Spain 16 – Granada

My approach to Granada was cut short when on the highway after a longer stretch of 120km/h the engine cut out again. Luckily the engine kindly announces that it will lock up within the next secondĀ  because before it does it completely loses all power. Only a second later it goes out. So I hit the clutch again, switched on the hazard lights and rolled to the hard shoulder.

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Earlier in a post I complained a bit about drivers in Spanish cities but in general I was very pleasantly surprised about people on the highways. Nobody seems to be speeding even when they are almost alone on the highways. And they always switch on the hazards when there is any sight of danger or a jam. Especially the trucks often use the hazard lights when they are slowly crawling up a hill on the highway or going down. And most people got onto the lane farthest away from me making me feel safer despite having stopped facing the sun – in a left turn – on the peak of an incline.

Periodically I poured a lid full of water from a water bottle onto the engine to see how quickly it would evaporate.

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At first it was instant. But when it was down to four seconds before it started to disappear I decided to get back on the road. The engine seemed cool enough to take another few dozens of kilometers, which it was.

It was and I reached Granada in the evening just as planed.

The landscape had changed drastically in just an hour. All of a sudden there were trees once again.

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Wild camping would be getting easier again from here on.

Though in Granada I wanted to stay a longer than just one day so in order to not have to set up and pack my tent a few times in the same spot every day and get into the city from outside with all my things I decided to stay at a hostel.

Arriving in Granada I rode through the little lanes searching for the hostel I had found on the Hostelworld app.

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The people at the hostel were really nice and at the end of my stay I didn’t want to leave the town. I had planed to stay for two days but if I recall correctly I stayed for four.

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We ended up being a group of six people exploring Granada together.

From left to right: Amy (Australia), Asia (Poland), me, Pakorn (Thailand) later we were joined by Eyve (Switzerland) and Sofia (Mexico)

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One of the most impressive places we visited was the Alcazaba, a medieval Muslim fortress decorated with incredible detail.

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(Unfortunately I can’t rotate the photo at the moment.)

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The view from up there was fantastic.

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All kinds of citrus trees were scattered around the city and all over the south of Spain for that matter.

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On one of the many free walking tours which you can attend all over Europe in touristy cities we learned about the (Muslim) history of Granada.

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At a particular point in Granadas history all mosques were either destroyed or turned into churches. Not the case however with the cathedral of Granada.

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