Well, we tried to go to bed early last night in preparation for our early alarm this morning. In bed before 10.00pm which is early for us and lights out soon after, although I think Bernie was still reading? Anyhoo, just drifting off and then at 11.25pm the #%$#@*&!! fire alarm went off. Not just the alert signal, but an announcement saying that guests should evacuate the hotel. What is it with fire alarms? This the third time this holiday.
We clambered out of bed, and we were dragging on a couple of items of clothing when the announcement stopped. Huh, what should we do? Is it a false alarm or can we crawl back into bed? I did at least look out the window to the other wing of the hotel to check that I couldn’t see any actual flames! I looked out the door’s peephole and there were other people in the corridor. Were they taking the alarm seriously and evacuating or did they have another reason to be in the corridor? We hadn’t heard the sirens of fire trucks, so we went back to bed … and tried to sleep. That’s not easy when, one, you’ve been woken by a fire alarm and, two, you’re stressed about having an early alarm set and needing to get up early to drive to the airport for a flight to Spain at 8.45am with check-in two hours before!!
After a fitful night’s sleep where I was awake again at 3.30am the alarm went off at 5.00am. How I hate early mornings!! We showered, cleaned our teeth and dressed having decided that we wouldn’t bother with any breakfast before we left. Squeezed our toilet bags into our cases and Bernie raced off to the parking garage while I finished putting my socks and shoes on. Bernie had taken his camera bag with him and left his suitcase in the foyer. I hauled my stuff down and maneuvered it all out to the curb.
There was a bus parked out the front and a car BUT the loading zone was vacant. I stood on the curb beside the loading zone with all our worldly possession waiting for Bernie to arrive with the trusty Škoda that has served us well for the last four weeks. Bernie pulled into the loading zone, and we tossed all our gear into it for the last time. The only plus to driving out to Dublin Airport before 6.00am – no traffic! We enjoyed a hassle-free run to the Car Hire Return zone, unloaded our suitcases and back packs and walked about a dozen paces to the shuttle bus waiting to take us over to Departures. Hire car drop off has never been easier.
We were dropped at Terminal 2 where we joined a short queue at the Aer Lingus desks to drop our bags. Bernie had already checked in online days ago as soon as check-in opened. Relieved of our cases – good on the one hand not having to man-handle them any further, slightly worried on the other about them making the flight to Malaga with us – we headed up to Departures.
Bernie thought he had paid for us to be fast-tracked through Departures. Maybe, maybe not. When we reached the fast-track gate the grumpy attendant wanted to see our passes. Um, they didn’t give us passes. Should we have been given passes at the check-in desk or was Bernie mistaken about paying?? Anyhow, grump, grump, he scanned our boarding passes and sent us on our way. Bernie is looking over my shoulder as I type this, and he is adamant that we paid for it as part of our upgraded tickets to facilitate our passage through Dublin Airport! Plus, extra luggage weight allowance, plus extra to take our carry-on bags on board. $$$!
It’s always so much fun, NOT going through security screening! At Dublin Airport we were able to leave EVERYTHING in our carry-on bags. We didn’t have to remove our electronics and there were no notices about liquids in containers under 100mls in a clear plastic bag. However, we had to practically undress to go through the body scanner. Belts off, scarves off, jackets off, everything out of pockets, even tissues and, in Bernie’s case, hiking boots off too. We both made it through the body scanner without setting any alarms off. And yet we had both left our Apple Watches on and they didn’t cause any trouble in the body scanner. Then we had to wait for our tubs on the other side.
Sure enough, Bernie’s was shunted to the side for further inspection. Not his camera gear on this occasion it was his magnetic hat clip hanging off the side. Weirdly my exact same hat clip hanging off the side of my cross-body bag did not require additional scrutiny. Go figure. And I admit this was our bad, we probably should have removed our magnetic hat clips and packed them in our luggage?? That’s where they were when we departed Melbourne. Note to self, remember to pack the hat clips before we fly home.
Bernie spent more $$ to allow us to use the Aer Lingus Lounge while we waited for this morning’s flight. After a magical mystery tour through the airport, we found the lounge and availed ourselves of the refreshments for a long-awaited breakfast. They had a good selection that enabled us to have fruit, cereal and pastries for breakfast this morning.
All too soon it was time to head to the gate. Gate 335 – supposedly an eight-minute walk from the lounge but we were there much sooner. We are always quicker than the estimates. They must calculate the time based on a really old person shuffling along with a walker?? At Gate 335 we had to board a shuttle bus to a sub-terminal where we had to wait again for boarding of the airplane to commence. As we queued there was a sign up about having carry on bags that you hadn’t pre-paid for. That costs €35.00 AND they put it in the hold! It seems you cannot pay late and take your bag into the cabin and, in fact, have to pay a penalty. I don’t know what it cost us to pre-pay for the privilege of taking our carry on into the cabin but I think it was less than the €35.00 charge/fine levied at the gate? That is certainly a disincentive to do the wrong thing.
