Clarke and Brennie ....Next Stage.: Granada Adventures

This morning the 4 of us set out to go to some of the miradors (scenic viewpoints) here in Granada. We chose to take the car as scenic viewpoints are usually high up (duh). Map in hand and route pre-planned we hit the road. Within 2 turns, we were in trouble. Route #1 turned to poison due to road construction that detoured is via one way streets into some type of circling narrowing nightmare that not even Escher could come up with. After that narrow escape we headed to backup route #1 (AKA our second choice. AKA failure #2). This wasn’t so bad as the closed off roads (and detours) were wider ….. but, sadly it too was doomed.

Onward to route #3. Backup #2. Failure #3: We stopped, consulted the map and reached a consensus. On paper, it looked good. Hell, we are not stupid. Between the 4 of us we have four master degrees and 2 doctorates. How hard can this be, for god’s sake? Hop on the freeway, detour around town and approach the whole thing from a different direction and away from all the road construction. (It looks like they may be putting in an underground system.)

The joy of route #3:
So we get to the other side of town and are zipping along and everything is (kind of) fine. We have to adjust our plans at about every intersection because many (most) roads are one way. We are making our way uphill to an older part of town. Note: this is a very old town. Most of the roads were made long before cars. They can get twisty and narrow. Sooooooooo …….. do you see it coming? Combine uphill, narrow, twisty, few choices because of one way streets (do not enter signs) and possibly a little disoriented. We are still hopeful, but becoming a little less cocky.

Anyway, at some point all choice was taken away from us. At every intersection of roads randomly designed (did I say designed?) for pedestrians long ago, there is only one way to proceed. Each block gets either narrower, more twisty or steeper. Some times two of the previous and occasionally all three. We are looking for an escape now, but none offers itself. Finally (no sh*t) we have no choice but to go up this one impossibly narrow, steep and twisty street …….. and we come to …….. “no way the car is getting through that.” I get out in front of the car so that we see if it can make it through. The car is about an inch too wide ….. even if we manage it perfectly. The only choice is to back up (actually down) hell road . We finally got it backed out of the narrow twisty road. The locals found it very entertaining and even gave us a round of applause. We only had to drive a couple blocks going the wrong way before we were on our way back to the hotel with our tails between our legs.

It was after we got beyond the arch that the 'real fun' began.

Brennie was going to take some pics of the driving adventure.
That might have seemed cruel.
So I have recreated it .... birds eye view

Adventure #2:
The Brennie and I decide we still want to go to the miradors. On foot sounded pretty good by then. So we hop out of the car once it is basically in downtown. We have ath hand drawn map from a guide book. So, off we go. Within 6 blocks of entering old steep twisty town, it is obvious that the hand drawn map was out of scale, missing streets, and leaving lots to the imagination. Anyway, we figure ……… “mirador”, gotta be high up. So every time we have a choice we go for the steeper road. These were all walking ‘roads’. A car could never even hope to get through.

We did ask directions a couple times and were just told to walk uphill. We finally made it to Mirador San Nicalos. Which amazingly, is where we were trying to go. Even got a picture to prove it.

We heard there ws a lot of good food in the old section of town we were in (Muslim and Gypsy). Smelled like Marijuana is used in a lot of the old family recipes.