31st May 2016

We flew into Malaga on 19th April and stayed the night in a local hotel. The following morning we walked back to the airport to collect our hire car and drove to Granada in the pouring rain. Luckily by early afternoon the rain stopped and the sun came out, so we drove up to the ski resorts in the Sierra Nevada National Park. The scenery was amazing and it seemed very strange to be in Spain surrounded by snow and be warned by flashing signs that the car should be wearing snow chains.

Still plenty of snow in May up in the Sierra Nevada National Park.
The views below the snow line were stunning.

We made our way back down the winding road into Granada and found our apartment without too much trouble. The next morning we headed out early and caught the bus up to the Alhambra and joined the queue to collect our tickets. Thankfully the weather was much improved, although a bit chilly and we didn't have too long to wait. The gardens are beautiful, although we were a bit early to see everything in full bloom and the views out over the countryside simply stunning. At our allotted time slot we entered the Nazrid Palaces and were amazed at all the extremely intricate and ornate plasterwork throughout. If you are ever in the area this place is well worth a visit, but make sure you book well in advance to see the palaces, as there are only a certain number of places available each day.

Numerous water features and shade make much of the Alhambra gardens lovely and cool.
Alhambra battlements must have been difficult to scale.
View towards Sierra Nevada from Alhambra.
Surprising circular interior as this palace has a rectangular exterior.
Unbelievable amount of detail on the walls of the Nasrid palaces.
Yet another beautiful garden with a water feature in a Nasrid palace at Alhambra.
Courtyard inside one Nasrid palace at Alhambra.
One of many ornate ceilings inside the Nasrid palaces at Alhambra. Click zoom icon in corner.
Lynne just outside the last Nasrid palace we visited at Alhambra.
Not at all crowded despite large queues at the Alhambra entrance.
A small corner of the extensive gardens at Alhambra.
Yet more water features and lovely gardens out side the Nasrid palaces at Alhambra.

The following day we drove down to Aguadulce and spent the next few days shopping for food, drink and boat bits, before returning the hire car. Pam and Brian (my sister and brother-in-law) paid us a visit on their way from France to their house in Pruna and we enjoyed an afternoon and evening with them, catching up with all their news. Then it was back to the hard graft of preparing Mistroma for launch at the beginning of May. Once in the water the work continued. We now have a new solar panel fitted to the awning, which hopefully will reduce the amount of time we have to use the generator, a new set of sails, plus a host of other improvements and general maintenance.

For those of you who follow our progress on VesselFinder, you will see that we finally managed to sever the chains from the marina on 29th May. As well as spending too long working on the to-do-list our departure was delayed firstly by the weather, then Mike lost a filling and had to go to the dentist who advised that as the tooth was split in two, it had to come out. It seemed to take quite a bit out of him as he slept most of the time for a couple of days but is now back to his normal cheery self!

Our first day of sailing was excellent and the new sails look very smart and much more to the point seem to be very effective. Time will tell, as so far we have only been sailing down wind. We are now in Cartagena for the next couple of nights and hope to see a bit more than we managed to fit in last year.

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