There aren't any public swimming pools in the Sacromonte.

There is a page with information about swimming pools here:

http://granadamap.com/sport/swimming.htm

These may be more for proper lane swimming.

There is an aqua park with waves and slides at Aqua Ola in Cenes de la Vega.

You will have to get a bus or a taxi.

Info here:

http://www.granadamap.com/aquaola/index.htm

We are going to be in Granada next week with our two sons aged 12 and 14 years old. Are there any swimming pools we can visit whilst we are there? We are staying in the Sacromonte.

Laurie Lee wrote a travel book about Spain called "As I woke up one Midsummer Morning".

The book starts with him labouring on a London building site.
He catches a boat to Vigo and walks around Spain and visits such places as Zamora, Valladolid, Toledo, Madrid etc.

The last 2 chapters of the book he recounts his experience of living in Almuñecar.

He gives Almuñecar the pseudonym Castillo and he calls Nerja Altofaro.

This was in 1935/1936. In those days Almuñecar was a small fishing village.
There were only 2 hotels.  Even the fishing was very basic, a rowing boat would take a net
in an arc away from the beach and then about 40 fishermen would haul the net back in.
It was normal for the catch to be very small. Almuñecar was very poor, the only way for the men
to make a living was in fishing or working in the sugar cane harvest which did not provide all year round work.

He states:
"The only people with jobs seemed to be the village girls,
 most of them in service to the richer families, where for a bed in a cupboard and a couple of pounds
a year they were expected to run the whole house and keep the men from the brothels."

He worked in a Hotel which was on the beach both as a waiter and as a fiddle player.
The time spent in Almuñecar is just before the civil war and everything is pervaded by a sense of impending doom.
There is a brief period of optimisim after the "The Popular Front" which was a coalition pact of left wing parties signed in January 1936
but the civil war draws close and towards the end of the book it is obvious that Nerja is in the hands of the rebels.
The only way to delay inevitable defeat is by blowing up the bridges between Almuñecar and Nerja.

Laurie Lee is eventually rescued by a British destroyer sent out from Gibraltar to pick up stranded British subjects.

The Almuñecar of today is unrecognisable from the Almuñecar of 1936.
The only similarities are the lightening storms that light up the whole bay in winter, the grey sand and the description of the swollen river after heavy rains.

The Spanish Civil War must have been horrendousness.  

Laurie Lee is a good writer follow the link to see other books by him.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/redirect.html?ie=UTF8&location=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.co.uk%2Fs%3Fie%3DUTF8%26ref_%3Dnb%5Fsb%5Fss%5Fi%5F0%5F10%26field-keywords%3Dlaurie%2520lee%26url%3Dsearch-alias%253Daps%26sprefix%3DLaurie%2520Lee&tag=751&linkCode=ur2&camp=1634&creative=19450]Click here for books by Laurie Lee



















 

  

I was strolling along the seafront of Almuñecar and I found a monument to Laurie Lee.

I remember studying Cider with Rosie but what does he have to do with Almuñecar?

In Spain between mid June and mid September you will need to protect yourself from mosquitos at night.

Just go to any supermarket and buy yourself an anti-mosquito machine.

The most old fashioned are a small heater which you plug in and you change the pastille every night.

The more modern ones have  some sort of insecticide tank and you can leave them plugged in for up to 45 nights.

That will solve your problem immediately.

If you have a place in your home where you sit out in the evenings such as a teraza or patio you may need an anti mosquito spiral.

They are green spirals and you light them. They slowly burn down emitting an insecticide smoke.

The smoke is slightly unpleasant but it is much better than being bitten. 

To avoid the smoke you can put then on the floor rather than the table.

The only place where it is difficult to protect yourself from mosquitos is if you eat outside in the evening at a restaurant.

Really the restaurant itself should do something to protect you but this is not that normal, especially in a village.

The best thing to do in this case is to spray yourself with an insect repellant.

Insect repellant is probably the least effective method and if you are in your own home you should always use a machine.

If you do get bitten by a mosquito never scratch it.

If you are reading this because you  have been woken up by mosquitos and all the shops are closed then look for some garlic in the kitchen.

Smear some garlic on your skin because it repells the mosquitos.

An aspirin or other painkiller may help the itch and let you get back to sleep.

Germolene or TCP are very good on insect bites because they have a local anasthetic.  These are UK products and are not available in Spain.

How do mosquitos find you?

