Good Times in Granada

Boarding the ferry to leave Algeciras, we all waved goodbye to Africa and began our trip back to Spain. The ferry was a two hour drive and after we had another four or five hour drive to our hotel in Granada. We didn't arrive until midnight and were dreading an early morning wake up, but were relieved to hear our wake up time wasn't until 9:00 A.M. We woke up the next morning and headed out to see the Al Hambra which is the castle in which the sultans had once lived overlooking the city and had beautiful gardens surrounding it, including one that had the original plants that were there 500 years ago. The interior of the castle was gorgeous with intricate carvings and water features in every room. The tour guide Alfonso told us there is not a place on the grounds of the castle where water can't be seen or heard. After going through the castle we continued down to the city where we ate lunch and walked around on our own to see the parks. After a while of walking we went back to our hotel to get dressed for our night at the gypsy caves to watch flamenco dancing. We decided to dress up so a few people went out so I could buy a nice pair of shoes for the occasion. We went to three local stores near our hotel to find a pair of flats and got the same answer from all of them... "Size 42 (9.5) is too big. we don't carry them. "
:/ of course. So just in case you plan to move to Spain... Make sure if you need shoes larger than 9.5 to take enough shoes with you to last a lifetime!
I changed my dressing up plans and we went to go have a beer before the dancing. We got Al Hambra which is brewed locally and was very good. Leaving for the dancing, they took us on a small walking tour past the old town to a lookout over the city at night. We played around with our cameras for a while and spelled out Granada in lights before heading to the show.
The dancing was awesome. All of the dancers were very talented with incredible rhythm. At the end they pulled a few of us up to dance which was a lot of fun. Granada ended up being a lot of fun. The next morning on our way out we headed through the city of Cordoba to see the famous cathedral which was very pretty and to take a small tour through the city before heading on our way to the rest of Spain.