No air bridge today we had to walk across the tarmac and board via the front stairs. We found our seats and plenty of room in the overhead lockers. Now there’s an advantage of people being charged separately for their carry-on. It seems there are a lot of passengers willing to forego a carry-on bag on a short flight over the Irish Sea and the English Channel to Spain. And then there were still more $$ to be paid if we wanted to eat and drink during the flight. These smaller European airlines charge for everything separately. I guess it means you can tailor your fare according to your preferences and the sacrifices you are prepared to make to save money.
We purchased Coke Zero and a water and two ham and cheese toasties. Although when the toastie arrived it was a croque monsieur with the cheese on the outside. Which is fine if you grill it BUT when you reheat it in a cellophane bag all the cheese peels of on the cellophane as you try to get into your lunch! And I say toastie (singular) because Bernie was given his toastie and we were told another one would be two minutes. Twenty minutes or so later after Bernie had finished his sandwich, he chased up the second sandwich for me. Finally, it was delivered two minutes later, and we scored a free bag of chips (crisps) to apologize for the delay.
OMG, I have to mention the woman sitting in the window seat beside me. She was as fidgety at a four-year-old! She wriggled and squirmed around in her seat for the whole flight which was irritating. Obviously not a great flyer she seemed to have not worry beads but a worry string with knots on it that she was counting during take-off and landing as a distraction.
We left Dublin right on time at 8.45am and arrived in Malaga just before 1.00pm. Only a three-hour flight but we crossed a time zone, so we lost an hour today. We made our way from the plane to arrivals where we had our passports stamped by an immigration officer obviously not at all happy in his job. It seemed to be the day for grumpy airport staff, maybe it’s been a long week, and they are looking forward to being rostered off this weekend?
We arrived at the luggage carousel with no sign of any luggage from our flight. The alarm sounded and the carousel started revolving … for about ten seconds and stopped. We waited a bit longer, the alarm sounded, and the carousel started revolving … for about ten seconds and stopped. This happened TWICE more. It seems the carousel is a bit sick? After the fourth time we were checking ‘Find My’ on my phone. Ooh, according to the app my suitcase is with me. That means it must be close. I walked to the beginning of the carousel and there it was on the belt. That’s one bag arrived. Finally it was fifth time lucky and the carousel managed to start and keep revolving … at least long enough for Bernie’s bag to appear anyway. What happened after that we don’t know.
We wheeled our bag out to Arrivals looking for a driver with Bernie’s name displayed. Lots of drivers there with their clients’ names printed on a sheet of paper, some with the name displayed on their tablet or mobile phone and then there’s our guy, a short scruffy looking bloke with Bernie’s name scrawled on a bit of card with Texta.
Oh well, at least our driver was at the airport to meet us. We spent so much money today to make the transfer between the Irish and Spanish legs of our holiday as easy as possible. We could have caught a train from Malaga to Granada, but the train times weren’t great, and we would have been in transit until dinner time. We decided to splash some cash instead to hire a driver to drive us to Granada.
So, our guy has no English and, of course, we have no Spanish but indicates we should follow him. We tagged along behind him to a Mercedes van. At least the vehicle was more impressive than the driver. We get loaded up and we’re on our way. And wasn’t that an experience?! First the landscape in STARK contrast to what we have been seeing in Ireland for the last month. Ireland was so lush and green; Spain is so very very dry and brown. Anything that is green can only manage a grey sage-like colour, nothing like the Emerald Isle. There were a few splashes of colour in the form of white, pink and burgundy oleanders and some yellow broom. Then there was the haze. We wondered if there could be wildfires burning??
Already unimpressed with our driver I was really grossed out when he proceeded to cough, hack and SPIT out his window. Ugh! Then he was throwing other stuff out his window. The first thing to get chucked was the parking ticket from the airport I think, then along the way a couple of gobs of gum were thrown from his window. Disgusting. And his driving. OMG, we wobbled back and forth, frequently veering over the lane dividing line and occasionally hitting the rumble strip while he kept looking at his phone … to navigate, to check his next job? Or maybe both?
We were delayed by roadworks/road closure having to take a detour through a place called Salinas. Then we were diverted way to the south of Granada because of accidents on the motorway that would have taken us into Granada from the north. Then he took a couple of wrong turns but finally, FINALLY he dropped us off about 50 metres from Apartamentos Rodrigo del Campo. So pleased to have made it! The agreed price was €149.00. Bernie gave him €170.00 and he seemed bothered. We thought maybe he expected more to compensate him for the extra time and distance due to the traffic problems. No, he was bothered that he didn’t have €11.00 change to give, but he was so visibly stressed by the time he got us here we didn’t begrudge him the ‘tip’ even though it was the road trip from hell.
