Granada Day 3 - Sacramonte Hike and Albaycin at night

We had great weather our third day in Granada. When I studied abroad here I went on a few hikes beyond the Albaycin district to an area called Sacramonte. This is off in the valley behind the Alhambra which leads to the Sierra Nevada. We walked up above the Albaycin neighborhood to a section of Sacramonte which has cave houses. It is a very peculiar place, almost a completely different world. There was a small village of cave homes that were all connected by dirt paths. We saw children playing on the steep hills and and older man transporting a load in a wheelbarrow cautiously down the hills steep dirt paths.

Heading to Sacramonte

Cat Party!

A cave home in Sacramonte

We made it to a nice lookout point over the city. We spent a little while up here enjoying the views and the sunny weather. The number of dirt trails was endless. We kept following the trails up the hill to get to the highest point possible.

The Alhambra and Granada

snack break

Looking back on the city

Going up!

The whole time we were walking we could here hundreds of bells ringing. We ended up realizing it came from goats and sheep grazing the mountain side in search for food. We talked to the herder for a second and then he was on his way with his dog to help keep track of all the animals.

We made it up to the highest point on the hill we were on and decided to head back down because it was getting dark. We made it back to the Albaycin just in time to catch the sunset and see the Alhambra at night. The building was lit up very well from the outside and looked really cool from the Balcony of Saint Nicholas in the Albaycin.

heading to the Albaycin

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Navigating through the Albaycin can be difficult

Alhambra and City from Balcony of Saint Nicholas

We were pretty tired after a long day of hiking and headed back to the hostel to get a good night rest. The next morning we planned on taking the 11:30 train back to Sevilla. We got to the train station at 11:00. We bought roundtrip train tickets but the return ticket was open, which meant I had to let them know which train I wanted to take. I didn't realize how busy it was going to be and when it was my turn to request the return time I was informed the train was full and the next train was leaving at 5:00 at night. So we headed back to the hostel we stayed at and they were nice enough to let us hold our luggage there why we explored Granada for a few more hours.

Dead dog

Sierra Nevadas from Train Station

Granada Train Station

We made it back into Sevilla around 8 o'clock and ate some food and fell asleep. We had a really great time in Granada and I recommend it to anyone traveling to Spain.