Spain again! Sunday 7 June 2015 For the third time in 5 years, my wife Laura, my daughter Serena (10 in August) and I return to Spain...Andalusia! Which confirms that, obviously, we liked it very much. We leave from Palermo on a direct Ryanair flight to Seville at 14.15. I bought the tickets well in advance and paid 72€ each! We arrive at 17.00, right on time, at the pretty Seville airport, and as soon as we stick our noses out of the plane, we're hit by a wave of infernal heat!! 37 degrees and a very strong sirocco! We're off to a good start... We pick up the rental car at Europcar (for a midsize with unlimited mileage and full insurance with no excess at all, 300€ for 7 days! 187 without the full coverage) and head off towards Granada.
We drive almost 250 km on the A92 motorway – the Carretera de Andalucía...beautiful! A strip of asphalt through typically Andalusian landscapes, with little traffic and very smooth: in 2 hours we reach the centre of Granada. The hotel we booked, again through my trusty booking, is the Granada Center Hotel, a 4-star located right near the historic centre. For 2 nights in a very large triple room with enormous beds we paid 190€. But what we see as soon as we arrive is far superior to what we could have imagined!! Super luxurious and enormous!! Near the motorway exit and just a few minutes' walk from the centre. It's already 20.30 when we get ready to check in and take the room, a quick freshen-up, and we dash off to find a place for our first Andalusian dinner.
Of course, as is my habit, I was already organised about where to eat...and for this occasion we head straight to Calle Navas: a little street in the Albaicín district famous precisely for its many establishments where you can sit down and taste local and national specialities! More than one friend and reviewer had written well of the cerveceria Abadia – Calle Navas 12 – and we go there. The tables outside are all taken and inside it's boiling hot! We decide to wait and in less than ten minutes we're seated. With every drink they give you a tapa to taste, included in the price. We order the paella, as warmly recommended by previous patrons of the place, and while we wait we taste the "complimentary" tapas... As I already pointed out in my previous "Spanish reviews", with paella I've always had huge disappointments, But this time...
People, you have to eat the paella in this place if you happen to be around here, you won't regret it!! Delicious! We had 2 Cokes, 1 sangria, a half water, a burger of really good beef with a side of fries, the paella good for 3 but more than enough for 2, and we paid 36€...not bad!! But the real strong point of the place is Marcello, a super friendly Argentine waiter who speaks and understands Italian perfectly! It's almost midnight...and I remembered that I'd been awake since 5.00...let's head back!
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