Blizzard!

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We set from Isla Plana on a nice Sunny day of perhaps 18o for Granada, about 300km to the West. When we stopped for lunch we noticed that although still bright and sunny it was now 4o outside! bye bye summer :-( After lunch we entered what looked to me like a dust storm - kinda yellow and foggy but still sun shining through. 'Thats not dust, its snow' says Claire, 'Yeah right' I laugh.

30 minutes later we are doing 40 kmh through a blizzard, snow is settling on the road (about 5cm), and the only gritters and snowplows are going the other way. Doh! No problem for the trusty truck though and for the most part there were clear wheel tracks to follow. The Spanish in this part of the world obviously dont see much snow though, surprising as we are close to the Sierra Nevada mountains now.

'Thats not dust, its snow' says Claire, 'Yeah right' I laugh.

Court of the Lions
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The Italians and French would have been doing 70 or more (on winter tyres) in these conditions but the Spaniards were all following us on a two lane Autopista. At least we werent holding people up for a change! We did see a car standing on its nose in the central reservation so I guess it doesnt snow that often around here. Arriving in Granada its was still snowing big flakes, but not settling, so the campsite was turned into a muddy mess :-(

On the subject the campsite, Camping Maria Euginia, is best avoided - not only cold bathrooms but cold showers when its snowing - not exactly a 5 star establishment...

Jay in the Generalife
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Next day we caught the bus to the city and visited the Alhambra. This is a Moorish castle on the hill above Granada and was built by the Moors. The architecture is very middle eastern and stunning with the use of water throughout. There are some beautiful gardens, the Generalife, again with great use of water features. All quite different in the snow than it would be in summer I imagine. This place is the most visited tourist attraction in Spain - for me not as good as some of Gaudis work in Barcelona but still well worth a look.

Look see, snow...
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We had a bit of a look around the town but it starting snowing (hard) again so we wimped out an didnt explore the old town too much! The miserable weather continued the next day so we escaped the cold showers for the coast again.

Dave.