Traveling around different cities and countries in Europe uncovers little surprises, and one of those for us was definitely Granada. We (Liz) organised a trip with our friends M + M to fly into Malaga and drive up to Granada. The weather was a lovely 30+ and the coastline was beautiful.

We decided to stop off at a beach and sample some of the local food. Its a local custom to have large BBQ’s and eat various fried foods, like sardines (below), squid and octopus. Yum!

We made our way to Granada and were pleased to find that the apartment we booked was at the top of one of the market streets. It looked out up the hill into the suburbs and had a little deck for enjoying the evening sun. There was always hundreds of starlings flying around too!

Towards the end of the day (i.e. 9pm), we decided to visit some of Granada’s famous tapas bars. Lunch was typically between 2pm and 4pm and dinner was between 8pm and 11pm. A bit different!

Granada has a wonderful tradition where for each cerveza (beer) you order, you get a free tapa. Free! If you were happy to be an alcoholic, you’d never go hungry.

The tapas were so delicious, we went out for tapas every night.

Every night.

And a few lunch times.

During the day, we explored the city, wandering around the markets and taking in the amazing sites. Below is the street market in the Arabic Quarter.

The main reason to visit Granada is to see Alhambra – a huge Islamic fortress and palace. Here it is up on the hill.

Once we sobered up, we decided to visit the local cathedral. We wandered through the tangle of streets and suddenly it appeared, as if hidden away.

It was a massive building, which you only realised once you got inside.

And it had done well for itself over the years, with ornamental gold and granite everywhere. Stunning.

Granada is certainly a gem and we’d recommend you visit just found this one blog post.

But we haven’t even told you about Alhambra… Coming soon!