Well I can’t believe that I have been back now for 3 weeks. Wow. Time sure flies!
For the second half of the 2 week southern Spain trip, we left Marbella and headed north to Granada. Granada is most known for it’s Moorish influence and the Alhambra, which I highly recommend visiting. It was a breathtaking Palace, and a very important piece of Islamic history in Spain. I loved Granada and it’s Moroccan vibe. Well worth the visit. Just make sure you get there on time for your Palace entrance. There was quite a bit of stress on this, from all the reading that I did, and really you do have about a 15 minute window from your ticket time to enter the Palace and they will turn you away, or glare at you if you have to get out of line to use the bathroom. If I go again, I would love to see the Alhambra at night. Sounds like it would be a magical place, and I read it isn’t very crowded and hardly ever sells out for a night visit. We also got to catch a flamenco show, in Granada, which was pretty rad.
From Granada we headed up to Madrid via train. SO FAST. The train went about 250 miles per hour, and it took only 3 hours to get to Madrid from Malaga. I loved Madrid, and I loved going to the Prado, but I would say it probably needs more than 1 day for a visit. Also since it was July, when it was very hot, a lot of the shops were closed and people were out until 4 am, which did make my hotel very noisy. And, I kept trying to see this palace, which was inexplicably closed both times I went, just that day. The Prado was amazing though and well worth the trip. Next time, the Palace.
For the last 2 days I headed back down solo to Nerja, located on the Costa del Sol. And I have to say the most spectacular place I went on my trip. The town lies at the foot of the Sierra Almijara mountain range. This is very much a beach town, so no clubs, just swimming, eating, hanging out by the pool. There are caves near by, easily accessible by bus, but I wasn’t able to make it there. I did head to town and look at the Balcon de Europa and just looked out the vast Mediterranean Ocean. I would definitely head back there and maybe spend at least 3 or 4 days there. Lovely!