Seniors in Spain 2018: 7/26/2018-Cordoba-picking up our rental car, drive to Granada, Eurostars Washington Irving, dinner Negro Carbon

We've really enjoyed our stay at Eurostars Palace. Check out is all in order. I mention we're heading to Granada to stay at another Eurostars property-Washington Irving. The guy in reception handling our check out jokingly says his hotel is the better of the two. I guess we'll have to wait and see. For breakfast I again ask for eggs over medium and again they are cooked perfectly. I am hungry so I also get 2 kinds of pastry. With toast and fruit I'm good to go. Richard has his breakfast sandwich of meats and cheese with lots of greens, tomato, and chopped red onion. He has cucumber slices on the side. We both have juice and coffee. We check out some areas of the hotel. The exercise room. It's not huge but has a treadmill, some weights, a bike, and a few other machines. It has the right amount of equipment for our needs if we had been inclined to use this amenity of the hotel.

Coffee machine

Even if I didn't exercise I had to check this room out and saw that the equipment was nice

I have booked a rental car for us to have from 7/26-8/8/18. Pick up in Cordoba with drop off in Toledo. Reserved this through orbitz.com Cost for Hertz economy car $285.20. I thought this was a great deal. Boy, was I wrong. We got to the train station where the Hertz rental office is located around 12:00 PM-time reserved. A young lady at the counter told us we booked this car with no insurance. I told her we didn't want or need the insurance as we had other coverage. She explained if something happened to the car we'd have to pay ourselves and then try to get reimbursed by our own insurance. Told her again didn't want the insurance. She kept pressuring us. I just wanted our car as originally booked. I really didn't think she was going to give us the car. She was persistent and almost rude. She explained that we needed to provide a receipt for gas fill up at a station close to the drop off office. I said we had done that before so no big deal. Finally my husband signed the paperwork for the car. We got the car-a cute red Ford Focus. We're on the road driving towards Granada when I decide to look at the car paperwork and notice that insurance has been added! I'm fuming but will contact orbitz.com as soon as we get to our Granada hotel to ask that this charge be removed. On the slip are my husband's initials accepting the insurance but he says he never initialed anything. Now the total estimated charge for the car rental is listed on this slip as being €631.00 which is way more that the amount I booked the car for with orbitz.com. I can't believe this was done after I clearly said I didn't want the insurance. The ride to Granada was nice except for this. Scenery nice. We arrive to Granada in about 3 hours. Follow the signs to Alhambra as our hotel is supposed to be right by Alhambra. See what appears to be parking lot for visitors to Alhambra. Can't seem to locate our hotel. Driving back and forth. Stopping to ask directions but no luck finding Eurostars Washington Irving. Finally end up back near Alhambra still looking for our street-Paseo del Generalife #10. Man walking and my husband asks him. He points to the road by the parking lot. There's 2 roads! One goes to the parking lot. The other will take us to our hotel! We finally arrive at our hotel 4 1/2 hours after leaving Cordoba so we have driven around Granada for a long time.

Cordoba train station

Hertz car rental is inside the train station

On the road to Granada

Eurostars Washington Irving. I have booked this through booking.com. Will stay here from 7/26-7/29/18-for 3 nights. Breakfast is included. Cost $714.47. Or €611.40. This includes the cost of the room, parking for 3 nights, and a small pool bar charge of under $10.00 USD. Cost for just the room for the 3 nights is different each night depending on the day of the week. We stayed Thursday, Friday, Saturday. Cost was €500.90 without the 10% IVA tax added. I've made arrangements with the hotel to have our car parked. We hand our keys over and it will be parked for us. The cost on that is €49.09 for the 3 nights without the IVA added. This hotel is definitely smaller than the Eurostars property in Cordoba but is very nice. Check in fine. There are several seating areas in the lobby/reception area. We check out the breakfast room which is way smaller than Cordoba.

Our hotel in Granada

Bar

Breakfast room

Our room is #316. It has 2 single/twin beds. A chair for sitting. Desk. Electric pot for heating water to make coffee or tea. There are packets to make coffee, sugars, creamers. 2 coffee/tea mugs. Closet has a safe and bath robes. Bathroom has a separate tub and shower. Nice toiletries. Hair dryer. Make up mirror. The view from the room is ok but I was hoping it might have a view of the Alhambra. It's just some greenery, trees. I send an e-mail to orbitz.com about the problem with the Hertz car rental place in Cordoba with the charges we don't want. We unpack and decide to check out the pool. The pool is not rooftop like Cordoba. It's small but serves its purpose to provide some relief from the heat which has followed us from Cordoba to Granada! I would say it needed a few more loungers. We relax and cool off here. I ask the reception staff if they can make dinner reservations for us for 7/27 and 7/28. They will do that. I give them the restaurant information for our choices.

Our room #316

View from our room

Pool

Dinner-Negro Carbon. Supposed to have good steak. This is a small place and a short walk uphill to find it after the taxi drops us off. There would be no way to get dropped off right outside the restaurant. Luckily since we are here early we get a table even though we have no reservation. Drinks-we ordered a pitcher of sangria. Complimentary small cups of salmorejo-chilled tomato soup topped with chopped ham and egg. Richard got the salmon tataki and I had to try the retina beef tenderloin. We also ordered grilled vegetables. Everything was delicious and my steak was moist, tender and cooked medium as I requested. By now the place is full. Glad we were able to have dinner here. Cost without tip was $64.60.

This is where the taxi dropped us off

Restaurant Negro Carbon

Menu-known for its great beef

Address of restaurant

Sangria

Complimentary chilled salmorejo soup

Salmon tataki with sliced potatoes

Grilled vegetables

Beef tenderloin

Our dinner server showed us how to get to the square where taxis would be waiting. This square is Plaza Nueva I think. The fountain does appear to have a pomegranate on top. There is a grand building that has the green Andalusian flag. Tomorrow is the day I've been waiting for-Alhambra! I've planned for nothing else.