I don’t know which days these were – Malaga and Granada

It has been a while since I posted, we were out of internet-able hotels for a few days.  We went to Malaga, a beautiful coastal town, my first taste of Playa - beach and the furthest south we will be during this trip.   The weather was sunny and gorgeous; I have the sun-burnt nose to prove it!  We went to the MOST amazing place I've ever been:  Alcazaba and Castillo de Gibralfo - a huge fortress/group of castles.  It was originally started in the eleventh century by the Moors, then taken over by the Christians, a very common theme throughout Spain due to the history of the region.  We were able to walk the castle walls as the soldiers who defended the fortress did.  I was absolutely awestruck throughout the 5 hours we spent walking around.  It's a good thing I got my taste of castle/fortress', because when we showed up to Alhambra in Granada- the last Moorish Stronghold of Spain and supposedly really cool attraction, they were SOLD OUT!  On the way from Valencia to Granada, we wove around the coast line and enjoyed the amazing Mediterranean views, breathtaking!  Once we got to Granada, we settled into our hotel room and went for some dinner.  We stopped at a diner that had a poster of the Rockefeller workers(The one with the beams suspended above central park) on the wall. The waiter kept trying to convince me that it was the Empire State Building!  His brother had visited New York two Christmas' ago.  The next morning we woke up, took our time and had breakfast, then got in the car for a quick hop over to Alhambra (about 2 kilometers).  Turns out Granada had different plans.  As we drove through the tiny streets, we realized that Granada was taking us for a ride.  The only major street going to where we wanted to be was closed to regular traffic- buses and taxis (and apparently suicidal scooter drivers) only. We went in circles about 5 times before finally breaking out of the labyrinth by going the opposite direction of where we wanted to be, going to the very end of town, getting on the highway and following the signs to Alhambra, 45 minutes later.  It was at this point that we found out that Alhambra was sold out for the next two weeks!  Needless to say, I couldn't wait to escape the mountain city that had no consideration for what we wanted to do!