A bit of Granada, A bit of Gibraltar

The Alhambra was built by the Muslim rulers when they occupied the south of Spain. It is a grand old palace with magnificent gardens with water features to match. The symmetry of the structures was was not apparent at first, it appeared to ramble and meander but it became apparent that the structures were very much based on squares, rectangles and right angle triangles. The tour guide, Arik, pointed this out the previous day but to actually notice it you had to look at the parts of the buildings and gardens in isolation. An aerial shot might be a good way to get the idea, when I get home I will try the old google earth to see how it looks from above.

It was a two hour trip around the Alhambra and that was walking fast with a small number of tourists on the site; on the way out the queues to buy tickets were very long and I would hate to try to get around quickly when the place was full. It is an amazing place however and a highlight of the trip. I also gained the benefit of having an English passport, the art exhibition inside was free for EU citizens, even poms.

At the conclusion of the trip around the Alhambra it was time to leave Granada and cross something off the things to do before I die list, Gibraltar.

Hello Gibraltar.

I had a hotel booked in a place called La Linea De La Conception. It was the last town on Spanish soil just before the frontier to Gibraltar. The coach took a few hours to get to the town but on arrival it drove right past the hotel and into the bus station, this was the easiest time I had ever had in finding my accommodation so far. The hotel had the most impressive sounding address so far:

El hotel Asur Campo de Gibraltar
Avenida Principe De Asturias
La Linea de la Conception

On the bus was Nicole from Lake Tahoe in California, the other place where the range is called Sierra Nevada. She was off to Marrakesh in Morocco to find some skiing. I did change my mind about going to Morocco due to the issues in North Africa at the moment, but a chat with her and I changed it again, I was going after Gibraltar.

Although the light was dimming I could not resist dropping into one of the old dart's southern colonies. A bus took me around the island and the very friendly bus driver, who has an aunt living in Warragul in Gippsland Victoria, dropped me off at a pub on the way back. The bus ticked was a return and had written on it from frontier to frontier, which is highly logical and goes very well with the old dad joke:

“I'd like a return ticket please”
“Where to”
“Back here”

All the pubs there make a point of advertising that they are an English pub and they sell English fish and chips, I'm not sure that is something to boast about but with the predominantly English tourist population it is probably very effective advertising. A couple of pints of London Pride and a bowl of “English” chips with salt and vinegar filled the very gaping hole. It was a good sleep that night, I must have walked in excess of 20 kilometres that day and I had to lance another blister on my poor right foot that was suffering terribly.