We are staying at Camping Internacionale Aranjuez which is around 40km south of Madrid. It’s a great place to stay if you wish to visit Madrid as the train takes only 45 minutes and the station here is around a 20 minute walk from the campsite.

Anyhow, we aren’t here to visit Madrid, just a stopover on our final leg of the journey back to blighty.

Royal Palace Aranjuez…

We did however visit the Royal Palace of Aranjuez, in the freezing cold and wet. Apparently this inclement weather is over most of mainland Europe presently but all is set to clear at the weekend.

The Royal Palace of Aranjuez (or Palacio Real de Aranjuez in Spanish) is a residence of the King of Spain, and is open to the public as one of the Spanish royal sites.

It was commissioned by Philip II and designed by Juan Bautista de Toledo and Juan de Herrera, who also designed El Escorial. It was completed during the reign of Ferdinand VI by the mid-18th century; Charles III had two wings added to it.

Palace Aranjuez Gardens…

The huge gardens, built to relieve its royal residents from the dust and drought of the Spanish meseta using the waters of the adjacent Tagus and Jarama rivers, are Spain’s most important of the Habsburg period. The Jardín de la Isla is on a man-made island bounded by the River Tagus and the Ría Canal.

Palace Aranjuez Gardens…

Walk around the gardens…

Monday morning and we are up at the crack of dawn, the alarm clocks ringing at 07:15. It took the usual 2 hours to pack the final items away and shortly after 09:15 we were on our way to Aranjuez, around 40km south of Madrid.

The journey from Granada was uneventful until we reached the outskirts of Aranjuez when the heavens opened up. We followed the ACSI site directions from the South (we had travelled pretty much due North on the Autovia) which directed us through the centre of this old town.

With limited visibility, a plethora of one-way streets (not orientated one-way per our satnavs), abandoned cars everywhere (sorry that’s a Spanish term for “parking”) and lots of cobbled roads, the final 15 minutes were tricky. Note for next time: Follow the A4 to North of Aranjuez and then at La Estacion take the Carreterra de Chinchon a A-4 to the M-305 and then directly South on the M-305 to the campsite.

The campsite itself had also been deluged with rain and it was difficult to find a pitch without a personal water feature. Anyhow, we found one eventually and the weather cleared up enough in the evening for our customary BBQ.

We visited the Sierra Nevada Ski Station which is a ski resort in the Sierra Nevada in the province of Granada in southeastern Spain. The ski area is on the northwestern slopes of Veleta, the third highest peak in peninsular Spain and the most southerly ski resort of Europe.

Sieera Nevada…

Sierra Nevada is Europe’s southernmost ski area and the highest in Spain. With its high elevation, the skiing season can last from late November until early May but not this year. Most of the town was closed and only the final remnants of snow remained.

It is also less than 100 km (60 mi) from Motril, on the Costa Tropical, which means skiing and swimming on the same day is an option.

Reservoir Melegris…

Before heading into the mountains, we had taken a walk around the reservoir at Melegris but this was curtailed due to heavy rain and thunderstorms.

Circular truncated walk…

Day 34 and our penultimate Saturday in Spain on Eurotrip 5. We made our way via bus, which runs every half an hour on a Saturday from just outside the campsite into Granada around lunchtime. The fare is Euros 1.5 each and during the week, the buses depart every 15 minutes on the quarter of the hour.

Granada fiesta…

There was some kind of fiesta and procession occurring in Granada that day and many of the city centre roads were closed to traffic. A pair of large bulls was pulling the centre peace of the procession.

Later we visited the cathedral of Granada. Unlike most cathedrals in Spain, construction of this cathedral had to await the acquisition of the Nasrid kingdom of Granada from its Muslim rulers in 1492; while its very early plans had Gothic designs, the construction of the church in the main occurred at a time when Spanish Renaissance designs were supplanting the Gothic regnant in Spanish architecture of prior centuries.

