Day 5 - 8, Andalucia, Spain

Maybe it was not the smartest thing to do at ~40 degrees in the sunshine, but we opted for an open double-decker bus tour of Seville before heading off to see the rest of Andalucia. The tour was actually very nice and informative, but at the height of the day, in what Sevillanos like to consider "springtime", we were melting. Around the corner from the Giralda, we escaped into the shade of a tapas place and then off to our rental car to drive to Cordoba. On our way there we stopped at the sleepy and charming town of Carmona, having a quick bite at "La Almazara" and enjoying the views and site of the Parador, a spectacular fortress turned hotel.

Traveler's luck was clearly on our side as we reached Cordoba, not only finding a cute little hostel in the middle of town (and right at the height of the Feria de Cordoba season), but also because our little evening stroll took us towards the Alcazaba de los Reyes Catolicos, which happened to open its doors that particular evening to welcome us to a sound, light and water show in it's regal gardens. Maybe because it was unexpected or simply because they put on a good show of music playing to the movement of the fountains and the colour-lights display, but we immediately felt enthralled by what Cordoba had to offer.

We followed this with a late dinner by the old city walls, and then headed over the Puente Romano towards the Feria grounds for a peak of some traditional customs and costumes. It was a real sensory overload with all sorts of music playing everywhere, lights, joyrides, the smell of food, and the colours of the flamenco dresses filling the area.

The following day we got up early, to avoid the midday heat and to make the most of a full-packed day. First item on the list was the Mezquita-Catedral and the Mosque of Cordoba blew us away. It's an amazing fusion of Islam and Christianity in peaceful, grandiose surroundings. If only this peacefulness replicated around the world. It is certainly a place to admire and worth spending some time to take in it's magnitude, its history and architecture. A quick stop at the Roman theatre ruins and we were off to Granada to our next Andalusian stop. Before moving on it must be said the we found Cordoba to be a beautiful unpretentious town, with incredible history and buildings to testify to it.

And Granada didn't disappoint either. After a bit of difficulty finding a parking place in its winding hilly roads, we made our way to hotel Palacio Santa Ines as recommended by Eva and Julian. As we had a pre-booked reservation to see the Alhambra (a necessity to pre-book by the way), we quickly moved on to grab something to eat - a nice kebab and some Moroccan peppermint tea in a typical Moroccan place common to the heavily Arab influenced Albayzin neighbourhood. We then speeded by bus to the Alhambra and Generalife, where we were able to enjoy two and a half hours walking through the gardens, courtyards, fortress and Carlos V's palace. Late afternoon was a great time to do this visit, with the sun a bit lower, the air a bit cooler, less people around and the colours of the red-stone palace (which is what Alhambra stands for) seem to come alive.

We ended the first part of the Alhamba visit and - following advice from Elena - went looking for a restaurant back in the Albayzin. Unfortunately the place was no longer there, but as good chance would have it we ended in a quaint plaza (San Nicolas maybe?) with the most amazing sunset views of the jewel of Granada and the snow-capped Sierra Nevada as a backdrop. We found a terrace to have our by-now staple diet of sangria and tapas and with luck still very much on our side, we got prime front-row seats to watch the Alhambra at sunset. And that is where we headed once again to enjoy a night time tour of the Palacios Nazaries.

The following day saw us driving through the foothills of the Sierra towards the Mediterranean. Up and down it went and we climbed up to 1280m at our highest point, enthusiastically tracked through the MyTracks app. The only interuptions of the drive where a simple lunch (which we payed with our last remaining coins) and a brief excursion into no-mans land for emergency refueling (don't trust a Mercedes board computer!). After a much longer drive than initially expected, we finally made it to Nerja where we spent the night, not without having had a tasty tapas dinner, of course.

With a good few hours worth to kill before hitting Malaga airport, we dedicated the next day to lazyness. A deckchair session at the beach was followed by an extensive Paella lunch, followed by a leasurely drive to Malaga, where we returned the car and arrived at the airport 2.5 hours ahead of time. Or so we thought. Unbeknownst to us, AirBerlin had reverted the announced change of flight time and our plane had left 5 hours previously. Luckily, AirBerlin proved to be very friendly (danke, Susanne!) and we ended up spending the evening and the night in the crew hotel with a room overlooking the sea, with dinner and breakfast paid. Not too bad for a forced layover! So we weren't too unhappy, when we boarded the replacement flight at 9.30am the next morning, which would bring us to Zurich via Düsseldorf.