Spain's Ancient City of Granada, the Alhambra Palace, and the Beautiful White Village of Frigiliana – Day 4, Part 2

Date: 2018-10-10

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Continuing from Day 4, Part 1 of our 4-night short holiday in Málaga, Costa del Sol, Spain.

Setting Off for Frigiliana, Spain's Most Beautiful White Village

We finished sightseeing around 5 o'clock and got back in the car. We headed for Frigiliana, a village near Málaga about an hour from Granada. The drive from Granada to Frigiliana took us through vast mountain scenery.

The Spanish drive fast! Everyone was zooming past us. The ones going slowly were probably tourists in rental cars, like us. (Laughs)

Frigiliana – Spain's Most Beautiful White Village

Frigiliana has been voted "Spain's most beautiful town" and is one of the white villages of Andalusia. Sitting at an altitude of 320 metres, it's home to around 3,000 people. Because it's perched on steep rocky terrain, the streets are very narrow. Even the road in front of the hotel is closed to traffic between 11am and 2pm due to the volume of tourists.

The village centre looked like this:

All the streets in the village centre are cobblestone. The walls are brilliant white and the roofs are terracotta orange.

Miller's de Frigiliana – Our Recommended Place to Stay in Frigiliana

Tonight's accommodation was a small boutique hotel in the heart of the village called Miller's de Frigiliana.

Frigiliana is a small village, so there are no large chain hotels – it's mostly small, independently run places. This one had only been open a little over a year, but the reviews on hotel booking sites were excellent, so we chose it. As there were three of us, we booked a two-bedroom room. The nightly rate through Hotels.com was £135 (about 20,000 yen).

Getting to the hotel entrance in the heart of the village was confusing even on Google Maps, so we first parked in the lower car park and walked up to the hotel on foot. The path turned out to be a pedestrian walkway – an extremely steep flight of steps.

The route was charming, but our lack of regular exercise meant we were puffing and panting our way up. The houses are built on rocky terrain, so the inclines and steps were quite steep.

After checking in, they gave us directions, and we slowly, carefully drove up the very narrow, unfamiliar cobbled streets, watching out for pedestrians. We eventually managed to unload our luggage and park the car. Parking cost €5 per night.

The Ground Floor of the Hotel

This is a mini hotel with six rooms. It's run by an English couple originally from England. Apparently the wife's father also ran a hotel in London.

Near the entrance is a lounge with two adorable cats.

They were napping peacefully on the lounge sofa.

A cosy lounge with a wood-burning stove.

Green plants add a lovely accent against the white walls and oak furniture.

In the centre of the building is a courtyard with a tiled patio.

The patio was full of flowers and greenery – absolutely lovely. We were told breakfast is served here almost year-round.

Our Room

The room we stayed in was one of the larger two-bedroom rooms in the hotel.

The main bedroom, with a queen-size bed (slightly bigger than a double). The headboard has curtain rails with cushions threaded through them so you can lean comfortably against them. A clever idea!

The window in the room faces the courtyard.

The smaller double bedroom.

The bathroom is between the two bedrooms.

There's a sofa outside the bedrooms, providing a living area.

The living area also had a small kitchen with a microwave. This would be a perfect place to stay for a week and really unwind. Next time, definitely!

The living room side faces the village street.

Dinner at a Local Restaurant in Frigiliana

After setting down our bags and a refreshing shower, it was already nearly 7pm, so we headed out for dinner. Tomorrow we fly back to London, but since we don't need to leave until around 1pm, we decided to save the detailed village exploration for the morning and eat at a restaurant near the hotel.

In the centre of the village there's a square in front of a church. We chose a restaurant beside that square. There were seats inside, but everyone was sitting at the outdoor tables in the square.

The waiters were a distinguished group of older gentlemen – all wonderful. The waiter who brought the menu explained in English, albeit with some difficulty: "Today's fish: salmon, bluefin tuna, sea bass, sea bream, squid." Taking orders was the job of the one waiter who spoke fluent English.

We sipped red wine and cold water, nibbled on freshly baked bread, and then our starters arrived: salad and calamari fritti!

The salad was a generous one with fruit, tuna, prawns and squid. A rose garnished the top – a fun presentation. All the tomatoes we ate in Spain were delicious. Grown in abundant sunshine, they had wonderful flavour.

And what we absolutely had to eat one more time before heading home: fried squid. The British aren't particularly fond of squid, so once we're back home it's hard to find really good calamari. The squid here was chewy with a light, crispy batter – absolutely delicious! It would be worth coming back just for this.

First main course: grilled Ibérico pork with fresh tomato and garlic. The meat was well-seasoned with salt, and eating it with the tomato and garlic alongside balanced it perfectly. The Ibérico pork had no pork odour whatsoever – we kept asking ourselves: is this really pork? Simply grilled in garlic oil, this dish was a perfect example of the idea that simple preparation is best when the ingredients are excellent. The side dish was a whole oven-baked potato with cream cheese.

Grilled bluefin tuna with prawns and garlic. We ordered the local bluefin tuna landed at a nearby port, thinking we shouldn't miss the chance. The tuna was grilled medium-rare, with a good char on the outside, and served with salty prawns in garlic oil (ajillo). It was moist and flavourful with no fishiness at all. We sliced it and ate it together with the prawns. In Europe, the finest garlic always comes from Spain. Spanish garlic is large-cloved and becomes mellow and creamy with heat – you can practically feel the vitality just eating it.

Beef stroganoff. Our son ordered this because he wanted rice. Stroganoff uses a generous amount of paprika, which is one of Spain's specialities. Made by drying and powdering large red sweet peppers, it gives the dish its deep red colour without any heat. We saw these enormous peppers – twice the size of normal ones – in supermarkets during our trip.

All three of us were quite full after just the starters, but we managed to eat everything. Dessert, unfortunately, was out of the question – there simply wasn't room. We'd have loved to try the local sweets, but that will have to wait for next time.

The waiters were all warm and friendly, and every dish was delicious. A truly satisfying dinner. Thank you for the meal!

By the time we finished eating, it had grown dark. The church across the square was beautifully lit up. The church bells rang every 30 minutes, letting the village know the time – though they stopped ringing at midnight. We strolled home through the beautiful village streets.

We met a cat on its evening patrol. Spain has so many cats living in its streets. We called out "Hola!" in Spanish and it looked our way.

What a packed day it had been. A good night's sleep seemed certain. Goodnight.