Orange plantation | Chaos roaming the world

It had been really bloody cold last night. Temperatures dropped to somewhere between 3 to 1 degree and it made for an uncomfortable night. Not because we didn’t have enough blankets to deal with it but because Number 3 refused to sleep in his cold “bed” and decided that mama was the only warm place to sleep upon.

There is a ticket office that has the “no tickets available” sign permanently nailed to it …

Today was the day to visit Granada. Our camp ground was only about a 30km drive away and I had really been looking forward to seeing the Alhambra. However, it turned out (again) that Spain is incompatible with our travelling style. We had the same trouble in Barcelona already when we couldn’t get tickets to see any of the sights I wanted to see. Though back then, we could have remedied it by staying a couple of days longer: No same-day tickets but tickets in a couple of days were available. So we learned from this and had checked out tickets for the Alhambra about 3 days in advance with the option of adding up to 3 days to our stay…just to make sure we actually get to see it this time. De nada. Online tickets to visit the Alhambra are sold out until the middle of June. There is a small number of same-day tickets but people start queueing for them from 2am onwards…nothing that is at all feasible with a baby.

So there we had it. Physically in Granada, unable to see Alhambra. Didn’t make for the best of mornings or city visits. I understand the necessity of regulating the number of visitors…didn’t lessen the disappointment though.

We still drove into Granada and checked out the outside of the Alhambra but it isn’t that much fun. Also, there is not much to see except for a wall and a bit of garden. It’s a good time to go as all the orange trees have fruits upon fruits hanging on them and just look lovely.

With that little sightseeing done, we drove into the city center of Granada. Eating traditional tapas helped a little to get over the disappointment. We picked a traditional tapas place instead of fusion one to get a taste of southern Spain. Flo loved it! He ordered the “warm plate” for two people, even if the menu suggested that only one thing on there was vegetarian. So I had Spanish potato and egg omelette from the plate and a spinach empanada that I ordered. Not feeling quite as filled as Flo I continued to order “Queso a la plancha” which turned out to be three big pieces of grilled cheese with orange marmalade and…fish eggs…*shudder*. Luckily, everything was piled up neatly and I could eat around the fish eggs.

A stroll through the inner city showed us some great architecture and an impressively clean and rich looking city. For our actual sightseeing, we went into the museum next to the cathedral; the place where Isabella and Ferdinand are buried and some of their personal things and art is exhibited. So I got to see some Memlings and Van der Weydens as well as a Botticelli up close.

Worn out from walking around and spending that much time in the sun, we continued on a short while towards Malaga. A very affordable little camp ground right before the city was our stop for the night.

The team checking out the spectacular early morning views
that is what they found
Top view on the reservoir and the mointains from the campground
There is a ticket office that has the “no tickets available” sign permanently nailed to it …
beggars at the door
peeking in like a commoner
Would have been a nice walk down to the city
garden between the walls
A little orange grove in the parking lot. Funny to see fruit bearing trees as decoration
heading down to the city. Our front view with the tent up there 😉
TAPAS!
He manages to scrounge treats wherever we go …
building decoration
The mausoleum / tempel of Isabella and Ferdinand
Heading for the Costa del Sol

It sure feels as if we’re getting better at this now. This morning we took it slow (again) but it was just so beautiful. Number 3 woke us up at 7am which is his normal time and when we opened the “window” the morning sun came in. Lovely views onto the camp ground, the old olive trees and the still red sunrise … couldn’t ask for more.

Flo even managed to post one more blog entry before we hit the road. Number 3 dutifully fell asleep and we had a smooth ride until lunch time. By this time, we had made it half way around Valencia and needed fuel as well as bread for lunch.

Both were available. Fuel right next to the motorway and bread in a town just a little of the motorway. It was a proper bakery with amazing looking treats, so I had to buy some extras: A spinach-filled empanada and five tiny croissants con chocolate. Flo decided to sample some local craft beer and got a bottle of something (Mahou Barrica).

All my extras turned out to be smart buys as finding a good lunch spot, where Baby could roam around for a while, proved hard to come by. Given that we were on a motorway around a big city, it isn’t even a surprise in hindsight.

So we had a late lunch around 2pm, somewhere tucked away underneath trees to avoid the direct sun, which was up now quite mercilessly.

Getting back onto the road and into the driving groove turned out to be a little bit difficult as Number 3 wasn’t keen on more sleep. We coaxed him through most of the hard bits and, finally, he decided to have a late afternoon nap. With this morale boost, we made it to the designated camp ground in the Sierra Espuñas. The last bit of the road wound in and out the national park. Lots of tight curves rising up to almost 700m for the camp.