Latest news with #Granada
Telegraph
3 days ago
- Automotive
- Telegraph
UK's rarest cars: 1989 Ford Granada Mk3 Ghia 4x4, the only one left
Some of the cars in this series covering fast-disappearing models have the power to make certain writers feel incredibly old – such as when realising the third-generation Granada is now 40 years old. Even more startling is that this Ghia 4x4 offered for sale by Martin Howey Classics is believed to be the sole roadworthy example. The Granada Mk3 debuted in April 1985. To motorists used to the Mk2's crisp-cut looks that at a glance resembled an enlarged Cortina, the latest model's 'jelly mould' styling was somewhat of a shock. In addition, Ford sold it only in five-door (hatchback) guise, when the Mercedes-Benz W124, Vauxhall Carlton and Volvo 700-series were more conventional 'three-box' saloons. Ford could argue that the Rover SD1 was a five-door rival, but that was coming to the end of its life. The new Granada represented as much a challenge to dealers as the Sierra had in 1982 when it replaced the Cortina. The Telegraph wondered 'how traditional Granada customers will take to the blandly aerodynamic hatchbacks. Are they sufficiently 'dignified' for business customers?' At that time, a poll suggested that 82 per cent of managers had some choice over their company car. There was a risk of such motorists defecting to the Carlton, but the Mk3 Granada at least retained its familiar name in the UK and Ireland. In mainland Europe, it was named the Scorpio after Ford rejected Lugano, a brand even less likely to appeal to a Weybridge insurance broker. For this country, Scorpio was the ultimate trim level, ranking above even Ghia. Ford hailed the Mk3 as setting standards 'by which other executive-class cars must be judged'. Motor believed the new Granada's chassis 'can stand comparison with the best' and it was Car of the Year 1986, beating the Lancia Y10 supermini from Italy and the W124 German saloon rival. And Ford sold the Granada Mk3 with the promise of 'high technology'. It was the first mass-produced European car with ABS anti-lock brakes as standard on all versions. Furthermore, 'appreciating the business world's fast-growing need for ultra-modern, Ford decided to introduce a cellular radio-telephone option on the new Granada'. This car was designed with four-wheel-drive in mind from the outset. In September 1985, Ford announced the Ghia and Scorpio 4x4. This newspaper reported Ford believed four-wheel-drive would appeal to senior executives who would appreciate its ability to keep the Granada mobile 'under all conditions'. The 4WD system was mechanically identical to that of the Sierra XR4x4, with an epicyclic centre differential splitting power between 34 per cent to the front wheels and 66 per cent to the rear. The differential speed action was automatically controlled. The 4x4 models also had modified suspension and larger wheels. The Telegraph found the Granada 4x4 'impressively safe and stable, if a little ponderous' but thought the lighter Sierra 4x4 'more fun to drive, feeling nimbler and more responsive'. Autocar seemed more taken with the larger Ford, comparing its road manners to 'Jaguar's superb achievement in the ride handling compromise of the XJ'. Motor regarded the Granada 4x4 as 'extremely safe and very impressive' and more satisfying to drive hard than the Audi 200 Turbo Quattro. It also contended it needed more power, thus in 1987 Ford replaced the long-established 2.8-litre V6 engine with a 2.9-litre unit. The sales copy aimed at the Yuppie market: 'It'll be quite a success in the City.' The 4x4's top speed was 126mph, with 0-60 in 8.9sec. By 1989, the Ghia 4x4 cost £20,920 compared with £30,929 for the Audi 200 Turbo Quattro, £20,443 for the Rover Vitesse and £20,904 for the Vauxhall Senator 3.0i CD. A Ghia 4x4 owner would naturally expect electric windows, central locking adjustable steering, a sliding roof 'with louvred blind' and alloy wheels. Not to mention 'heated front seats trimmed in luxurious Astral fabric'. A major facelift in 1994 included the demise of the Granada name; the latest Scorpio had frontal treatment resembling a guppy in receipt of bad news. Production ended in 1998 after about 850,000 units. By then, the market for large cars from a 'non-prestige' marque was rapidly diminishing. The Mk3 Granada/Scorpio was to be the last such Ford. In retrospect, Ford's decision not to introduce a four-door saloon option until the 1990 model year and an estate until 1991 was a mistake. Forty years ago, such versions would have broadened the Mk3's appeal and probably have found more favour with its customer base than the hatchback. Yet, this ultra-rare Ghia is a testament to Ford of Europe's sheer ambition: a mass-production hatchback with four-wheel-drive and anti-lock brakes. And as Motor put it, testers could drive the Granada 4x4 'so quickly and safely in such abysmal conditions'.
