Time for another holiday

Following my trip to Vienna and Bratislava, I have been up to my neck in European Election campaigning. It was some of the most frantic weeks I've ever experienced - worse than my Masters write-up! There are so many things to keep on top of when you're coordinating an election campaign, no matter how insignificant the electorate consider it to be. It really did challenge my sanity and patience to the max. Nevertheless with the undiminishing help of some key stalwarts and a lot of hard work the Lib Dems won in Edinburgh West. That is such a strong position to be in going into a General Election.

Anyway, enough about that. Within two days of the election result announcement I was boarding a flight to Malaga with my mum. We were heading on a roadtrip along the south coast of Spain and then north towards Granada. I was the driver at the helm of the rental car, driving on the wrong side of the road for the first time in my life. It was a fun experience in the end, even mum complimented my driving! The first three days of our trip were spent in the resort town of Nerja. It was a very pleasant place and it felt great to spend so many mind-numbing hours lazing by the pool. We even managed to find somewhere there to watch Lions match going on during that week. It was a shame about the cabaret in the evenings of our Fawlty Towers-style hotel. At its worst, a blonde Dot Cotton wearing a baggy one-piece Andrex-peach outfit bleated out 50s classic that even my mum was struggling to identify!

To me, the latter part of the holiday was better. I'm definitely a city person. We were staying in an uber-modern hotel on the outskirts of Granada. The swimming pool was gorgeous. After the heat of the midday sun mum and I spent time acquainting ourselves with the city centre, a really lovely place with lots of character and so much to see. I particularly liked the Arab influence in parts of the city centre like Albaicin. One night we took my Baedecker's advice and searched out a wee Moroccan restaurant where I had my first authentic Tagine, it was a real treat. Of course the highlight of the city trip was the day at the Al Hambra palace - a stunning place and yet so tranquil despite the number of tourists there.