Granada

From Madrid, Inka travels south to the snow. A contradiction in terms? Well, it is one of Spain's best kept secrets - the Sierra Nevada.



There, only two and a half hours away from Marbella and four from Madrid, she meets ski instructor Jonathan Buzzard, who has been teaching at the resort since 1991.



The Sierra Nevada mountain range is the perfect backdrop for one of Spain's most impressive sights - the Alhambra, which overlooks Granada. It was built when most of Spain was under Arab rule and parts of it date back to the 7th century.



Granada was the last stronghold of the Arabs in Spain. Their legacy can still be seen today in the arts and crafts.



El Albaicín, one of the oldest parts of the city, also exudes Moorishness. Inka goes for a stroll in the company of Juan Bustos, an expert on Granada.



He explains that Granada enabled the people who came from the desert to honour the element most essential to their survival, water.



Inka then visits Manuel López Bellido at his workshop. He has been making guitars since he was fourteen years old.



To the east of Granada lies a strange and ancient landscape. For hundreds of years people have sought shelter from the elements by burrowing into the clay mountains to make caves.

Long thought of as 'rabbit-holes' where people lived, the reality is quite different nowadays, as Inka finds out.



Alfonsa is quite a character and one of the oldest cave-dwellers. She is also very representative of the rural Spain of her generation. Most Spaniards are likely to know someone like Alfonsa.



'I'll swap you the cave for a flat' people tell her and she says, 'I've got my cave and I'm not going to a flat.'

Now it has become quite fashionable in Granada to have a cave as a weekend retreat. Their constant 19°C temperature is ideal - pleasantly warm in winter and cool in summer.



There are even some which have been transformed from their pre-historic origins into an 'apart-hotel' overlooking the Sierra Nevada, featuring all the facilities of a 3 star hotel. And less than two hours' drive from Granada, the coast and the ski resorts of the Sierra Nevada.



Granada - Local Links

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Ski and Snowboard in Sierra Nevada

Sierra Nevada Tourist Board

La Alhambra

The legacy of Al-Andalus

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