Andalucia - Calicasas, Granada, Sierra de Huetor, Sierra Nevada - Alpujarras (Pampaneira and Bubion), Playa de la Herradura & Salobrena: beer, wine, the art of eating tapas in Granada, all served with fabulous sightseeing
We leave Blanca, Múrcia, very early in the morning, stop in Caravaca de la Cruz and 2 hours later, we're checking in at our new place for the next 2 weeks. The flat is in a small village called Calicasas, 12 minutes drive from Granada. The flat is bright, big, quiet and very well equipped. The owner, Pablo is very nice and helpful. We wake up the next day, go shopping and go to visit the nice Enbalse del Cubillo, a reservoir very close to us, which becomes our running place as it's the only flatish place around. We also visit the Sierra de Huetor, where we hike along the trench route of the Spanish Civil War. There's a bar in Calicasas, the Hogar of the Pensionista (the place of the retired people), where we stop for a couple of beers and get our first free tapas which are so good we had to skip lunch. This part of Spain has a tapa tradition where you get a free tapa with your drink - beer, wine etc. What’s not to like?
We go back to the fantastic city of Granada, as we've already seen the Alhambra, we have plenty of time to enjoy the city. We join the Granada Free Walking tour to find out a bit more of the history and culture of this city and, after meeting up with friends to learn the art of eating tapas in Granada (yeah, every time you order a drink, you get a free tapa), we make our way up to Sacromonte by bus. Sacromonte is a former Gypsy area, now turned into a zone dedicated to all things Flamenco. Granada is really an incredible city and has much more to offer than just the Alhambra. We recommend at least 3 days, if you can. It's been seriously hot too, well it is August after all. There's a heatwave all over Europe and the south of Spain is currently one of the hottest places on earth. We wake up one morning and a watermelon left on the kitchen counter has exploded overnight leaving the kitchen looking like some kind of CSI crime scene.
We then make our way to the Sierra Nevada, where we visit the Alpujarras region. The white villages, very high up on the mountains are incredibly gorgeous and seriously worth the tortuous winding road to get there, check out our pics. After that we continue on to the beautiful Playa de la Herradura (Horseshoe Beach) in Almunecar and then the gorgeous town of Salobrena, where there's an incredible castle on top of a white village perched on a hill overlooking a lovely long, mediterranean beach. Yeah, some really great sightseeing to be done in this region.
After two fabulous weeks of tapas, beer, wine and sightseeing, we say goodbye to beautiful Granada, next stop, the whitewashed, medieval village of Olvera, Cadiz, also in Andalucia.