Times
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Times
The easy way to see Andalusia's beautiful, history-packed villages
On my first evening in the Alpujarran village of Mairena (population 150), I met the mayor. Rafael Marzon was herding 80 sheep down the lane and stopped to chuckle with the owner of the guesthouse where I was staying about how he had originally bought eight to 'keep his hand in' as a shepherd. He wasn't the only mayor I met on my Inntravel walking holiday, roaming between the whitewashed villages of the serrated Sierra Nevada, southeast of Granada. A phone call to request access to a little museum dedicated to the British author Gerald Brenan in the village of Yegen (population 300) resulted in Mayor José Antonio Gómez turning up to personally greet me and unlock the door. That's the way things are done in the Alpujarra, a historical region that unfurls across the famous mountain range in Andalusia, a place where a vanishing way of life still clings to the precipitous slopes. Here, close-knit communities eke out a living below the snowline, valleys are scented with wild thyme and rosemary, and until recently mules were still a preferred mode of transport. In fact these villages have long shaped our idea of romantic rural Spain, largely thanks to the generations of writers who fell in love with them. In the 1920s, recently released from the British Army after the First World War, Brenan hiked to Yegen, rented a house and lived there on and off between 1920 and 1934. He promptly invited his friends in the Bloomsbury Group to visit — Lytton Strachey wasn't such a fan but Virginia Woolf thoroughly enjoyed her stay — and eventually wrote South from Granada about village life. In the 1990s the former Genesis drummer Chris Stewart's book Driving over Lemons convinced us all that, with a little tenacity, maybe we too could buy a remote farm and a flock of sheep, and set about living a self-sufficient life. I read both books many years ago and loved the idea of ranging across the Sierra Nevada, exploring isolated villages built in the Berber style with sugar cube houses tumbling down hillsides. The Moors retreated here after the fall of Spain's last Muslim kingdom in Granada in 1492 and their influence can still be felt everywhere. Their terraced farms and acequia irrigation channels, funnelling the snow melt from higher altitudes, remain. Their crops — almonds, figs and olives — are still mainstays, as are the saffron and cumin used to flavour dishes. So blended are the layers of culture and jumbled traditions that the Spanish poet and playwright Federico García Lorca called the Alpujarra 'the land of nowhere'. • Read our full guide to Granada Inspired by Brenan but looking for rather less adventure than his days-long hikes up and down Andalusia's mountains, my boyfriend and I opted for a more sedate walking holiday. One where we would have a village base and could simply head out to follow different routes each day, ranging from morning strolls of a couple of miles to longer, full-day hikes, always with a brief stop for a tapas lunch. The walking holiday expert Inntravel found the perfect hosts to run Sierra Nevada: An Alpujarran Village Experience in the British couple David and Emma Illsley. For more than 20 years the Illsleys have lived in the village of Mairena, running Casa Las Chimeneas, which incorporates a guesthouse, a separate restaurant and even a yoga pavilion with the most meditative of valley views. They raised their sons here and fell in love with the way of life. You can feel it as soon as you check in: Casa Las Chimeneas is the kind of place that immediately folds you into Alpujarran living. Soon we were nodding buenos dias to the locals as we crossed the square for breakfast in the restaurant. As the sun set and the restaurant's log fire chased away the chill of an early spring evening, we joined fellow guests to exchange stories of favourite walks over dinner. • I've been going on walking holidays for 20 years. These are Europe's best And what dinners they were. Local produce whipped into hearty three-course meals by the villagers Conchi and Fernanda: broad beans with aged serrano ham, fried aubergine with molasses, stuffed mushrooms and red peppers. All was washed down with Alpujarran wine and followed with desserts of chocolate-dipped figs and oranges with mint and dates. So popular is