Day Fifty-four 7.5.05 We were sad to leave Cabopino as we had both enjoyed the site and the proximity to the lovely beach. Its somewhere we may come back to in the future. We both wanted to see the Sierra Nevada and also visit Granada so we made our way today to a site just east of Granada near a mountain village called Guejar Sierra. The journey took us past some fantastic scenery and along what appeared on the map to be straight roads but turned out to be very windy and hilly. On the way to the site we took a wrong turning and ended up on the wrong side of a mountain. The roads round here don't link up the spread from the mountain like fingers so it meant back tracking quite a bit. Its funny how you notice quite good signage the second time round. By the time we set up and booked in the site, which required our camping card, both our passports, waist size and blood group we decided it was too late to venture the 12km into Granada today but would get the bus tomorrow. (Sunday, only two busses so no room for error.) We thought instead we would take a walk to appreciate the scenery as the campsite is obscured by trees and fencing. We were about 200m up the road with no path and a steady stream of traffic going up hill that we decided the view was better from the van. We went back to the site which benefits from having a restaurant with a large terrace and enjoyed the view from there. By the way in the future we may post two or three days blog on one postcard as we noticed our Orange phone bill is a bit big (Huge actually.) this way we will half or third the bill. Day Fifty-five 8.5.05 To William's delight the first bus to Granada was at 8am. The second bus was at 2pm so James was dragged out of bed at a really unreasonable 7am. Although everyday at the moment is a bit like a Sunday for us it still seemed worse. The bus arrived bang on 8am so it was a good job we got to the bus stop at twenty-five to eight to see in arrive and look at every part of the bus stop area. It took us the 12kms into Granada in about twenty minutes for only 1.21 Euros (Strange amount but we didn't complain.) As you can imagine the city was not particularly bustling at 8.20am on a Sunday and because we had not had time for breakfast this was the first challenge of the day. Fully refreshed after a ham and cheese toastie at the only open café we set off to look for the interesting bits. We walked around for ages with two rubbish maps with about two street names between them and then we stumbled across a city bus tour so duly bought our 24 hour ticket and jumped on. After a couple of stops we got off at The Alhambra. We had hoped to avoid the coaches but alas we were too late for that and after inspecting our twenty euro ticket realised we had to wait until 2pm to view Los Palacios Nazaries (The best bit.) on a timed ticket. We then paid another six euros to get the audio tour, essential as they had run out of English guides ('Too many English tourists' we were advised, so James advised 'Clearly not enough English guides ordered' to remind them who was to blame.) A little frustrated we started the tour and then started again when we found the badly sign posted starting point. Our irritation soon passed as The Alhambra is truly remarkable and beautifully laid out with gardens and water features. We spent a long time on the tour and as it turned out our timed ticket coincided almost perfectly (We cheated and asked the guide to let us in half an hour early.) We then walked up to Generalife, which is part of the same area and was used as a retreat for royalty. It too was lovely and we got some excellent photos. We then hopped on out tour bus to continue looking around Granada, it didn't really compare though and it was a good job that included within the tour was a smaller bus that explored the narrower streets which were far more interesting. Quite tired by now we headed back for the last bus at 6pm. We had a bit of time so stopped for a Coke and a wee. Whilst drinking we realised we had nothing to eat at the site. So we decided to have that typical Spanish delicacy, Dona Kebap, it was surprisingly good and set us up for the evening. Day Fifty-six 9.5.05 After a busy day yesterday the only plan for today was to travel to Murcia and find a nice campsite. It was quite far and the road quite boring after a while. We found a site called Camping Los Madriles just outside Cartagena. The guide book was correct when it said the surrounding scenery was unremarkable but the site is quite impressive. There are three pools that are filled each day by a thermal spring. The temperature of the water remains the same all year at 22 degrees. It tastes a bit salty but because the pools are completely refilled overnight there is no need for chlorine. The site is also quite empty and its nice to have the pools pretty much to ourselves. After a dip we went into Cartagena to find a supermarket. We hadn't realised how big the town was and got a bit lost whilst trying to locate the Carrefour. Eventually we found it and got all our provisions and because we were hungry a few more bits than we needed. We also bought a couple of reclining chairs which Will has been harping on about since Le Harve. I must agree they are more comfy but I'm beginning to wonder where everything will go in the van. We had another barbeque tonight and felt really stuffed and hot so we had another dip in the pool which is open until 10pm. Now fully refreshed we are just chilling and wondering if they are midges or mosquitoes. The cintronella candle we bought is not making the slightest bit of difference and because they don't bite William I have retreated to within the mosquito net to ensure I don't wake up resembling a pepperoni pizza.