Alhambra? That sounds stinky.

Get it? All Ham Bra. Like a bra, made out of ham? Ok fine. It sucks.

Our final expedition in Spain before Jennifer and Emily headed back to the Americas was to drive up to Granada. I’ve been dying to get up to this amazing city, but haven’t had an excuse, or anyone to share it with, so I’ve been hesitating. But what better time to do it than now.

We find a cheap hotel on hotels.com. Some off-season gem we get a room for 1/3 it’s listed price. We make the 4 hour drive up to Granada, check into our BEAUTIFUL hotel (another highly recommended, if you can get it for cheap like we did) and get settled. We make the executive decision to forego wandering around another city after dark and sit at the hotel bar for a couple hours eating tapas and talking to the bartender before ordering room service, taking a couple long baths and watching tv in our suite.

First thing the next day, we pack up our stuff, cram it in the back of the station wagon and catch a cab up to the Alhambra.

The Alhambra is a Moorish palace constructed in the 14th century. Basically, as the Muslims were fleeing Spain and being pushed farther and farther South, they built this palace as a last hurrah and a final ruling place. It has a huge network of buildings comprising the actual palace but what really blew me a way were the Generalife gardens and the aquaducts that water them. Being on the top of the mountain behind the city of Granada, they use gravity to water most of the plants here and the landscape architecture is pretty amazing.

After we had our fill, we walked down the main paseo into town, past a ton of shops (with a short detour inside the H&M for some pre-winter purchases) and then to the cathedral. As is the theme for our trip, at this point, we were a bit famished and required some beer and tapas, so we actually followed a flyer someone handed us on the street down some side alley to a restaurant called Pecado.

And boy were we glad we did. I instantly fell in love with the waiter we had here and we spent a good part of the next 2 hours flirting or discussing how we could flirt more. There were also several attempts at stalker photos taken.

Unfortunately, after much baiting, I had to inform my beloved that we were not staying in Granada that night, but rather driving back to Malaga so the girls could get their flight out the next day. With two kisses, I left my soul mate forever and we all drove back to Malaga to the hotel they had booked right next to the train station.

And then the unthinkable happened.

We got more beer and some food. And then I drove back to San Am and they rested before hopping on early trains to the airport to go back to the US.

Sad day.