Climbing Mulhacèn and visiting Grenada

After some more beach time and some food shopping we drove up into the Sierra Nevada, to a tiny village at 1.400 meters, Capilera. From here you can take a bus that brings you to the trail head to climb Mulhacèn, the highest peak on mainland Spain, 3.482 meters. To climb it from the village, you would need two days, or be really, really fit. It's almost 2.000 height meters. A tall order in one day.

So she got a ticket for the bus the next day, which wouldn't leave until 10.30! What kind of a time is that to go into the mountains? By that time my human is normally on her way back! But hey, it's the Spanish way. They will have their reasons.

After getting the ticket and walking around town for a little bit, since there is only a little bit of a town, we settled in for the night in the public car park. It wasn't a terrible night, exactly, but far from a good one. There was a party going on in the house across the street till around three o´clock and by 6.30am the garbage disposal crew was driving around in tractors. Thanks!

Parking spot with a view

Love this one! No filter!

The bus was full of people, many of them German. It took about 50 minutes to get to the trailhead. There was a guy from the office of the National Park on board and told us a little bit about the flora and fauna of the Sierra Nevada, how it was formed and how we should behave on the mountain. He told us to turn around if we were not at the top after 3.5 hours. The bus would pick us up again where it left us 6.5 hours later.

1h20 minutes after leaving the bus, my human was on the summit and felt very much unsatisfied. She overheard a conversation between two Germans. The had obviously just started talking and were strangers. The older one, around 50, told the other one that he made it up in 1h40 minutes. So far, so good. Then he added that his average pulse had been under 130 all the way. Is it just me, or is that a weird information to share? Or to know, for that matter. 

My human also got talking to another hiker. Alberto, a Spaniard from the North, close to the French border. Up there is another National Park, "Los Picos de Europa". She had read about it before and is planning on doing some hiking there, if the weather allows. By the time we get there, there might be snow. Alberto told her that he had just retired from being a mountain guide in this park for 50 years!

After a little more chatter, he gave her his number and told her to contact him, when she got there. Oh, and she will!

A good way to start a hike. It can only get better!

Mulhacèn, 3.482m

They decided to head down the mountain together via a different route. After a couple of hours they reached a hut, had a beer, and decided to kept on going all the way down to Capilera, instead of catching the bus. They arrived at exactly the same time! And after this encounter, she was very much happy with this trip up Mulhacèn!

Because the parking lot would turn into a market at 7am the next morning, we left right after getting back so as to make it down before it got dark. The roads in the mountains are tricky during the day, let alone at night. The first couple of spots we had picked out to stay for the night didn't really do it for us, so we kept driving. Just before dark, we found a decent spot just outside a little village.

After a quick dinner and an even quicker cold shower, all there was to do was go to sleep.  

In the morning we drove the short distance to Grenada and parked in a residential area on a lively road, a good 2km from the city center. For the next 12 hours my human would wander around the streets of this old city. OK, there were breaks for lunch and dinner, granted. 

Granada was founded in the 5th Century BC and has a long history of wars and changing of rulers over the area. When you think of Granada, you probably think of the Alhambra, this world famous monument of Moorish culture. Which she had a ticket for the next day. But of course there are many other, smaller left overs of this epoch.

After visiting the cathedral, Spain's second largest (after the one in Seville, which we will have a look at soon), they headed up to Saint Nicholas look out, which offers great views of the Alhambra and the whole town. We were warned about the pick pockets once again, but the Instagram ladies with their selfie sticks seemed way more dangerous! To themselves and to others!

She also visited the "Parque de las Ciencias". A large museum with a curious variety of expositions. From space exploration to butterflies and from musical instruments to the human body. A bit of everything. There was also a small indoor zoo with a few aquariums, some small monkeys, birds, armadillos and a sloth. Which was in hiding. 

Carmelo is meeting with some very important people

A fin whale

And it's heart!

A piece of the moon!

This is a Mekong shark

After another semi-quiet night, which was to be expected, given where we were parked, it was time to see the Alhambra. It was originally constructed as a small fortress in 889 BC on the remains of ancient Roman fortifications, and then largely ignored until its ruins were renovated and rebuilt in the mid-13th century by the Arab Nasrid emir Mohammed ben Al-Ahmar of the Emirate of Granada.

It receives 2.7 million visitors a year! And half of them seemed to be there today!

She is still not sure if she has actually seen it all, there are hardly any signposts, but after almost three hours, she felt that she had seen enough. After getting back to me, we drove to a campground only 15km away. Remember I mentioned the toilet not overflowing yet? Well, by now...

The campground sits a good hundred meters above a water reservoir and is surrounded by hills. Not three meters next to me is the drop down to the water. Makes for a really nice view for my human and a mild anxiety attack on my side. 

We kind of drove around the Sierra Nevada and have now entered it again from the other side. 

Unfortunately the weather isn't meant to be great but rather unstable, so the plan of climbing the fourth highest mountain, Pico Veleta, will not be carried out. Instead she is now planning a nice round trip across three lower peaks. And I will call my therapist to talk about this anxiety problem.