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Barcelona to Granada Via Costa Blanca

January 27, 2002

Dear Family and Friends,

After five days of art, architecture and public transportation in Barcelona, we were ready to hit the open road. Our goal was Granada in the south but we wanted a slow trip, so we worked in a one-day stay on the Mediterranean coast. We figured the Costa Blanca was about half way and one of our guidebooks had recommended the town of Denia, so that's where we pointed the car.

We left Sunday morning, our favorite time to sneak out of cities with unfamiliar roads. We do not drive our car inside cities any more than necessary. It's a road car after all, not a city commuter. Our Barcelona departure was uneventful. One or two missed turns, but at that hour, we can correct without undue blood pressure increase. Then we were on the open highways and it was 140-150 kph (85 to 90 mph) all the way. We were turning off to Denia well before lunchtime. (That's 2:00pm to 3:00pm in Spain.)

We had hotel names for this coastal town from one guidebook. From our "Rick Steves" guidebook, we had the recommendation to never even go to Spanish coastal towns because they are all just collections of ugly hotel and condominium developments. Our first stop in Spain, Cadaques, was not, but we were beginning to see that may have been the exception.

As we had driven along the coast, we had seen high-rise after high-rise. When we got closer, we could see that the space in between high rises was filled with vacation houses and condominiums. It was hard to even see the sea. Rick Steves was right.

But we only needed one night and we pulled into the first beachfront hotel we found, The Los Angeles Hotel. Their logo was "LA" so I presume this was Spain copying California not the other way around. It turned out to be quite nice and, in off-season, reasonably priced. The beach view was pleasant and I think we shared the 40 room hotel with only a half-dozen guests, so it certainly was quiet. Even lunch was good, so we figured the travel gods had looked out for us again.

After lunch, we drove through town to see if our overall impression was correct. I'm afraid it was. There were lots of condos and hotels and strip malls. The off-season quiet just gave the place a ghost town feel. We did drive up on a hill of nice homes with nice views but even here, the places seemed empty. The one with the best view seemed emptier than the others.

The next morning we left the coast and headed into some of the driest parts of Spain. The landscape changed every hour or so as we made our way over to Granada. As we approached, we started to see the snow-capped Sierra Nevadas in the distance. In this case, I am sure that it was indeed the early Californians that lifted the name from Spain. In fact, throughout our Spanish trip we had been reminded of California, so it's easy to see how the early Californians were reminded of their Spanish homes.

Granada lies in a valley in front of the Sierra Nevadas. There was a layer of smoke over the valley but it seemed to come from the numerous trash fires throughout the area rather than the smog of the real Los Angeles. Other than the smoke, the setting was spectacular, and it got more interesting as we managed to get directions toward the Old Town.

By now, we know better than to drive around through old, narrow streets looking for hotel rooms, so we parked in an underground lot and headed out on foot. Armed with our Rick Steves guidebook, we located one of his recommended two-star hotels, The Los Tilos, and asked for their best room. Actually we asked for any room but as their second customer for the day, we got the second best. For under 40 Euros (plus taxes), we were happily settled in a comfortable room looking out our window at the spectacular Alhambra but that is another story.

Take care and if you can't see Spain, see California.

John and Marianne

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