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Here’s how the other new song goes: trying to beat both the crowd and the heat in a single stroke, I left before 8 AM for the Alhambra.

Turned out I didn’t understand how to enter, lost almost an hour, and tickets were sold out for ages to come. But you can still freely walk around the complex, or at least part of it, and even visit a palace hosting a small but very interesting museum, and some other small places. It’s another architectural marvel. The mostly Arabic delicate style mixed up with more recent European elements is a visual delight!

I took a couple hours there, feasting my eyes, until heading back to town for lunch. Later I walk past the cathedral and a monastery, which were on my way to the train station.

No, today I’m not boarding any trains, but I need to come there to get tickets. Spain is the only country, along with Portugal and Romania, where you need to get your reservation in person if you have an Interrail pass. That is… quite annoying and stupid. But as the nice guy at the booth said: « Welcome to Spain! »

Poor guy, I had no less than EIGHT different trains to book. Indeed I’ve planned everything outside Portugal, to be sure to be back on time in France. And for every single booking, I had to make a separate payment, and sign a receipt. It took a good 20 min I think, but there was no one else waiting and the guy was really cool about it. Best of all, only the first train was full yet, and I could take one later. Smoother than I feared.

With my zillion tickets in hand, I came back to the hostel in the early afternoon, and could now book the hostels, which are surprisingly much cheaper than I expected. After that I did a great bunch of nothing, hiding from the heat. Until… well, until night really. That’s ok, I leave late afternoon tomorrow anyway.

Here’s last week video: