A Swiss Village in the South of Spain

After two nights in Seville, we were ready to hop on a train for our three hour journey to Granada. Granada is South East of Seville, so we were hoping for slightly warmer weather as we went further South.

Granada is located at the foot of the Sierra Nevada mountains. I had no idea that Spain was so mountainous, for some reason I thought most of the country would be flat.

Granada is much smaller than Seville, and to me, almost seemed like a little mountain town in the Alps. Even though the weather was lovely and sunny, there was snow on the tops of the surrounding mountains. Apparently, Granada is very popular in the winter for skiing.

We were staying in a lovely small hotel in the Albaizyn district which directly overlooks the Alhambra. We were lucky enough to grab the best room in the hotel, being off season, which had an amazing view directly towards the Alhambra and the mountains.

The room made us feel even more like we were staying in a Swiss Chalet, with its cosy bed and furnishings. The neighbourhood itself was full of winding alleyways and white-washed houses, and like in Rome, we felt like we were staying with locals rather than tourists.

Looking towards the Sierra Nevada mountains

The hotels interior courtyard

The view of the Alhambra from our window

After checking in, we decided to go for a wander round the neighbourhood and enjoy the sunshine and stretch our legs after our train journey. We probably liked Granada more than Seville because it seemed like a small town rather than a big city and it was just really cute!

Just down the road from our hotel, there was a large square called The Plaza de San Nicolas, which had a clear view towards the Alhambra. It was full of people just relaxing and playing music, apparently it gets super busy at Sunset where people gather to watch the sun setting over the Alhambra.

After spending a while admiring the amazing view and just relaxing in the sunshine, we headed down to the centre of the city to see the Granada Cathedral. The Cathedral is extremely deceptive, it seems much larger on the inside than from the outside.

Construction of the Cathedral started in 1518, and took 181 years to complete. The Chapel of the Trinity has some amazing paintings all up the walls. I'm not sure we were supposed to take photos, but I snuck some anyway!

To be honest, there's not a lot to do in Granada. Most people come simply for the Alhambra, and a lot of people only do day trips, so there seemed to be a lot more locals that tourists throughout the city.

We did enjoy just wandering the streets and seeing some of the lovely Moorish architecture Southern Spain is famous for. We wandered along the river beneath the Alhambra and had a sneak peak of where we would be visiting the next day.

Looking up towards the Alhambra

After exploring the city we headed back up the hill towards our hotel to watch the sunset and try and figure out what to have for dinner. The disadvantage of visiting during the off season, is that almost all of the restaurants in our neighbourhood were closed, so we had to wander round for a while to find something that was open!

We didn't find the food in Granada as good as Seville, but perhaps that would have been different all the restaurants had been open. Plus the food in Seville was so amazing, it would have been a hard act to follow anyway!