Granada, though in the same region as Sevilla is a completely different city. It’s in the Sierra Nevada Mountains making it very hilly. It has a long and storied history from the time of the Moors and no where is this more visible than the Alhambra, the Moorish palace that overlooks the city. Granada also has a thriving tapas scene and a unique way of serving them – if you order a drink at a tapas bar/restaurant, you get a tapa for free. A second drink will get you a different tapa, and so on. It’s a unique and fun experience. 

Needless to say, we were excited to be in this beautiful and historic city.

Thursday, March 31st:

We’d taken an early morning bus from Sevilla to Granada and arrived at 11am. Spain’s bus system is reliable and very affordable. It’s clear they take great pride in it as the buses and stations are clean and bright.

We checked in to our traditional Andalusian hotel, Hotel Casa del Capitel Nazari, that boasted beautiful wood ceilings and an open courtyard in the center. It was beautiful.

I had booked us an afternoon tour of The Alhambra that began at 2pm, so we grabbed lunch and then Sean realized that the camera was missing. (You can read the entire story in my post on Sevilla, but for brevity here I’ll just say that we were able to locate it back in Sevilla with the help of one of our guides there and it was shipped home to us.)

This definitely impacted our mood on the tour. Sean was devastated thinking he’d lost the camera and while I had been initially very upset, I knew we had a lot of photos on our phones and was glad we’d still be able to take pictures of this beautiful and historic place.

The detail and tile work throughout the palace is beyond magnificent and the photos will never do it justice. It is a sight to see in one’s lifetime.

On the grounds of the palace is an entire section dedicated to gardens, called La Generalife.

Our tour lasted about 3 hours and our guide was very good. We took a shuttle bus back to the city center and returned to our hotel for complimentary tea and coffee. Our hotel was in a little alley off of a road that bordered a quaint stream and we walked along it for a while before stopping at our first tapas place of the evening.

At Minotaura, we sat the bar and were given mini sandwiches with jamon and cheese with our drink. We decided to order off the menu so we could choose what we liked. I realize the picture below is the not the best, but the tortilla Espanola was very good and those wedges are manchego cheese topped with extra-virgin olive oil. Yes, this is the point in the trip where it seemed that just about everything became a vessel for getting that delicious olive oil into my mouth. SO GOOD!!!

The region is known for sherry and this bar had two glass bottles with handwritten labels on them which the bartender let us try. He then pulled out a bottle that was decades old and gave us a taste of that. Wow.

We wandered into the Arab Quarter after dinner, climbing a steep hill that rewarded us with nighttime views of the Alhambra. We found a local taverna and sat outside on the large patio while sharing another tapa of fried calamari and enjoying the view.

We walked back a different way and ended up in an alleyway of shops, cafes and restaurants that was bustling with activity. I picked up a bag of loose-leaf tea and then we were coaxed into a hookah lounge by one of their hostesses. Sean had never had hookah before and I still don’t actually think he did because these hookahs were nicotine and tar-free so that nice little buzz that you get didn’t happen for us. But the apple flavor was great and the people-watching fabulous so it was still worthwhile. 😉

Friday, April 1st:

In my research to find things to do outside of the major cities (this was Sean’s request), I found a company that did olive oil tours and tastings about 45 minutes outside of Granada and in the mountains. I signed us up and that’s what we did for the first part of Friday.

Our driver was so nice but the guide for our tour was just ok. She seemed to be mildly annoyed at us and our photo-taking. She did give us a lot of information about olives and the ancient process of making olive oil. The olive trees are hundreds of years old! I had no idea.

We went to a little town to visit what is the oldest and best preserved olive oil mill in Spain, dating back to the 15th century. But first, we stopped to take a drink of water that was coming straight from the Sierra Nevada mountains. So cool!

The process of making olive oil was intense and very manual for centuries. Even once the oil was separated from the water, it was not clear like it is today. It was cloudy.

We tasted 5 different olive oils which all had varying levels of grassy notes, earthiness and pepper. The final one we tried was perhaps the most interesting because it’s part of a Spanish tradition. It was an orange-flavored olive oil that is put on bread with a little sprinkle of sugar and given to children as an afternoon snack. So yummy!

I had signed us up for a few extras that the tour offered, the first of which was a wine tasting after the olive oil tasting. It came with tapas of jamon and goat cheese and included a red and white wine from the region, as well as a dry and sweet sherry. The tasting was nice but probably a bit overpriced. 

The next part was a “traditional Andalusian lunch” which I had in my mind being in a rustic setting with a group of people, sharing food. No. It was me and Sean and we were taken to a taverna in a different local town, put in a private and empty room, and served overly cooked meats and a salad with ingredients from cans. TOTALLY not worth it. But I learned me lesson and I think it’s a good one – don’t do the extras. Just do the main tour.

The saving grace of the lunch was our driver who was smart and interesting and funny, and the beautiful views as he took us to several lookout points around the area to see the mountains, valleys, lakes, and orange and lemon trees.

We did a little shopping when we got back to town. Granada is famous for their beautiful tiles that can be displayed as art and I picked up a few for our home. We took advantage of the hotel’s tea and coffee hour again and relaxed for a bit before heading out for dinner. Our driver from the olive oil tour had pointed out a street off the main square that was lined with tapas restaurants.

We managed to find it and spent the next few hours going to 6 or 7 different places! It was SO fun. We generally ordered wine at each place, and each tapa was different. We did have the Alhambra beer at one stop (it’s a light lager) and it came with little sliders of a soft meat. I asked our server what it was and she responded “albondigas” – meatballs. Fun! And Sean and I spoke in Spanish just about everywhere we went on our own. Between the two of us, we had a pretty good hold on “tourism Spanish” and could order food and drinks, ask for directions, how much things cost, etc. It was fun!

We stayed up and out way too late but we were loving every minute of our evening we simply didn’t want it to end. The next morning was an EARLY one, as our bus for Madrid left at 7am!

Granada was a completely different experience than Sevilla but just as charming. The sights are many, the tapas are plentiful, and the people are lovely. Highly recommend this beautiful place to anyone.