the food that it has become the subject of another book eulogising the Alpujarran experience, Las Chimeneas: Recipes and Stories from an Alpujarran Village, written by the Illsleys. We had opted for a rental car through Inntravel so had the freedom to explore further afield but there was no need. A web of walking trails fans out from Mairena, following old mule tracks and linking together neighbouring villages. And Casa Las Chimeneas can always organise a taxi for adventures. Inntravel's detailed walking guide, sent before our trip, gives history lessons, tips on where to eat and detailed route information so you never get lost. Each morning we would pore over our guide, choosing our route for the day. David and Emma would chime in with their recommendations and were quick to organise additional activities, whether it was helping us to pick up the key to the Brenan museum or the chance to learn more about traditional silk weaving from Lola, a neighbour in Valor, the next village over. Late one afternoon we strolled with David to their smallholding, tasting wild asparagus, fennel and fresh oranges as we explored. Another time, we walked a mile up the road to the next village along from Mairena, Jubar, where just 14 people live full-time. • 12 of the most beautiful places in Spain Here, the church, set on a precipice overlooking the valley, is a remnant of the many cultural layers that blanket these mountains. It follows the design of a mosque and is topped with a Star of David and a cross. Inside, 16th-century frescoes have been uncovered, combining images of Catholic saints and what is believed to be a local curandera (healer), standing at the right hand of Jesus. On the way back to Mairena we popped in on neighbour Isabel, a local beekeeper who delivered a litre of pure Alpujarran honey to David for the princely sum of £7. Wherever we went, a quick phone call from David and Emma opened doors to the communities we visited. At the Brenan museum in Yegen, Mayor Gomez showed us black-and-white photos taken by Vagn Hansen, a Danish photographer affectionately called Juan el Dinamarca (Juan the Denmark) by locals as he returned over the decades to capture their way of life. Just down the hill, Isabel Muñoz and her daughter Carmen welcomed us to Casa Muñoz, their third-generation family business curing serrano ham for sale across Spain and Europe. About 20,000 jamones pass through their bodega each year; it's quite an eerie experience wandering among hundreds of silently hanging legs. After a tasting, we picked up some pre-sliced jamon and chorizo for the road and made like Brenan would have done in the 1920s, following his favourite post-prandial walk alongside the springs that feed the village. On another day, we followed a mule track down to the buzzing market town of Ugijar. The seven-mile round trip from Mairena took us via a rippling stream and past badlands landscapes of rust-red soil, all the while glimpsing views of the ever-present snow cap the Sierra Nevada wears. A rolled ankle prevented a final day of walking. The accident was the result not of a strenuous hike — I was distracted by watching the lavender sunset roll across the valley and misstepped on my way to dinner. So instead, we opted for a half-hour drive along serpentine roads to Laujar de Andarax, just across into Almeria but still part of the historic Alpujarra. It's a handsome little town where the last sultan of Granada, Boabdil, retreated after losing his kingdom. We visited the remnants of his alcazar (fortress), the 17th-century Cathedral of the Alpujarra, and joined locals enjoying a sunny spring Sunday with coffee and churros in the main square. The surrounding countryside is stitched together with vines, and when we realised that the wine we'd been enjoying at Casa Las Chimeneas came from the vineyard Bodega Fuente Victoria nearby, we popped in unannounced. The Suárez family, who own the winery, are recuperating once-lost vines here and while we only showed up to the shop to buy a bottle (from £6), they gave us an impromptu tour of their wine cellar. Just another example of that oh-so-welcoming way of life in the mountains. I had settled into the Alpujarran way of life but Inntravel offers an add-on two-night city break. After following the Moors across the Sierra Nevada, it felt apt to explore the grandeur of their final kingdom in Granada. Our destination