5 Years in Ireland...

Christmas 2009 - Our Spanish/Moroccan Adventure

Due to horrible flight connections, fares and Kelly's short Christmas break, we decided to stay on this side of the Atlantic for Christmas 2009

Our friend Anuca lent us her family's condo on the beach in southern Spain in the small town of Mazarron. This was our view from the balcony.

Sunrise on our first morning of our holiday.

Our first day happened to be the day of their big Sunday market. Lots to see. This would be the busiest we'd see Mazarron. As it's more of a summer destination, there were very few people around and many of the shops and restaurants were closed.

Kelly shopping for boats at the marina.

We decided to get out of town and check out some of the secluded beaches and try to get in a hike. If rental car companies saw how we treated their cars we'd be blacklisted.

Hiking up to an old pueblo overlooking the Mediterranean.

This would be the last time we saw the sun in Spain.

Off to Granada!

Out of our 7 days in Spain it rained 5 and a half. This really crushed our hopes of skiing if there was snow or hiking if it was dry. We really could do neither.

So we ate tapas.

And went to the baths.

We went to the Alhambra. (The last Moorish stronghold on the Iberian peninsula, a UNESCO world heritage site)

From the Alhambra you could look across to the Albaycyn. Our restaurant for Christmas Eve was right in front of the church at the top of the picture. GREAT views during dinner. (Special thanks to my friends (and sort-of students) Guillermo (from Granada) and Salvador who arranged and booked our dinners and provided us with customized maps of the city of Granada)

Begging the rain to stop!

The view of the Alhambra from our Christmas Eve restaurant.

Christmas morning we woke up and exchanged stockings and gifts. We quickly ate breakfast after hearing that the ski hill had just reopened after 5 days of closure. (Due to high winds and rain)

There was very little snow at the base of the resort but we decided to go for a ski anyway. There was only 1 lift running but they were doing safety checks with hopes to open another one.

They opened the other lift for about an hour before having to shut down the whole resort because of more high winds. We got about 6 runs in. Total. Burn.
What do you do on Christmas Day when the ski hill shuts down?

You go for shots in the local ski shop.

Even though we only skied for an afternoon it was still nice to get out of the city and up to the mountains.

Because of the rain, our visit to Granada mainly consisted of walking, shopping, and eating tapas.