We are very lucky when we are Up the Mountain, to live less than an hour and a half from the amazingly beautiful city of Granada. Home to the stunning Palace of the Alhambra, it’s a city that softly breathes echoes of its mediaeval Moorish past at every corner.
Today I’m going to take you on a little walk from the top of the hill which overlooks the Alhambra, to enjoy the amazing views of the palace from the Mirador (view point) de San Nicolás – probably one of the most photographed views in Granada.
If you wind your way slowly down the hill you get back to the town centre, walking through narrow streets.
Not many cars here, only residents, the little bus and taxis can enter.
Beautiful architecture.
Busy squares
Restaurants galore…
Granada is famed for its tapas – with every drink, something wonderful to taste.
Peek through windows.
And fortify yourself with coffee and pastries. These little ones are called Piononos, named after a Pope and made in Santa Fé, a town just outside the city of Granada.
This past weekend was a huge religious festival with special cakes for “The Virgin” being sold everywhere.
A stroll around the centre and a chuckle at the Eco Roundabout!
Photos taken on my phone, so not the greatest quality, but when in Granada, you just have to soak up the atmosphere, enjoy the tapas and tea shops, and promise to go back again.
Chica Andaluza 
Que bonito!!! Tengo muchísimas ganas de visitar Granada….
Si tienes la oportunidad un dia – que lo aproveches!
Spain is so beautiful and delicious at the same time. I love it every I visit which lucky for me has been a few times! A beautiful guitar piece “recuerdos de la alhambra” probably inspired by the sight you show on this awesome post! I want to eat the picture of the piononos btw 🙂
Recuerdos de la Alhambra is a beautiful piece of music – Granada, sung by Placido Domingo is pretty wonderful too – it’s an amazing city and I feel so very privileged to have been able to visit so many times.
Ah Placido 🙂 that voice…!
🙂
Thanks for the lovely wander around Granada. I visited years ago and loved the Alhambra and the tapas, now those tempting pastries and fascinating narrow streets are making me want to visit again.
It”s a place like no other!
Brought back memories, Tonya. That’s a heavy looking sky 🙂 It was much cooler than I anticipated in April, but undeniably beautiful. I can still picture me down by the river listening to the guitarist.
It was a grey old day on Sunday here then it brightened up – it’s now in the high 20s! April can still be chilly in Granada as there is often still snow on the Sierra Nevada and those winds bring the chill down into the city 😦
We visited Granada and Alhambra several years ago and were charmed by the history, beauty and food. We were there for the Easter processions in the city. Very moving.
It is a city with a very special charm. The Easter processions are quite a sight, regardless of religious persuasion (or not), an amazing experience!
Fantastic – I’ve been in Poblenou for half of today, a little old industrial part of Barcelona, with it’s own Rambla which goes down to the sea and quite a lively local bar restaurant scene. Hay mucho marcha!
I was in an industrial office doing computer stuff this afterrnoon, but had an amazing lunch in Market, which I’ll post in due course 😉
I didn’t realise you were working but glad you got to have a decent lunch – Spain marches on its stomach (or is that “an army”?!) Looking forward to reading about your adventures…
We had lunch near the flea market today and were served personally by the no. 1 Catalan chef, who Oli just happens to know!
The food was amazing.
I really need to go to lunch with you and Oli!
You’d be very welcome 🙂
Thank you for that lovely and unexpected walk ~ and now I can clearly place you when you are ‘up on the mountain’ 🙂 ! I am fortunate to have had quite a few visits to Madrid and Barcelona with surrounding areas, but Andalucia has not worked out: great to see a little part from a personal perspective ~ pity there was no sunshine this time!
Our mountain is not quite as high as the Sierra Nevada – but we are known (or the area at least) as “The Pyrenees of the South”! Maybe one day you’ll get to Andalucía – I’ll be here to show you around!
Be very, very careful, beautiful lady ~ one day I may just take you up on that 🙂 !
It would be wonderful!
Ah, the memories. Thanks for sharing all those wonderful photos. Granada is top of my list when I next visit Spain. We rushed through Alhambra with a tour party and I never had time to appreciate the beauty and history of the place. Greg and Juliet will have instructions not to miss this city.
It’s so beautiful and every time I go to the Alhambra or to Granada, I see something new. Do hope Greg and Juliet get there – you need a full day pretty much to see The Alhambra!
Spain is creeping higher up our list of places to visit. Thanks for sharing 🙂
Ooh – do hope you get here one day!
This post was like a little vacation – thank you for taking us along with you!
Glad you enjoyed your little break with me 🙂
Absolutely beautiful Tanya – I can almost feel the history.
🙂 Mandy xo
Like many old cities, there’s something amazing to see at pretty much every corner!
I didn’t realise that you lived as far South…for some reason, I’ve never been to Granada. Loved your little tour.Nice post.
Yes, although we’re up a mountain we’re only 40km from the sea (and about 60kms from Malaga), so we are in the heart of Andalucía. We live in Malaga province but are only about 10km from the “frontier” with Granada province if you drive on up through our little mountain range.
Granada is the type of city I could visit again and again (and I have!).
Aha – a fellow fan of this amazing City!
Your post took me back to our visit to Granada which I enjoyed enormously. I loved the Alhambra palace – it is just so beautiful.Thank you Tanya 🙂
It is also memorable because we met our next door neighbours in the street! We knew they were staying elsewhere in Spain and we both just happened to be visiting Granada the same day. Bizarre!
What a small world – or as they say here “the world is a handkerchief”! So glad you’ve been to Granada and that I could bring back a few memories for you 🙂
I could happily peek through windows if I was fortified accordingly. Somewhere I’ve always wanted to visit, so thanks for taking me along 🙂
Maybe one day we’ll get you out here for a visit!
