Meng's Travels: Hola Granada

Americans say "hola" in a relatively flat tone. Spaniards, on the other hand, say hola with an emphasis on the "O" in a higher-pitch tone. It takes a little getting used to but after a while you get the hang of it. When in Spain, do as the Spaniards do.

Spain has one of the best high-speed train system in the world. When I originally planned on this trip, I was going to take the high-speed train from Barcelona to Madrid, then make our way down south to Granada. Then I thought it might be easier to fly from Barcelona to Granada. Europeans started the budget airline industry; if you remember People's Express. Today, you can easily fly to many places with two of the biggest: Ryan Air and easyJet. Spain has its own called Vuling and that's the airline we flew from Barcelona to Granada. It took about 1 1/2 hours and it costs only about $150 one-way. It saved us a lot of time and money because high-speed trains are not cheap either.

We arrived in Granada in the afternoon and took a taxi to the Hotel Duoro. The taxi fare costs around €30, which is very high compared to taking the airport bus, which would have costs only €3, but with some walking. The hotel is conveniently located in the middle of town, a 5-minute walk to all the tourist shops and restaurants around Plaza Nueva. We spent most of the afternoon walking around the area and met a group of performers from Mexico.

You can learn more about the history and background on Granada here.

We ate dinner at this restaurant in the Plaza de Bib-Rambla

Group from Mexico singing outside the Cathedral

Our main reason to visit Granada was visit the Alhambra. a palace built by the Moors in the 11th century. This is one of the most popular tourist attractions in Spain. As soon as we finalized our plans to visit Granada, I went online and purchased tickets in advance. In order to miss the crowd, I booked the earliest admission time, at 8:00 am.

The Alhambra is about a twenty-minute walk from downtown Granada. However, they have a shuttle bus that can take you there in about 5 minutes. Click here to learn more about the Alhambra.
We spent about 2-3 hours there and by the time we left, the place was packed with tourists. It was quite an experience seeing beautiful Islamic architecture and art in Spain. The moors ruled Spain until about 1492, when they were conquered by the Christians. But a lot of their art and architecture are left in much of southern Spain.

After Alhambra, we walked through the downtown area again. There was a street market and there were many tourists from other parts of Spain. We had a nice lunch at a restaurant called Paco Martin. Following lunch, we took a taxi to the bus station to take a bus to Sevilla.