Quentar to Granada 20km

I had slept really well, it was a real treat not to be in a bunk bed, and to have real sheets and a duvet, it's always the little things that matter the most! It was a strange place though. The garden was full of Buddhist statues, and for a fee we could have had our auras scanned and repaired with hot volcanic stones. I find it ironic that many people who reject Christianity as nonsense are equally willing to believe that putting warm stones on your body will heal your aura.

Most of the other people staying here seemed to be foreign students studying at Granada University, a lot of them were American. Ken and I had a room to ourselves, on the plus side the toilets/shower room was just across the hallway (Ken was excited to note that there was a hairdryer in the shower room), but we were also next to the garden and some of the students sat late into the night chatting loudly.

We were up at 0600 and ready to go within 10 minutes, and so we set off in the semi-darkness following the yellow arrows that marked the path out of the town. We had about 3km to go to the next village/town and it was a fairly easy and pleasant walk, although some parts of it were quite narrow and overgrown with bushes and grass. It felt like we were walking through the bushes rather than past them. The town had a cafe and so we were looking forward to having some breakfast. True to form, the cafe was closed on Mondays.

We came to the point where we left the GR3201 road and followed the path through the countryside on the ancient camino path. Ken was keen to stay on the road, although it was slightly longer it was flat and had fewer inclines. However, I was concerned about the fact that there was no verge for us to walk on if there was a lot of traffic. We debated our options, to be fair we were standing looking at yet another epic uphill climb over a mountain range, but we had managed to cross every other mountain. So, for safety's sake, we stuck to the camino path off the road. It did take us quite a while to get to the top, some parts were very steep and it wound its way around the side of the mountain, so just when you thought you were at the top, you turned a corner to find it still going uphill.

Eventually, it began to level out and then the path undulated across the mountain ridge. the views were spectacular, although I took some photographs, they didn't do it justice. It didn't take too long for the path to begin going down, we had seen Granada in the distance, it is a very large city, but it was still two to three hours walk away.

The walk was pleasant enough, though some of the descents were quite steep and slippery, but we arrived in the outskirts of the city, in Sacremonte, which seemed to be a very popular tourist spot. It was a small suburb on the hill just across from the Alhambra Palace and around a monastery. In a matter of minutes we had superb views of the Alhambra, and stopped to take some photographs, and coffee of course. It was interesting to note that the cafe menu was entirely in English, and to be fair we heard more English and American voices than Spanish.

Although we were only 15 minutes walk from the albergue, it was not easy to find, but the CityMapper App got us there eventually. The gateway entrance to the albergue was very impressive, but I was a bit apprehensive about staying in a monastery. The last time I had stayed in a monastery, it was not a good experience, it was basic and a bit dilapidated, hot with no air con and terrible showers. However, once we got inside, my concerns vanished. The convent was beautiful, spotlessly clean and the room was fantastic. We had crisp white linen sheets and blankets, a great shower, and a tall window facing the gardens. The nuns were all business, and quickly got us booked in, and showed us to our room. It was well worth the 25 Euros each, and the best albergue we had stayed in so far. I noticed that the nuns were all Asian, it probably says something about the situation in the Roman Catholic Church that is in decline in the West, just as the historic Protestant denominations are also.

We went out for dinner but first I had to go to the Cathedral to light some candles. As we guessed, there were plenty of cafe bars nearby to get some dinner. We also did a bit of resupply shopping since we were in a city. I bought a hiking shirt from Decathlon, and some lens cleaner for my glasses, and fruit for tomorrow.

With our stomachs full and our shopping done, we went back to the albergue and packed our stuff for tomorrow, and then fell asleep in our lovely, clean and comfortable beds in Casa de Espiritualidad Comendadoras de Santiago.Okumaya devam et