Yep, there she is! I love Granada, and I’ve a real fondness for those sticky cakes too! One student of mine regularly brings a box of them into class! She gets good marks.
She sounds like a very promising student!
I just told my husband the other day Granada is on my bucket list. Thank you for the sneak peek! It is stunning.
I will have to post more photos soon – The Alhambra, The Albayzin, The City Centre and The Science Park are all very different but all amazing in their own ways!
I will look forward to it.
So lucky I don’t live in Granada…I don’t think I would fit through one of those wide exotic doors, let alone the wide exotic windows if I had access to those gorgeous little Piononos! Pope hats eh? Are we non catholics allowed to eat them? ;). Bugger. I can’t eat the virgin cakes either! ;). LOVE the idea of the bike powered roundabout! If the kids want a ride, dad just has to get on and peddle! What do you mean “mum?”…sorry…roundabout peddling is a purely dad thing to do! 😉
Hee hee, this really made me laugh. Yes, Catholics and non catholics are all most welcome to eat (the same applies to virgins 🙂 ) My camera battery died before could take a photo of another eco roundabout – all the rides on it were made from car tyres. I have to say, the people peddling could have eaten cakes all day and not put on a gram with all the exercise they get 😉
I reckon we should harness all of the “wanker” power that our local cyclists generate uselessly blocking up lanes and upsetting drivers. I think we should skin them (remove that horrible lycra that makes anorexics look fat let alone overweight lawyers and doctors…), re-educate them (“no… you are NOT going to enter and win the tour de France!) and put them to good use benignly satisfying their urge to bring on early heart attacks by pedalling these bikes for a useful purpose. No blocked lanes, no 70 year old lycra clad morons taking up entire cafes and a whole lot of happy kids who can ride endlessly for free! A Win-win situation. Narf7 saves the day AGAIN! 🙂
Yay – although in defence of our local cyclists, I have to say they’re pretty impressive both in their lycra and cycling UP mountains! More eco roundabout though would be good although I’d feel sorry for the poor person who had to pedal if Big Man and Chica got on 😉
Hey you can’t pick and choose you know, you take the free exercise where it comes! My guess is that they wouldn’t notice. Like the 90’s cake song “their going the distance…their going for speed…” the smaller you are the sicker you would get…best you take the big man with you wherever you go to prevent eco roundabout illness 😉
Tell me about motion sickness – we have just done 2200km, in the car from Malaga to Bexhill (including a slightly bouncy ferry crossing). Left yesterday at 6am and got here a few hours ago. Am drinking wine. Seems to be helping 🙂
I find it best to get a bottle of wine, open the cork (or if you are in a hurry, buy one with a screw top lid, no use being elitist when sickness calls 😉 ) and swill direct from the bottle. It’s amazing how a little (or a lot) of wine can centre you wherever you are in the world… in the middle of Uzbekistan? Dropped from a plane? No idea how to speak the language? Just open a bottle of wine, drink it and suddenly you are one of the locals…if your bottle is big enough, you might even be able to rustle up a variation of the local dialect ;). Wine…the saviour of fools and eejits everywhere 🙂 works just about everywhere in the world apart from those places where they banned wine drinking and you know what? NO-ONE wants to go there anyway! 😉
I adore Pionono’s!!! Discovered them here in a little Andalusian restaurant by my house, need to stay away from there because I could eat my own weight of those little suckers!!! I have never been to Granada, hopefully will get there soon! Thanks for the mini-tour! 🙂
Me too – I am not a great cake or dessert eater but these just seem to hit the spot 🙂 Hope you get to visit Granada soon!
What a quaint place.
It is very charming and different areas of the city are very different!
ahhh, all that lovely time in your town, no jet lag, no extra pounds blamed on the torta de la virgen! (thank you, liked that a lot!)
Well, when you’re walking around while eating cake it cancels out the calories 😉
Of COURSE! I live for that kind of logic! 😉
I’m very fond of Granada, which I visited a few yer ago.
Your post brought me back to this wonderful town!
Glad it bought back some happy memories!
Tapas and wine? Granada is on my list of places I want to visit. To be able to travel again is such a big goal on my list! Thank you for sharing. Your photos look wonderful.
Glad you enjoyed it!
Lovely photos Chica – what a fascinating place… architecture quite unlike anywhere in France or England (or Sweden, to be sure!) – I do rather like the sound of that tapas, I don’t think I’d know where to begin, lol! As you say – best to promise to go back again.
What’s with the “eco-roundabout”? I’m not sure I understand it…
The architecture of a lot of Andalucia is very Arabic thanks to our heritage of the “Moors” who occupied Spain for hundreds of years/ The Eco roundabouts are al built of recucled materials (wood, tyres) and are all powered by pedal power – no electricity!
What beautiful architecture and great looking food! I love the big door and archways…very Moorish, and I’d love to visit this part of Spain someday. Thanks for sharing this walkabout with us…it was on my birthday, as it happens. 🙂
Ah, belated greetings, I’d have had an extra slice of cake if I’d known 😉
I love Granada, I wish I could have spent more time there. 🙂
It’s a place you can go back to again and again….
I’m visiting Spain next year! I’m so excited. have you always lived there?
No, I moved to Spain almst 9 years ago permanently to be with my partner. We now spend stime travelling between the south coast of England and our home in Andalucia. Do hope you have a wonderful visit to Spain!
That sounds fabulous. Me too!
Really enjoyed this walk through! Granada is one of my favorite Spanish cities, I love its charm! Great photos! Giana.
Glad you liked then Giana – it’s one of our favourites too!