was the Casa Morisca hotel in the city's oldest neighbourhood, the Albaicin, which was the Moorish quarter. It sits on San Cristobal Hill looking across to the Alhambra, which in spring glows pink against the last winter snow of the Sierra Nevada. To discover the opulence of the Alhambra's Nasrid Palaces, from where Boabdil reigned, you need to book tickets well in advance (from £16, It's worth it to wander among the brilliant white marble courtyards and through keyhole doorways, taking in the intricate plaster work and flamboyant, colourful ceilings. It was said that as Boabdil headed to exile in the Alpujarra, he turned to take one last look at all he'd lost and shed a tear, only to be told by his mother: 'You do well, my son, to cry like a woman for what you couldn't defend like a man.' It's the kind of story that sums up this evocative corner of Andalusia. Where tales swirl of kingdoms won and lost, and where every corner seems to whisper stories almost lost to history. No wonder it has inspired so many generations of Gordon was a guest of Inntravel, which has three nights' half-board from £470pp, including car hire, route notes, maps and some extra meals ( A two-night add-on in Granada costs from £260pp. Fly to Granada or Malaga
Arabian Business
6 days ago
- Business
- Arabian Business
Inside the second phase of Granada: Why Bloom Living's Mediterranean-inspired apartments are Abu Dhabi's next real estate hotspot
What does a modern home in Abu Dhabi look like today? For Bloom Holding, one of the UAE's foremost developers of sought after communities, the answer lies in the second phase of Granada, situated within Bloom Living, the company's fully integrated and all-inclusive project in the heart of Abu Dhabi. Here, the aesthetics of Mediterranean architecture meet the pragmatism of post-pandemic living: low-rise, light-filled apartments, wrapped around green courtyards and shaded playgrounds, priced to attract end users and investors alike. The second phase of Granada is a sign of what the future of urban planning in Abu Dhabi could resemble – walkable, self-contained, multigenerational, and value-driven. 'Granada transcends the notion of a residential area; it is a lifestyle destination crafted to cultivate a genuine sense of community,' explains Carlos Wakim, CEO of Bloom Holding. With prices starting from AED 630,000 and attractive post-handover payment plans available, the second phase of Granada is scheduled to be completed in Q1 2028, and will comprise spacious studios, to upscale one-, two-, and three-bedroom apartments with modern and elegant finishing, open floor plans, and high ceilings. Granada's low-rise design avoids the density of vertical living. Instead, residents will find themselves in eight four-storey buildings designed around the principles of space, light, and flow. Each building connects to the larger vision of Bloom Living, where every day needs – gyms, cafés, schools, parks, and supermarkets – are within walking distance. 'We are seeing growing demand for spacious, high-quality apartments within mixed-use environments,' Wakim adds. 'In this carefully planned, self-sufficient community, residents have everything they need, all within short walking distance'. There's also a structural investment argument to be made. Granada sits in Zayed City, a district fast-tracking its relevance thanks to its proximity to Zayed International Airport and government infrastructure spending. For investors, Bloom Living offers not just rental yield potential, but long-term capital appreciation in one of the UAE's most stable markets. Add to that the lifestyle layer: a network of multiple uninterrupted, interconnected parks; a clubhouse; a town centre; multi-purpose amphitheatres; and both Sunset and Sunrise plazas offering spectacular views of the community's main focal point – a large lake where residents can walk, run and cycle on designated trails. Bloom Holding specialises in developing mixed-use projects in premium locations. The company has developed over 5,000 units across Abu Dhabi and Dubai and has over 20,000 more in the pipeline. Its footprint spans hospitality (Marriott Downtown, The Abu Dhabi EDITION), education (20 schools), and now, community-centric residential portfolio yet, Bloom Living. The second phase of Granada represents a shift towards liveable density, grounded design, and practical luxury.
