Granada; Sunday, 15 March, 2009

Another early start and out to the station to catch the train down to the coastal city of Almería. The train ride, up behind the Sierra Nevada Mountains on a high plateau and then down into Almería is spectacular.

From the station it was quite a boring walk into the city centre, until you reach the fortress like Cathedral with its massive walls and towers (there to deter the Pirates that used to plague this part of the coast). Sadly, it being a Sunday the cathedral was fulfilling its proper function as a house of God, rather than as a tourist attraction.

I continued on walking through the old part of the city, gradually climbing up the hill to the spectacular Alcazaba resting over the city centre on it’s cliff top location. As this was about the only attraction open in Almería today I intended on exploring it thoroughly.

A couple of hours later, and with every corner of the Alcazaba explored I descended back down the hill in towards the centre of town, making a short detour up the side of another hill to the old city walls and the statue of Christ that overlooks the city. From here the views of the Alcazaba were stunning, though the surroundings were less than salubrious, looking as though the project had just been abandoned (a stairway that leads to nothing, and plants growing up between the paving slabs)

By the time I got back to the city centre I only had about 90 minutes until my evening train back to Granada so I went for a quick wander along the sea front, on a warm Sunday in March it was pretty busy, and after a quick ice cream I wandered back to the station.

I was quite glad I had a reserved seat, as the train was absolutely heaving, as it pulled out of the station there were already people standing, and they were still standing when I got off at Granada over two hours later (I hoped they weren’t going to be standing all the way back to Seville another 3 hours away, but the mass of humanity that greeted us as the doors opened at Granada station suggested that some would be.)

I wandered back from the station, stopping off behind the cathedral for a bite to eat, before heading back to the hotel to pack my bags and get some sleep.