We hauled our cases the short distance to the apartment and entered the code in the outside door. Yay, we were inside the door. Then we entered the code into the key safe and we had the keys. Two barriers breached. Then we tired the key in the gate to enter the beautiful internal courtyard with water features and that was a bust. We were successful with the two codes but now we couldn’t get the good old-fashioned key to work. Grrr! Fortunately, a young couple staying at the apartments arrived a couple of minutes later and they let us in making the use of the key appear childishly simple. Why could we not do it???
We took the lift up to the second floor and tried the second key on the keyring in the door of our apartment. Bloody hell, we are lock challenged! We could hear the tumblers falling through one turn and then a second turn, but the lock just wasn’t disengaging. Rather embarrassingly we had to call the owner. Paco arrived in just a couple of minutes and, once again, we felt like absolute dolts when he had the door open in the blink of an eye. It’s all about the sneaky extra eighth of a turn that disengages the final bolt to let the door to open! We hadn’t wanted to turn the key any further because we could feel resistance and absolutely did not want to break the key off in the lock! As with everything … easy when you know how. And the apartment is delightful, and we are going to be very happy here over the weekend.
Off out to buy some breakfast supplies. The street the apartment is in is so quiet we expected to have to go further to find supplies but at the end of the street we looked down the hill and there were shops and people everywhere. And like a truffle pig Bernie clocked the gelato shop straight away. The shopping can wait, it’s ice-cream o’clock! Of course, here in Spain, café is a flavour so I was very happy. Yum! Bernie even changed from his standard vanilla to limón. Mmm, mmm, mmm.
Ice-cream needs sated we found the Carrefours supermarket and stocked up on fruit and yoghurt, beer and water for the next few days. Walking back to the apartment we saw two more gelato shops that are only minutes away. SO MUCH ICE-CREAM! Luckily it is also very hilly here so I am sure we will be able to work off the kilojoules with our sightseeing, ha, ha.
Just before 8.00pm we headed back to Plaza Nueva for a sunset walking tour with Lolita’s Walking Tours. On our way Bernie purchased an empanada to keep him going until after the tour when we planned to have a late dinner. The evening is only just getting started here at eight o’clock!
We set off with our guide, Carmen, through the Albaicín district walking steadily up hill from the plaza. Carmen talked nineteen to the dozen and it’s almost impossible for me to recall most of it. She filled our heads with so much information about the Moors and Granada’s Islamic period and then the various English and French wars and the period under Isabella and Ferdinand. Every time we turned a corner there was another amazing vista of steep, narrow, winding alleys and white-washed walls, bougainvillea and wisteria which has sadly finished flowering here.
When we reached the Mirador San Nicolas the view of the Alhambra was incredible sitting over the other side of the valley looking over all of Granada. At nearly nine o’clock the light was golden. Perfect for photos if there just weren’t so many tourists in the way! Carmen says it’s not just tourists the locals all enjoy watching the sunset from Mirador San Nicolas and other viewpoints too.
We continued our climb up into the Sacromonte district. This area was outside the old city walls. When the Muslims were displaced by the Christians they literally fled to the hills outside the city and made new lives there. Historically the area has also been the home of the Gypsies. The hills are made of limestone and the Muslims and Gypsies carved themselves cave houses in the hillside. From the hill of Sacromonte we were treated to yet another fantastic view of the Alhambra, this time as the floodlights started to light its walls and towers. Magical. And we were so lucky that the haze of earlier today had cleared. When we arrived in Granada the wind was howling, it is quite still this evening. Carmen told us that the haze was actually sand/dust from the Sahara. She pointed out to us that Africa is only fourteen kilometres away from Spain’s south coast so when the wind blows from the south it often brings the desert with it.
After our fabulous tour with Carmen, we popped into a random restaurant beside the Río Darro for a very late dinner. There were still lots of people about on a balmy evening enjoying food and beverages. We ordered a seafood paella to share. While we waited we were served a plate of patatas bravas. Knowing it would not be complimentary we accepted it anyway. We were hungry and unsure how long the paella would be. Best patatas bravas ever. Or were we just very hungry? No, I’m sure it was good. We were entertained by a funny little senior dog who was at the restaurant with his human. He was hoovering around cleaning up any crumbs he could find and thought all his Christmases had come at once when he scored a chop bone. After our paella it was definitely time to go ‘home’ to bed after our very early morning about 18 hours ago!
Steps: 13,892 (8.59kms)