More Bici (bicicletta = bicycle) adventures

After Lisbon we drove to Cordoba where we spent the night in a backpackers. Our host, Javier, does a free bicycle tapas tour of the town every night. This was really fab, he took us to some locals only tapas places and showed us the sights from a local perspective. One of our tapas stops was at his local neighbourhood society's tapas bar so we got a really good deal :) Some of the tapas highlights were  spicy coleslaw and flamenquin. We were a nice group of people and chatted the night away. Javier was the best backpacker "hostelier" we met, he was so focussed on giving each of us great advice for our trips.

The next day we saw the Mezquita and the castle. The Mezquita is Cordoba's Mosque-Cathedral. It's a really beautifull and unique place, much of the old Mosque was kept in place with Catholic relics decorating the building now.

After Cordoba we drove to Granada, on the way we stopped at one of the mountain side villages (Zuheros) suggested by Javier and had salmorejo and goats cheeses as suggested by him :) The entire landscape between Cordoba and Granada is just hills and hills filled with olive trees. Now we know why olives are so incredibly cheap here in Spain!

In Granada we stayed in a backpackers in the old town, google was (un)kind enough to direct us straight to its doorstep. This made for really exciting driving through some really narrow streets. Colette nearly got a heart attack behind the steering wheel though as we did not take the extra insurance on the car... At one place I had to get out to try and get us through a particular place... what made the experience even more thrilling was that there was a car behind us so turning around would be really hard to do. Fortunately the Corsa's side mirrors could fold away and Colette made it through the 1.8m gap with less than a hands breadth on each side. The car behind us couldn't repeat this feat and turned around... well done Colette!

It was all worth it though as we stayed right in front of Alhambra in a quiet backpackers with a roof terrace... stunning views all ours!

The next morning we got up early to see Alhambra, this place is so popular that not all visitors can see it due to limited tickets being issued. Just before we left I discovered my wallet is lost... big drama... Colette went to get our tickets whilst I raced my bike up the "mountain" to the free parking we found several kms away... I found it lying on the dashboard... only in Europe!

The Alhambra (meaning: God Preserve it) is such a special place that I don't really want to say anything descriptive about it - as I cannot do it justice. All I can say is that you have to see it for yourself, it's for me one of Europe's top highlights.

Later the afternoon we drove to San Jose, located in a National Park, where we camped in the desert and had a braai that night! The national park looks like the Karoo by the sea, a unique place itself.