Our castle tour is a bit of a whirlwind, 5 in 4 days. I underestimated the stress of driving in another country. The freeways are pretty awesome, everyone knows to drive in the right lane and pass on the left, and they aren’t very crowded. The cities are a bit of a free for all. I have been volunteering to drive in the cities because I drive in the city at home. As I like to tell Nick, I learned to drive on the mean streets of Vegas which really means I drove the Buick around town blaring Ricky Martin and dancing in the streets. I think it prepared me. We turned in the car in Sevilla this morning without a new scratch on it. A fact of which I am quite proud. 🙂

Yesterday, after a 3.5 hour drive from Toledo, we arrived in a beautiful urban city, Granada. It is flanked by the snow-capped Sierra Nevada mountains and up on the very top of the city is a beautiful palace called the Alhambra. This is a major tourist destination. The palace is beautiful, gorgeous really. A Moorish palace turned Christian (but still Moorish in style). We bought our tickets 3 months ago because they sell out pretty much every day of the year. There is a strictly-enforced 30 minute window to get into the Nazrid Palacios, we made it with 2 minutes to spare. Phew!

I think this was our favorite yet. I know the pictures won’t do it justice but we can try. The views are spectacular from all the rooms, there is an intention with time and water decorating to keep the palace beautiful and cool in summer, all the walls and ceiling are engraved, and the layout is precisely what I would want for a sprawling 20-acre (?) summer palace. There is alot of privacy and so many courtyards and gardens. Check it out:

We also ate and drank well in the city. A small tour of croquettas which I just can’t seem to get enough of: