The Intrepid Explorers are up, packed and ready to take in pastures new for a day or so. We are on our way to see Granada, Simon and the rough guide both say this is a place not to miss so we won't, just incase they are right!

The road to Granada from Nerja is through the mountains, terrific scenery all the way with awesome head on views of huge rock faces in a couple of places, looks like we are driving straight into them then suddenly we veer off round a sharp bend, no available places for photo stops unfortunately. The drive is a couple of hours but quite hard work as it's all curvaceous and mostly upwards. There is Sierra Nevada to the right of us for the greater part of the journey, majestic and snow capped although in blazing sun light, apparently brilliant for skiing. The light here is brighter than anywhere I've ever been, maybe as almost everything is white, I am permanently dazzled and squinting in the glare.

We reach Granada around lunch time and head for the Alhambra to collect our tickets for tomorrow. On eventually finding the office we discover that we can't collect the tickets till tomorrow as we are not due to go till then, contrary to the rough guide again, this book is wrong on all points concerning the Alhambra, I shall complain to them when I get home!

We go into town and park up, decide to find an hotel for tonight first then find some lunch. Wander aimlessly for a while, can't see any nice parts of Granada that we'd like to stay in, we seem to be at the arse end of nowhere, the people here all look like muggers!  Discover that Andrew is a dingbat and didn't check  the compass on our map, this being the rough guide, North is pointing left instead of up. We go with the new compass point and find the pretty area near the Cathedral quite quickly.  Have lunch of quite nice Tapas and  the local Alhambra beer, the best beer I've tasted since Chang in Thailand!

We book into the Carmen Hotel, for no better reason than it's the name of my favourite opera, asked for a room with a large bed please, and were given room 463. We took a very staid creaky brass lift up and thought the room very nice, marble en suite etc. I opened the patio door to discover our own private terrace, not overlooked by anyone, with a large Jacuzzi in one corner - fabulous! I am out of my clothes and into the Jacuzzi in a flash -  this is my idea of heaven.

Later Andrew drags me from the Jacuzzi {I'd be happy in here till we leave} to explore and find dinner. There are lots of  shops here and we find a good Al Fresco Italian restaurant just around the corner from the Cathedral. Yummy melon with  "ham from black pig feeded by acorns" and pizza with Rioja, of course. We have good live music in the background, so after dinner we go to find it. A band have set up stage outside the main door to the Cathedral, they have a light show and everything, this is brilliant, we stayed  and enjoyed it, a really good evening!