Granada; Wednesday, 11 March, 2009

I’d stayed in a hotel in central London overnight so that I could get up later to catch the train out to Stansted, rather than having to catch a night bus. In the end I shouldn’t have wasted the money, as the room had mice scurrying around in it all night so I didn’t get any sleep.

Having checked out over an hour earlier than I had originally intended to I grabbed a very early breakfast from the Tesco by Liverpool Street station and consumed it on the train up to Stansted. Thankfully, by the time I arrived at Stansted check in was already open, but in some confusion as people were being sent to the wrong bag drop zones by the check in machines.

I had a leisurely journey through the airport, and an uneventful, if full flight. Catching the bus into town required sitting in traffic for some time. The 10KM journey ended up taking over an hour to complete. By the time I checked into the hotel I was desperate for the toilet.

Having relieved myself, and unpacked, I headed out into the city centre. I had a quick wander away from the hotel towards the Cathedral, stopping for a late, but very pleasant lunch near the Cathedral. Suitably fed and watered (actually staggering slightly under the weight of food!), I headed back past the edge of the Cathedral and out onto the main street the Gran Via.

I decided to have a quick wander up to the Alhambra and have a look around the outside so I caught one of the multitude of minibuses that run up the tight, tiny roads. Having had a quick wander around the entrance area and along some of the walls I found myself on the edge of the car park just as the open-top bus arrived. As it was warm and sunny, I decided to spend a little time taking in the tour.

Having completed most of the tour back to the Cathedral I got off and had another short wander around before heading back to the sightseeing bus to catch the last service of the day, which would take in the city at sunset.

By the time I had completed that tour it was coming on for 8pm, perhaps a little early for dinner in Spain, but as I hadn’t properly slept the night before I wanted to get an early night, so I found a nice restaurant near where I had had lunch, had a quick dinner and then went back to the hotel for some decent kip.