the snow and ski for a couple of days.  On the way had a nice drive up the coast road and stopped off at Puerto Banus to do some boat and people watching at the marina.  Puerto Banus is filled with designer shops and there were lots of elegant people making the most of the Sunday sunshine in the bars and restaurants which surround the marina.  The marina itself is mainly full of power boats, some of these are pretty big but after a summer of seeing some huge power boats especially in Mallorca these no longer seemed very impressive.  But we had a nice walk in the sunshine and sat alongside the beach to eat our pack lunch – no champagne lunch for us!

We then finished the day by heading up to Michelle’s for a Sunday roast and the evening catching up whilst Mark attempted to beat the boys on the Wii.  Ziggy and Asher were good as always and it was lovely to see Michelle, funny that this year I have seen her more than I have over the past 16 years which is so nice.

Amanda with Michelle, Ziggy & Asher

We had a cold early start which started by scarping the ice of the car was a shock when we had been treated to such beautiful weather in Gibraltar. We then had a 2 hour drive to Granada which is a large town at the foot of the Sierra Nevada Mountains.  The town was established as far back as the Greeks in the 5^th century but to be honest this not very noticeable when you drive on the motorway past the sprawling retail parks, McDonalds, etc. Unfortunately as we only had a limited mount of time we did not drive into the town but headed for the Alhambra.

The Alhambra is a Moorish citadel and palace on top of the hill just outside the main town.  It is a World Heritage site and somewhere we were both keen to visit whilst having the opportunity.  The entire site is huge and if you ever fancy a visit there is a strange system where you can only buy tickets for half a day either morning or afternoon and then you have to book at slot to enter the Nasrid Palace to avoid overcrowding, actually best to try to book tickets in advance as you can imagine it getting very busy.  It was pretty busy when we visited on a cold winters day midweek.

The construction of the Alhambra started in 1237 by the Nasrid dynasty when this area of Spain was under Moorish rule and was occupied by the Nasrid dynasty through to 1492 when it was surrendered to the Catholics Monarchs.  It was allowed to fall into disrepair for centuries but was rediscovered in the 19^th century when the restoration began.

The site consists of various buildings including the palaces, a church, convent, baths, military fortifications plus some every elaborate gardens.  We could have spent hours exploring.

Convent in Alhambra & Mark hiding in the shadows

Overlooking entrance to Palaces from Fortifications

The palace buildings have been restored and are extremely decorative with Islamic mosaics, beautiful tiles and often surrounding ornamental courtyards.

Courtyard in Palace buildings

Inside Palace

Inside Palace

The gardens  - Generalife as almost a separate attraction but we only briefly walked around them as we were running out of energy after an early start, with a warmer day they would be lovely to sit around and have a picnic.

View of main Alhambra from Generalife (Gardens)

View from Alhambra over Granada

View from Alhambra of snowing mountains - yippee off to ski them!

After our dose of culture we drove around 30km up the mountains to the ski resort.  We had all our accommodation and skis booked so we headed to get our skis which all seemed a bit strange when all we really wanted to have our own lovely skis and boots which are tucked away back in the UK L but actually the equipment we hired was all very reasonable. We then had the trauma of getting into our accommodation and no-one being available but once we had finally got someone to let us in the we had lovely self catering studio which was clean, warm, had ski and boot storage and just about everything we needed and we managed to have half a conversation in Spanish to find out all we needed for the morning.

Day 1 was bright, sunny and just cold enough, we drove our lovely little car up the mountain to a remote carpark and lift, managed to get our ski pass and we were off!

After not skiing for a year thankfully it all came flooding back as we hurtled down to the main pistes. There are around 90km of piste so it is not a huge resort but it is all in one location and everywhere is pretty easy to navigate. Even after a leisurely start in the morning we were still on the lift by 9.30am and the resort was pretty empty but not surprising when it was mainly Spanish and we were lucky that it is very quiet during the week.

The sun was shinning by our first stop at around 11.45 we had already topped 75kmph on our new App – Ski Tracks, what fun we were going to have trying to beat that speed!

View whilst having a quick sit down

Stunning views overlooking resort

By the end of the day we had both managed to stay in one piece, ski over 35km (had forgotten to switch App back on after lunch so missed some) and had not headed off the slope until 4.30pm! It felt odd being back at apartment, showered and relaxed whilst still light and we could see still over the pistes – most other places we have skied has been almost dark by the time we have headed off the mountain.

View from our apartment onto the piste

Day 2 was stunning and we were raring to go.  Snow was good and snow making was pumping out to make sure it stayed that way.  Again it was not too busy, with no queues and relatively empty slopes.  The weather was still cold enough to make sure you had to keep moving and goggles were a must – no t-shirts and sunglasses!

Mark looking stunned! (I think she meant Stunn...ing !) 

We made sure we headed to the highest point of the resort at just over 3400m; it was a bit blowy but worth it for the views.  You could see the sea and Africa! Which was pretty amazing, it is difficult to see in the photo but in the distance I can assure you it is the sea.  I didn’t hang around too long to take a look the wind was bitter cold so I left Mark with the camera.

Chilly at 3400m with wind blowing

Far in the distance the sea and Africa!

We topped over 90 kmph and skied over 40km and the legs were worn out by the end of the day.

No après-ski for us it was as much as we could do to have a shower and stick out ready meal in the microwave.

As always we were joined by Dori on our trip, this time she bought along her Canadian friend,

Dori & Pal in the evening sun on balcony

Sunset from balcony

Day 3 was not such a good start, our Spanish host called at before 9am concerned that we were going to drive and ski, there had been snow overnight, it was still snowing but we were not deterred and knew that we had skied in worse so carried on regardless.  Our super little hire car headed up the hill with no snow chains and we happy once we had reached the carpark only to find it empty and only 2 snowboarders in site.  But off we went!

First couple of hours visibility was awful which was disappointing with all the fresh snow, very few people were skiing and it was all a bit slow going but we weren’t going to miss our last day!  It did mean that we had to have take shelter for a little longer than we would like but with the fantastic hot chocolate you get on the mountain this was no problem and the prices were a lot more acceptable than they had been in Switzerland last year!  Good news was that by 2.30pm the snow had stopped and visibility was clearing so we had some fantastic skiing on the fresh snow and were able to ski through to around 5pm, skiing over 20km, so glad we persevered and made the most of it.

Funniest part was arriving back to the car to find that no other cars had joined us in the car park and our little car was all alone!

The Tangerine dream all alone in the carpark

3.5 hours in the car and we were back on board Magnum and ready to sleep!