Weather was mixed again – blighty is enjoying warmer and drier weather than Spain at the moment. Apparently that happens for a day or two every few years… Dinner was a nice steak cooked on the BBQ.

The reason we are here in Granada is the same reason most people visit Granada – to see the Alhambra.

Generallife gardens…

Ornate Plaster ceilings…

Alcazaba…

Nasrid Palace…

Nothing much to report today.  The day was spent working on a variety of issues and taking care of some laundry.

The evening however was spent at the campsite restaurant where the food was of a high standard. One of their specialities was “meat and stone” – I had the steak and cooked it on the supplied granite block.

Steak and stone…

Our first full day in Granada and the morning was spent chilling at the campsite. It was quite cold last night with a low of 7 degrees celsius but the day soon warmed up a high of around 31 degrees in the centre of town.

We took the bus, which stops just outside,  from the campsite into Granada in the afternoon. The price is 1.5 Euros for a single ticket and the journey to the Palace of Congress takes just 20 minutes.

Carerra del Darro…

We visited Carrera del Darro which is one of the oldest streets in Granada and its name is given to the entire left bank of the River Darro.

Carrera del Darro is one of the most scenic walks in Granada. To the right of the River Darro, it is crossed by two brick and stone bridges (Cabrera and Espinosa), which link Carrera del Darro with the neighborhood of the Churra. It runs between the river, the forest of the Alhambra and the Almanzora, which extends up the slope of Gomerez. The street dates from the seventeenth century.

Dobla de Oro…

We are still trying to find out what the Dobla de Oro is.

Evening was another BBQ and despite retiring indoors due to rain, the shower lasted only a few minutes.

I didn’t receive any comments suggesting who the famous person was filming during our visit to Fort Bravo.

Have found out his name is Jesus Calleja and he’s a mountaineer, having previously climbed Everest and now a popular film / documentary producer.

Just google “Jesus Calleja”.

We arrived in Granada around 12:15 after just over two and a half hours on the road. Not bad for a 130 mile trip but as always, the roads are excellent and no traffic delays.

We joined the A7, direction Almeria and then picked up the A92 all the way to Granada. The landscape was mountainous and not the easiest of tows on a very windy day and ascending to more than 1000 meters on a number of occasions.

The Sierra Nevada are still snow covered and on arriving in Granada, the snow covered mountains are still visible in the near distance. It is a most bizarre experience because the daytime temperature in Granada is 30 degrees celsius plus!

Reina Isabel pitch…

The campsite is Reina Isabel, located on the northern edge of La Zubia and just 20 minutes by frequent bus service to the centre of Granada. The site has around 40 – 50 pitches and they are small… We have one of the largest pitches on the site (courtesy of our lunchtime arrival) and there is no possibility of erecting the awning.

BBQ Shelter…

We did however manage to hang up a tarpaulin from the rear of the caravan under which we can keep the BBQ and chairs – some rain is forecast during our one week stay here.

I’ll discuss more about the site later save to say that the reviews highlighting the “grumpy” owners are all true. They are efficient and will help out just so long as you ask the right questions. We have tickets booked to the Alhambra for Friday (and no, I don’t mean the theatre at Bradistan).

We are moving on from Los Escullos tomorrow after a lovely stay for the past couple of weeks. The place has grown on us significantly over the two weeks and it will definitely be on our list to return again.

It is a very peaceful part of the world. Well, maybe not so peaceful over this bank holiday weekend as the Spanish descended in large numbers and the site was practically full for the Saturday and Sunday evenings.

It took much of the morning to dismantle the awning and another hour to take a shower.

Cycle ride 5…

Then it was time for our final cycle ride here in the natural park. This time we took the bikes to San Miguel de Cabo de Gata and cycled around a circular route (number 5 in the guide book) and past a series of salt marshes and lakes.

Proper sized Brandy…

Evening was dinner at the site restaurant and how about this for a decent sized brandy to end the evening…