Day 18 Granada to Alarcon

This was a driving day. After maneuvering ourselves out of Granada we headed north. After about 50 miles we got off the expressway and headed east on smaller roads. The country for the first 100 miles or so was again nothing but olive trees. They plant them everywhere. They are in the flats and covering the hills. In Spain they put olive oil on everything and serve olives as bar snacks. Some tres are younger but even though they are all about the same size, maybe 10 feet tall, many have huge old knarled trunks. We remember the olive trees in the Garden of Gethsemane n Jerusalem that they said were 2000 years old. I am not sure I believe that but some of these are very old.

The terrain then turned to crop lands with sectioned fields. Then we were on some nice winding roads up through some canyons to the top of a plateau where it was flat and open again. The towns here look just like Nebraska with tractor sales and feed stores.

It remained flat until about one mile from our Parador and then it opened up to view a large castle on a hill and a deep ravine with a river and small lake. We are really out in the middle of nowhere. This area is popular for outdoor sports like hiking. Our room is rather small. It is up in the castle with a small window looking out over the valley through 3 foot thick walls.  The castle was originally built in the 8^th century by the Arabs and then destroyed in the 12^th century and rebuilt in the 14^th century.  It has obviously been updated since then. There is one photo of the dinning room which was originally the chapel.