After three hours on a pretty comfortable ALSA bus, we arrived in Granada early on a cloudy Saturday afternoon.
We took a taxi from the bus station up into the Albaicín neighbourhood where our hotel is located. Like Alfama in Lisbon and the Judería in Córdoba it’s a neighbourhood of steep hills and impossibly narrow winding cobblestone streets.
We’re staying at the new Smart Suites Albaicín where we booked a very nice split-level “aparthotel” for a surprisingly reasonable price.
We have nice views from the kitchen and the bedroom that look over a courtyard and miradoro directly down into the heart of Granada. This includes a view of the 450-year-old Catedral de Granada.
There’s a modern kitchen, a dishwasher, and a combo washer/dryer. There’s a nice desk and fast wi-fi. It’s definitely an improvement on the shared dorm bunk where I slept when I last visited Granada in 2003.
We took a cursory walk around the area and had a tasty but expensive lunch in the pretty but crowded Plaza de San Miguel Bajo near the hotel. We were able to eat outside even though the weather is cooler than in Seville, given that Granada is in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountains.
There is a noticeable North African vibe in Granada, including many teterías (tea rooms) selling mint tea, couscous dishes, and hookahs. There are also artists selling their handiwork, some of it very good, but too many hippies wearing ridiculous pants for my liking.
We eventually made our way through the crowds on the Moroccan souk-like Calle Calderería Nueva and then down to Plaza Nueva. From there we circled the immense cathedral, explored some side streets, and eventually found ourselves in Plaza de Bib-Rambla, where many of the restaurants surrounding the squares had built little heated tents around their outdoor patios.
On the way back up we passed the Alminar de San José a few doors from our hotel. It is the minaret of the original 1517 mosque, the only part left intact when it was later converted to a Catholic church.
