Hi everyone, Here I am back home after a great vacation on the Costa del Sol. Last Monday my daughter and I took a tour bus to Granada from Benalmadena at a cost of 5300 pts each. We started out at 7.20am and after a stop en-route for coffee in the Loja area, we arrived in Granada about 10.30am. The weather was warm but overcast, but this did not spoil our day. We were given a short time to ourselves to walk around the shopping area and whilst in El Corte Ingles I bought a book by Washington Irvine called Tales of the Alhambra. He was the American Ambassador to Spain and there is a plaque dedicated to him inside the Alhabra. This book gives a very good insight into the region and palace as it was in the early 1800's. Anyway, after we re-joined the bus, we were taken to the Alhambra, where we were allocated a guide for the tour. This was really useful as all the history of the palace was explained to us. My thoughts turned to imagining what life was like back when the Moor kings lived there with their harem. The guide told us about the courtyard of Lions and how true it is I don't know, but the story goes that the 12 lions were a gift from the Jewish people, and were accepted as a mark of friendship. At the time the gardens were covered in rich foilage and this was allowed to grow in height which in turn hid the lions from view when the king had visitors from Islam, this was so as not to offend them. When he had a visit from a Jewish king , he had the foilage cut back to allow the lions to be seen again. How diplomatic was that? The gardens of the summer palace were beautifully kept and the fountains added to the tranquility of the overall visit. The views of the whole area and mountains were magnificient! After lunch and several hours later, we were then taken on a tour of the famous sights before leaving for home. Well worth the time and money to see such a beautiful region.