The air that you breathe out has a slightly higher concentration of carbon dioxide than the surrounding air. Mosquitos have a very sensitive way of measuring the carbon dioxide in the air and find you by finding your breath.









 














 



 

Since the hot weather has started I am being bitten by mosquitos or something during the night.
I am being driven crazy.
What can I do?

What you need is a VPN or Virtual Private Network.

It lets you connect to internet via another computer which is in a different location.
So it seems as if you are in that location to the BBC or ITV

If you were very clever you could leave a computer running at your house in England and then connect to it via VPN
using a free VPN program like teamviewer or something similar.

Otherwise you need to sign up for a professional VPN service.
If you search on google there are many of them.

I use a system called strong VPN and so far it works very well.
They has a package called three cities which costs $55 USD per year.

Here is the link:
http://strongvpn.com/

Go to the website choose the 3 city special PPTP 1 year package.
If possible choose a city in the UK as the default location.

After paying by credit card you will go to a screen which has the configuration details.
They have simple instructions on how to install it on most operating systems like vista or xp etc.
If you have a problem there is help via live chat.

Whenever you need to use the iplayer or pretend that you are in the UK just connect to the VPN.

It is also possible to watch American TV if you change cities.

TIPS:
If you connect to the iplayer and forget to connect via the VPN it will  delete all the saved programs that you have downloaded. For this reason I download them in windows media format and watch the programs using windows media player so it can't do that.

I watched England being thrashed by Germany in the world cup using a VPN connected by a 3G phone. I have an unlimited vodafone contract. If you connect to internet using a phone contract make sure it doesn't cost you a fortune in mobile fees because the downloads are very big.  

Links:
BBC IPLAYER
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/

ITV PLAYER
http://www.itv.com/itvplayer/










  

I am staying in for a while in an apartment in la Herradura.
There is a fast internet conection  but no British television.

I like to watch the football and some soaps which are on the BBC.

When I try to use the BBC iplayer I get a message saying that I cannot connect because I am not in the UK.

I normally live in the UK and I pay my TV license.

Is there a way of getting round this.

I was speaking to someone in a bar and he said that it is possible to get a proxy or something.

Any ideas?

 

I had a look at jet2.com
You can get from Newcastle to Malaga for about 75 pounds  each way
So the flight would cost somewhere around 300 return for 2 people.

To book go here.
http://www.jet2.com

Then you need to get a bus from Malaga.
Malaga airport has a special bus stop with buses to the Malaga bus station.
Get off the plane, go to the bus station and get on the bus to Granada. 

Once you are in Granada bus station get a taxi from Granada bus station to
the accom or get on a 3 or 33 bus into the centre.

Info about bus tickets here
http://alsa.es


The closest places to the Alhambra are these.
They are just on the doorstep.

They are all about 100 metres from the grounds of the Alhambra  just off the Cuesta Gomerez
which goes up from Plaza Nueva to the Alhambra.
It's up a hill so not OK if you have health problems. 

The people who run the Alcoba speak English are a good source of local info.

Alcoba A - 800 metres
http://granadainfo.com/alcoba
Apartment in a beautiful house in the centre of Granada, near Plaza
Nueva just below the Alhambra. Excellent location. The apartment has 1
bedroom (with a double bed), kitchen, lounge with a sofa-bed, and
bathroom. Shared outside patio.

Ayala   - 800 metres
http://granadainfo.com/ayala
Modern house/apartment in the centre of Granada, near Plaza Nueva just
below the Alhambra. Excellent location. The apartment has 2 bedrooms
(one with a double bed, the other with two bunk beds), kitchen,
lounge, dining room, bathroom and roof terrace with Alhambra views.

Picasso 3 - 800 metres
http://granadainfo.com/picasso
Modern duplex apartment for 5 people in the centre of Granada (very
near Plaza Nueva and the entrance to the Alhambra complex). The duplex
apartment has a bedroom with ensuite bathroom and double bed, lounge
with sofa-bed and extra bed, kitchen and bathroom. Air
conditioning/heat pump. WIFI broadband Internet. Washing machine. TV.

Hello, I am planning a birthday surprise for my partner who will be 60 years old next year. He absolutely adores Granada inparticular the  Alhambra Palace. I would love to try and book an apartment as close to this as possible.

We want 11th September 2011 for seven nights.

We want an apartment for two people.

We are physically fit.
We are looking to pay upto £800 for bed and breakfast for the flight and hotel or up to £500 for just accommodation.