The next stop on our journey through Spain was Granada. We left Málaga with the intention of driving directly to Granada but ended up taking a slight detour through Ronda, Spain. The drive was just an hour out of the way and while we didn’t get to see a lot in Ronda, we know it is somewhere we will come back to. We walked along the streets and had lunch at an amazing tapas bar and you can tell by this view it is a beautiful city which is surrounded by a gorge and home of Spanish culture, tradition and modern bullfighting.
After our quick pit stop in Ronda we were back on the road and headed to Granada. And this drive was really beautiful. There were rolling hills of olive groves with mountains staged as a backdrop for as far as the eye could see. We drove into the city, where our hotel was, and found it with no problem. The main issue we had was trying to find the parking lot. We made at minimum three attempts to find this allusive parking garage and even made a phone call to try and get assitance from the hotel, which was not as much help as we expected, particularly due to language barrier. But finally with the third or fourth time through the one way cobblestone streets we finally were able to interpret the signs that in fact led us to the hotel parking underground on the backside of the building.
A side bar on driving in Spain
The most confusing part of driving in Spain to us seemed to be the road signs. I have now looked them up and to be honest I am not really any better off because they are still confusing and all I can remember about the road or area we had to turn down was that there was a red circle. Here are a few examples of the signs here in Spain to give you some perspective!
What to see and do with only 2 nights in Granada
We had only 2 nights so that meant one full day of exploring the city. The night we arrived we used Wanderlog to find the best tapas bar in town. Wanderlog has been our travel app of choice. We use it to track and plan most all of our travels. If you are planning a trip we would highly recommend it. The top rated tapas bar on the app was Bodegas Castañeda. It was around 4pm which is late for lunch and early for dinner if you are on Spain time but luckily they were open! The first thing we did was order a drink and what you will find in certain areas of Spain, specifically Granada and Córdoba, is that tapas are served with drinks at no charge. So with our drink order we received an amazing tapas for free. It was an item that wasn’t even on the menu. We proceeded to order several other tapas items from the menu, all of which were fantastic! And let me tell you, the salads we ordered were different than anything we would find in the US and we loved them so much we will be making these when we finally come back home!
The next day our guide met us at our hotel and we headed out to the Alhambra. This was a magnificent palace and we spent all 3 hours of our tour there. Our guide had his masters degree in history and was like having a historian walk us through time as we toured this place.
The Alhambra is considered one of the most famous masterpieces of Islamic architecture and one of the best-preserved palaces of the historic Islamic world. The Alhambra also contains notable examples of Spanish Renaissance architecture. This palace and fortress is massive and it took us all of the 3 hours just to walk through and get a historic overview of the main parts which included the summer palace. There are beautiful gardens and fountains, which were not original to the historic building but installed later, but the best part was the view down into the city of Granada.
The Alhambra’s history dates back 1238 with Muhammad the First. Then several hundred years later became a Christian court when in 1492 the Catholic Monarchs conquered Granada. In later years more structures were added for housing, military barracks, a Church and even a Franciscan Monastery. Instead of getting too much into the nerdy history you can click this link to read more about THE HISTORY OF THE ALHAMBRA OF GRANADA.
One interesting thing we learned is that there is an outdoor theater inside the walls of the Alhambra. They have concerts, operas, and performances and you can even visit the Alhambra at night and enjoy one of these shows if you plan your trip accordingly.
At the end of our tour we asked our guide where we should go eat and he recommended the tapas bar we ate at the evening before! But his second recommendation was Los Manueles and boy are we glad we took him up on his suggestion. This restaurant is at the top of our list of places thus far in Spain we have visited! And as customary in Granada, we received complementary tapas with our initial drink order which was a small dish of paella. This place was fantastic!
We have learned a lot about tapas while traveling through Spain and have found it very interesting. But the history or origin of tapas varies depending on who you ask. Some say that a piece of bread or small plate can be used to cover a drink to protect it from flies and others may say the origin is from patrons standing in bars and using their glass as a stand for their plate. But regardless of the origin, we are huge fans of them. Most evenings our whole meal ended up being tapas, as we like to try more than one from the menu. Click the link below to read a little about the history of tapas:
Tapas are small portions of food eaten between or before meals with a drink, which is more often than not, alcoholic. Traditionally, they were free with a drink. The word ‘tapas’ comes from the verb ‘tapar’ which means to cover.
https://www.barcelo.com/pinandtravel/en/spanish-tapa
Where we stayed
The hotel we stayed at was the NH Collection Granada Victoria. This hotel was set in an early 20th-century corner building in the very heart of Granada. This was the perfect place for sightseeing and only 20 minutes from the magnificent Alhambra. While we were there we strolled the streets that were filled with shops and restaurants but the highlight for us was an antique shop that had some amazing pieces and artifacts from this and surrounding areas. The streets are adorned with beautiful flowers and building facades.
The NH Collection of hotels are strategically placed in areas that provide eclectic elegance and their goal is to provide not only a place to stay but to provide an entire experience. This is the first hotel in this brand that we have been to thus far and I can tell you it has lived up to its legacy!
The Modern Nomads 
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