Carmen de los Martires

Brian was always apprehensive about this part. A different car - a manual at that - a foreign country, the wrong side of the road and a long trip. What could possibly go wrong? The good thing was that we’d faced this challenge several times previously in France, Portugal and Israel so knew what to expect. We collected the Skoda Octavia from Europcar in Toledo mid-morning and headed off towards Granada, The major worry comes from Brian’s tendency to steer too close to the right-hand side of the road and risk either going into the dirt or having Mary remind Brian that we’re headed straight for a line of parked cars.

We were lucky this time as we were setting off on fairly quiet four-lane highways, which provided a good opportunity to get used to the aforementioned challenges. Something we commented on when we drove previously in Portugal was the excellent lane discipline shown by all motorists. Everyone sticks to the nearside lane unless overtaking slower traffic. They signal well before they pull out, and the moment they pass the slower vehicle they signal and then dive back into the nearside lane. Sometimes you almost feel as though they’re cutting you off, but it’s far less frustrating than having to contend with the poor lane discipline and stupidity of so many Australian drivers.

The first half of the 390km drive was through flat countryside, but as we headed further south it gave way to quite hilly terrain. We couldn’t believe how many olive trees there are. There were lengthy periods when all we could see nothing but olive trees stretching in all directions to the horizon.

Eventually we reached the Hotel Porcel Alixares, which we’d booked in for four nights. It’s a couple of kilometres outside the city centre but only a couple of hundred metres from the Alhambra Palace, which is why we chose it. Our room is a very generous size and the hotel itself is beautiful. It was just after we’d checked in that we were met with two unexpected challenges. The first was in the form of an email from Vuelling, the airline which was supposed to be taking us from Barcelona to Amsterdam on 24 September. They were informing us of a threatened strike of ground handling staff on 21 to 24 September and suggested that we might care to change our flight to another date while there was the opportunity. We therefore pushed it back by a day to the 25th, which means an extra day at the parador just outside Barcelona and one day fewer in Amsterdam. In the typical “heads you lose, tails we win” world of travel we have to pay quite a bit extra in Barcelona but don’t get a refund for the unused night in Amsterdam. Ah well.

Challenge number two arose when we tried to book tickets for the Alhambra. By government decree it seems, daily visitor numbers are restricted. That’s sensible enough, except that we didn’t know. The hotel staff were very understanding and tried hard to book us on an escorted tour, but they too are fully sold out There are no tickets of any sort available until early November...except for one thing. On the stroke of midnight each night any cancellations get released to the website for online bookings. It seems though that they get taken up literally within a few seconds. Brian set his alarm on the first night and tried to make a booking but was unsuccessful. All he achieved was a broken night’s sleep. The hotel staff have suggested that he come down to the foyer each night that we’re here at about 1145pm and they will try to make the bookings. Evidently this is a nightly routine for them, so watch this space.Read more