And we are off again! This time we are on our way to Granada – the home of the Alhambra which is a palace and fortress complex and one of the most famous monuments of Islamic architecture and one of the best-preserved palaces of the historic Islamic world, in addition to containing notable examples of Spanish Renaissance architecture. I have been looking forward to getting to this city and seeing this historic site that I have heard people talk about! It is a short drive for us today – just over 2 hours assuming we do not get lost! Pretty straightforward it looks like but who knows what will happen! We had no issues leaving Cordoba and got onto the highway very quickly! The drive down to Antequerra was uneventful – the views were as to be expected and I was able to knit instead of navigate as we were not driving around corners all the time. Along the way we realized that as acorns are so small and the top pigs in Spain are fed them, that is probably why we see so many Oak trees! There is a plethora of them growing! We passed many villages with white villages – it is quite a stark contrast at times against the green trees – however it also looks very clean and neat! Then we turned east and headed over to Granada – approaching Granada we were surprised to see how “wide” the area was with a swath of white – it seems that there are several towns that are sprawled out up against the low mountain around the city of Granada. As we approached the city, I keyed in the hotel information into my phone so we could figure out how to get there the easiest way. That involved going on the Marriott website to get the address information. Now, I knew there were 2 Marriott brand hotels in Granada and we were staying at one of them. What I had NOT realized when I booked the hotel was it was a 5 star hotel! I knew it was not an AC hotel brand, which we have been staying in for the last 2.5 weeks (low end Marriott – like Holiday Inn Express) but wow – those are some stars it has! We missed the hotel the first time we drove past so I phoned them to get exact directions and the next time we passed by they were out front waiting for us – now that is customer service! The bellman took our luggage and then “toured us” through some rooms to see which one would be the most comfortable for us. We picked one looking over the main street as it had a window looking at something (first room did not have a window, 2nd looked at a wall) and then the bellman delivered our luggage which Andrew was pretty happy about! After that, the bellman parked our car (no idea where). Our room is very nice and this hotel is beautiful! We will be here for 3 days.
