Monday 30 January 2012

The Hand of Fatima by Ildefonso Falcones

This magic historic novel describes the Moorish rebellion of the Alpujarras in the 16th century and about the life of Hernando, half christian-half moor. The story takes you from the rural Alpujarras to the splendour and intrigues of the city of Cordoba. The book is well written and gives you a nice insight in the differences between the christian and moorish culture at the time and is an excellent preparation for anybody who is interested to know more about the history of Andalusia and Spain.



More information about this book in English called The hand of Fatima
More information abouth this book in French called Les révoltés de Cordoue
In Dutch called De hand van Fatima
In German called Die Pfeiler des Glaubens

Sunday 22 January 2012

The Lions of Alhambra are back!

The Patio de los Leones, the Lions patio in the Alhambra Palace in Granada finally got its lions back. After five years of thorough restoration, cleaning and reparation the 12 marble lions, dating from the XIV century will  be functioning again as the beautiful fountain it was meant to be. Now the lions are clean you can notice that every lion has a different fur and different expression.Only the floor of the patio has yet to be redone with the white marble from Macael this spring and then we can enjoy this patio in all its splendour.


Photo Agencia Efe


If you want to visit the Alhambra Palace, we recommend you to buy your tickets in advance.
The website to order them is Ticketmaster
You will chose at what time you want to visit and make seperate reservations for adults, children, pensionists and you have to have you credit card at hand to confirm your reservation.

If you look for a nice holiday house to stay in the Granada province, please have a look on our website.

Thursday 19 January 2012

Friday 13 January 2012

High Speed Trains in Andalusia

Spain has marvellous high speed trains, called AVE (which means bird, but the abreviations stands for Alta Velocidad Española). They bring you in no time from Madrid and Barcelona to Andalusian cities such as Cordoba, Sevilla, Antequera and Malaga.
They are comfortable, luxourious and not expensive, if you plan your trip some time ahead.




You can find all detailed information on the website of Renfe, the official railway company.

Thursday 5 January 2012

¡ iSpain ! On your apple phone

The offical tourism organism Turspain, has designed a very interesting and free tool to reveil all the secrets of the wonderful Spanish cities. The programme is called iSpain and can be downloaded for free on I-pods, I-phones or I-pad.

The program is written in English and gives information about ten of the most important spanish cities: Bilbao, Barcelona, Córdoba, Granada, Madrid, Salamanca, Santiago, Sevilla, Valencia y Zaragoza. 



You will find here general information, about arts and culture, about gastronomy, shopping, sports and nature, what to do with kids, all accompanied by the best images of these destinations.
You can also find here the weatherforecast for the different cities.

Also you can find pratical information as in any travelguide: exchange rates, a dictionary, how much to pay for tips, where to find the different places, information about hotels, restaurants, hopsitals and special interest places. 

To download to program got to Apple Store