Some Lisbon and Granada Planning

Our departure date for Spain is fast approaching. I've finally made a bit of time for planning some of the details of our time in Portugal and the south of Spain before we head north to our more permanent destination of Oviedo. Details after the jump.
My general thinking for our time in Lisbon and the south of Spain is that I don't want to plan too many details, but I want to have lots of options for us to explore based on what the Little Lady is up to, how fast we adjust to the jet lag, etc., etc. So what I've tried to do is just identify places we want to visit and figure out how far away they are from the places we're staying, focusing as well on whether we need to secure any advance tickets for the sights we want to see.

I've looked in some detail at Lisbon and Granada so far, which are the first two places we'll be. In Lisbon it appears there are a few areas of town/short trips out of town where most of the sights are. There are things in the area of the Alfama neighborhood. Here there are sights such as St. George's castle, Portas do Sol, and some other architectural sights. We can walk to all these things so we'll do it as we have the chance.

Belem also has a lot of popular spots: Jeronimos Monastery, Belem Tower, Contemporary Art Museum among others. This is a partial day trip a tram ride away. We'll devote a half day to this but don't need to figure out exactly when it will happen. We might also consider a day trip to Cascais a beach area, but maybe not. We definitely want to go the Oceanarium, which gets rave reviews. We think the Little Lady will love this.

It does not appear we need advance tickets for anything in Lisbon, so that is good. On to Granada. The most popular thing to see in Granada is the Alhambra. It is also the most popular thing to see in all of Spain. And, it turns out while we are there lots of other people already beat us to the tickets. You can wait in line day of for tickets. But it can be for hours. Not interested. Ticketmaster Spain sells some tickets ahead of time. Already sold out. Get them three months in advance if you want to be sure in the summer. Oops. The workaround is the buy a Granada tourist card which grants entrance to a bunch of other sights as well as the Alhambra, and also gives access to public transport. Three times the price of just the Alhambra but we'll be in town a few days and will probably see several of the other things included anyway. And to miss out on the Alhambra would be just inexcusable, so we've gone the tourist card route.

Next stop is Ronda. I've rented a car for us there so we can drive around and see the white villages on our own time. Nothing much will be planned except maybe for the top towns we want to see. Maybe that can be the next post.