Granada Warnings Or Dangers Tips by Bwana_Brown

Sudden Police road checks

It was about 10 AM on Sunday morning by the time we had enjoyed breakfast at the hostal, retrieved our car and checked out. Traffic was light on another beautiful sunny day as we cruised, along with a few other vehicles, to the outskirts of Granada on a nice divided highway as we began our drive to Seville. Suddenly, ahead I spotted some policemen standing beside the road along with several of their vehicles, motioning our entire group of about ten vehicles to pull off onto a parallel side-road. There, all the drivers were given breathalyzer tests - the first one I had ever had!! Luckily, I passed!

It then came to me that Spanish custom is to eat and drink much later in the evenings than I do, and with it having been a Saturday night, there were probably a few people with severe hang-overs out driving the streets! Our Lonely Planet guide states: "The blood-alcohol limit is 0.05%. Breath tests are becoming more common and if found to be over the limit, you can be judged, condemned, fined and deprived of your licence within 24 hours. Fines range up to 600 Euros for serious offenses. Nonresident foreigners will be required to pay up on the spot (at 30% off the full fine). If you don't pay, or don't have a Spanish resident go guarantor for you, your vehicle will be impounded". It was probably a good thing I had gone to bed very early after our busy day touring the Alhambra!

A maze of streets

Just as had happened four days earlier in Alicante when I picked up our first short-term rental car, I had great difficulty in finding my way around Granada by car! It did not help matters that I did not have a very good map of the many narrow, steep and twisting streets of the old Moorish quarter where our hostal was located - just something from Google roughly showing the hostal's location. My plan was to just put the car away in their private parking garage for our two nights in town, but first I had to find the place!

On entering the downtown area we were soon hopelessly lost so reverted to using the red tourist signs pointing the way to the Alhambra, since we knew the hostal was located close to it. We drove around for what seemed like two hours in the complicated maze of narrow streets with difficult to find street names, heavy traffic and sometimes one-way only with no luck. Finally, I saw a public parking garage and just pulled into it and found a spot for the car. Out we got and took off on foot, obtaining a tourist map giving us a more detailed overview of the downtown streets in the Alhambra area. Even on foot we must have taken an hour slogging up and down the hillside trying to find Hostal Landazuri. Finally, from Plaza Nueva, I looked up this street and saw the white hostal! There, at the foot of the street were round traffic signs on both sides with a big red 'X' and words saying 'No Entry' but with much smaller printing below saying 'Except for official vehicles and hostal guests'!! No wonder I had not been able to find the place - trying to read all the fine print with various vehicles up my rear bumper!

We walked up the street, checked in and then I walked back to the parking garage to retrieve our rental car. Even then, I still got lost on the way back but finally managed to reach the hostal and ditch the car until we left two days later! It was a breeze leaving town on a Sunday morning with little traffic and we also knew 'the lay of the land' by then!