I am not going to go into any description of Alhambra here is there are lots of sites on line where, if you are interested, you can find out all about this historic site. I will just say “The Alhambra is not only the most important, but also the best conserved Arabian palace of its epoch”.

As described in my previous instalment we decided to spend today, Tuesday 18th June, ashore due to the forecast of strong winds in our area. Anne, in particular, was very keen to hire a car and take the opportunity to drive to Granada to visit Alhambra. I am not known for any particular enthusiasm for these kind of trips but I have to say this was a fantastic site and well worth the visit. I know Gerry is green with envy at not being with us and charged me with taking lots of photos and video footage. I have left most of the picture taking to Anne but can confirm I have taken plenty of footage both the interior and exterior of many of the buildings. The gardens are beautiful and it can take several hours just to explore these, let alone all the fantastic buildings.

Our hire car was delivered to the marina at ten this morning and after completing the necessary formalities we were on our way. It was a pleasant drive to Granada using both the coast road and motorways offering tremendous and sometimes spectacular views of the countryside. We arrived around 12 o’clock and queued for around twenty minutes to get our tickets. We were initially concerned that we would not be able to get in till 5pm but then realised that this time related to our allocated slot to visit the particularly popular Palacios Nazaries and we would be able to start our tour of the grounds as from 2pm. We decided to pop down to the old town for a spot of lunch before starting our tour. Now I have visited Palacios Nazaries I can quite understand why it is so popular and why visitors must be limited to scheduled time slots. It is really quite beautiful. For more information on the whole site I recommend taking a look at http://www.alhambra-patronato.es/index.php/The-Generalife/31+M5d637b1e38d/0/

Tomorrow it will be time to move on, once again. The winds are dropping and we hope to have a good sail, at least for the first part of our passage to Cartagena.