Yahoo
23-05-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Bayern Munich forward available at reduced price
Bayern Munich winger Bryan Zaragoza will be on the move this summer, and he could be set for a second return to Spain. The Bavarian side are looking to move on from the former Granada man, and will look for a permanent sale after a loan move to Osasuna this season. The 23-year-old struggled to adapt to life in Munich, and after six months was back in Spain on loan in Pamplona. This season has been inconsistent and interrupted by injury, but he has shown flashes of his brilliance, earning another Spain call-up late last year. It has resulted in one goal and six assists in his 26 Liga appearances. CF Bayern Insider report that Bayern consider him a failed bet though, and have accepted that they will lose money on a deal. In other words, they are willing to accept a lower offer than the €17m they paid Granada for him. Villarreal interest in Bryan Zaragoza Villarreal are interested in being the benefactors of that development. As explained by Relevo, the Yellow Submarine want to strengthen their squad ahead of the Champions League, and Zaragoza is one of two major attacking objectives they are looking at, ahead of the likely departure of Alex Baena this summer. Bryan Zaragoza will be on the move again this summer. Alberto Moleiro also on the move this summer The other is Las Palmas starlet Alberto Moleiro. The 21-year-old, who reportedly has a €25m release clause, was in tears in his final game of the season at the Estadio Gran Canaria, which many took to be a sign that he will be on his way too. Like Baena, Moleiro turned down a move to Saudi Arabia in January, but will leave Las Palmas. He has six assists and one goal in his 35 appearances for Las Palmas. Reinvesting the Alex Baena money? No doubt Villarreal will be planning for Baena's exit, if it does happen. Atletico Madrid have been strongly linked with a move for Baena, and Villarreal have apparently agreed to let him go this summer, even if his own €60m release clause is not paid. Moleiro would certainly be a similar option in terms of the role he plays for Las Palmas, and someone with room for growth.
News18
23-05-2025
- Sport
- News18
Neeraj Chopra Finishes Second At Janusz Kusocinski Memorial 2025 In Poland
Last Updated: Chopra finished the event in Chorzow second with his final effort of 84.14m on Friday. Ace Indian javelin throw athlete Neeraj Chopra finished second at the Janusz Kusocinski Memorial 2025 on Friday with his best effort of 84.14m on the day. Chopra was edged out to the top spot by Julian Weber yet again, as the German produced a throw of 85.11m in Chorzów. Granada's Anderson Peters finished third on the day with his throw of 83.24m. This was Chopra's third event of the season and the second time he finished second-best to Weber, after the German upstaged the double Olympic medallist at the Doha Diamond League earlier in the month. Chopra, who breached the coveted 90m mark for the first time in his career at the Qatari capital city with a throw of 90.23m, was usurped to the title at the prestigious Diamond League event by Weber, who also brought up his maiden 90m plus throw with an incredible 91.06m effort. ALSO READ| Caroline Garcia To Bid Farewell At French Open 2025 Chopra began his season with a top-placed finish at the Potch Invitational Meet in Potchefstroom in South Africa with his 84.52m throw in April, before Weber's double over the Indian at Doha and Poland. Home hopes Cyprian Mrzyglod and Marcin Krukowski finished fourth and fifth respectively with their best efforts of 80.49m and 79.47m. Moldovan Andrian Mardare finished sixth with his throw of 72.81m. Chopra was scheduled to headline the NC Classic in Bengaluru on the 24th of May before the event was pushed in the wake of the rising tension between India and its neighbour Pakistan following an armed conflict between the rival nations. First Published: May 23, 2025, 22:51 IST
