It had been a long time since we had last been to Spain. It was actually 13 years ago, to Seville in 2012. It was trip we really enjoyed, so it was strange why we hadn't returned sooner.

After trying to learn Spanish on Duolingo (to no avail) in readiness for Peru, it raised my interest once again in the Iberian peninsula.

We began planning a two week road trip of Andalucia but after two expensive long haul holidays last year and two unplanned trips to Italy with Rory this year the budget was a little tight. So we scaled it back to just a mid-week break to Granada.

Our trip began last night when we had a delicious meal at Raymond Blanc's Brasserie in Hale Barns, and stayed in a newly built airport hotel called Tribe. It was cheaper than our regular hotel, with the bonus of leaving the car on-site and it was within easy walking distance of the terminal. We were pleasantly surprised by how nice it was.

"We'll stay again" we said then laughed at our own joke because we were booked to stay again on Friday, when we came home.

This morning we were up at what felt like the crack of dawn but it wasn't. At 5:45am the sun was up and shining brightly. Thankfully it was quite mild as we marched our way, half asleep, across the car park to Terminal 1.

We were dressed for the summer heat of Spain. It was forecasting 38C for this week!

With only an "under the seat" bag each, we headed straight to the security gates. It was oddly very quiet and we were airside within a blink of an eye.

By 7:15am I was sipping my Bloody Mary at Cafe Balazaar.

We both woke up hungry this morning. It's nothing knew for me but Julie rarely does. This morning however she was ready for a full English breakfast, or at least a two thirds English; (a full minus the egg, baked beans and the black pudding). 

So we relocated to Giraffe, another one of our Manchester T1 traditions. I went avocado and egg on toast and Julie went for her bacon, sausages, mushrooms and hash browns. It set up nicely for the day.

After a quick scoot around duty free to collect our traditional champagne and our traditional large Tolberone, we had a quick pit stop at the bar to get two large glasses of Dutch courage before making our way to gate 6.

Whilst waiting in the queue Julie phoned her sister, as she often does before a flight. However, today was different as she burst into song, singing "Happy Birthday". She even cojolled some of the other passengers in the queue to join in the serenade! It was Christine's 70th birthday today.

We boarded our plane, sitting in our usual seats and took off on time. Ahead of us was a three hour flight.

Sat next to us was a young girl called Poppy. She was only 17, on her first holiday abroad without her parents. She was travelling with friends of the same age. Julie became very maternal, giving advice like "Stay away from balconies" and "Don't forget to phone home!" She even bought them a packet of Haribo sweets!

The three hours flew by, pardon the pun and we soon descended over the Guadalhorce valley with the mountains of Sierra de las Nieves in the distance. We landed at Málaga Costa del Sol airport a little early which was a bonus. 

After passport control we found the metro train station and queued impatiently to buy a ticket. Many people couldn't understand how it worked.

We bumped into Poppy and her friends again. Julie wished them "lots of fun" but also reminded them to "keep safe".

We eventually got our tickets, paying €2.80 each. 

After standing on the wrong platform, then waiting for 20 minutes, we eventually caught the C1 metro into the centre of Malaga.

It was busy, standing room only. Julie was struggling. It was unbearably hot. 

Of all the people who were sat down, it was the unlikeliest who stood up to offer Julie his seat. He was a scruffy looking young African guy. It was very kind of him.

Within 10 minutes we arrived at the city's largest train station, Maria Zambrano. Our onward train to Granada wasn't leaving for another two hours so we had time grab some lunch. 

After stopping at a bar that didn't do food, we found a restaurant bar called Juandi where we sat outside but in the shade. It was extremely warm. The first thing I ordered was a cold beer.

I have to say it was possibly the most gratefully received beer I ever had! It was just a fizzy lager but so refreshing. I nibbled on the free olives that came with it whilst browsing the menu. 

The warm weather influenced my choice as I opted for the gazpacho, a delicious chilled tomato soup. It was served in a rustic terracotta bowl to make it look homemade. Whether it was or not was immaterial, it was just perfect.

I'm not too sure why I also ordered revueltos asparagi, (scrambled eggs with asparagus) but I was glad I did. It was served with small pots of oil and sherry vinegar which I drizzled liberally over it, which made it taste amazing.

In the meantime Julie was purring over her piece of swordfish. It's one of her favourite fish and it had been a while since she last eaten one.

We left Juandi. There was no reason for us to move, we just fancied a change of scene. We crossed the road, walking towards a pretty little fountain in the middle of the road, known as fuente Bernardo de Gálves.

A few tables outside a seafood restaurant invited us to sit. It wasn't far from the train station, in fact I could see it from our table. I had my other eye on the clock. We really didn't want to miss our train.

I went inside to order some drinks and came across a beer that's brewed in Granada, the Alhambra, named after the incredible Nasrid palace complex in the city.

It was a cerveza roja, an amber coloured beer. It was a great strong tasting beer.

Back at the train station we scoured the notice board and found our train's platform. I had already bought our tickets using trainline app. It's the app we use at home but I was unsure whether it would work here in Spain.

Before we stepped onto the platform, they scanned our QR code on my phone. A little green light flashed and we were in!  It worked a treat.

Our allocated seats were all the way to the front. It was a very long train of about 12 carriages. The long walk got Julie complaining.

We boarded ours but our allocated seat numbers didn't make sense. My seat, 3D didn't exist! It was a really nice carriage. The seats were wide, the drop-down trays were made from wood, as was some of the panelling on the walls. It was definitely a throwback to the heyday of rail travel. It felt like we were in first class.

We sat down in 3A and 3B and waited for the ticket collector to arrive and move us along but they never did.

The train set off on time, heading out of Malaga towards Antequera. The scenery for much of the journey was dominated by industrial scale olive groves.  As we hurtled down the tracks at 188 km/h Julie fell asleep and was missing it all but I left her to her slumber. 

One natural feature that caught my attention was a lump of rock known as Peña de los Enamorados, (the lovers rock) a large limestone formation in the middle of all the olives that was even listed on the UNESCO hertitage list as part of the Antequera Dolmens site, a collection of Neolithic burial mounds.

We rolled into Granada shortly after 6pm. Our hotel was a 20 minute walk away in the 35C heat. The alternative was a five minute air-conditioned journey in a taxi. It didn't take us long to decide to book an Uber to Hotel Barcelo Carmen. 

We booked this hotel pretty last minute and we hadn't really checked out what it looked like, apart for the fact it had a swimming pool on the rooftop. The foyer, with hints of Moorish influence looked really nice.

We dumped our bags in our room and headed straight up to the rooftop.

The pool was smaller than it looked on the web page photographs but the receptionist had already managed our expectations. "It really is only small" she said.

However, one thing it certainly had was wonderful views over the city, which of course included the Alhambra up on the hill. I was so excited to see it, albeit a small part of it, for the first time.

Looking in the other direction we saw in the foreground the Baroque spires of the Basilica of Our Lady of Sorrows, the church dedicated to the city's patron saint.

Then in the distance, the hills of the Sierra Nevada. We couldn't believe what we were seeing. Was there actually still pockets of snow?!

It was 8pm by the time we returned to our room. Our plan was to head out for some tapas at a few bars behind the hotel but we were both too tired and not hungry enough to be bothered.

So we relocated to our room, and out onto our balcony.

Stepping outside from our air conditioned room made us realise how hot it still was. But it felt so good to be warm. We hardly ever reach these temperatures in the UK.

We watched the sun set and the sky turn black.