Ah, Granada. *Sigh* I wish I was back there again. Now that we are (currently) in our last stop of our trip, I can say with authority that Granada was my favourite city in our trip. I find it hard to think of something that I didn't like in
Granada. The weather was great, the sights were amazing, there was a
full Orchestra playing an open air concert in a Plaza beside the
Cathedral, the Sierra Nevadas are a stone-throw away, and we saw an open
air theatre where an opera was being played on a big screen. There was
a market, and most notable of all, the Alhambra.
Tom booked our tickets the Alhambra at least two months
ago. And even when he booked them, all the morning tickets were already
sold out for the day. Popular place, eh? There is a limit of about 8000
people per day that are allowed through the site.
Be warned, this post is going to have a lot of photos.
When we arrived on the afternoon of the 7th, we relaxed in
the hotel before we made our way to San Nicolas Plaza and viewpoint. Our tour book
touted this spot as a marvelous vantage point on a hill to take in the
Alhambra as the sun sets. Apparently in 1997 Bill Clinton brought
his entire family to this spot to relive memories from his travels as a
youth. I can only imagine what the security was like for that trip... I
wonder if they shut down the area to the rest of the public. Can you
imagine how pissed you'd be if you had one night in Granada, and you
find the Plaza closed off because Bill Clinton and his family are
there!?
View of Alhambra at sunset from San Nicolas Plaza.
And of course, we shared this sight with several hundred of our closest tourist friends. And all of them seemed to be smoking and blowing their smoke directly at us.
Crowd of onlookers (like ourselves).
We stayed until the sun had mostly gone down, because Tom wanted to see if they lit up the building at night (they do!).
Sundown on the Alhambra.
In the morning, we ate a late breakfast, and took our
time heading out. Tom wasn't feeling so well, and we highly suspect
some sandwiches we ate at a highway service station the day before. It
probably seems crazy to eat at a service station, but we had so many
delicious sandwiches at highway Autogrill's Italy, we were actually
excited to eat them again in Spain.
As it turns out, roadstop sandwiches in Spain are as bad as you would expect. I guess Italy was an anomaly.
We went into the Granada Cathedral, and wandered through
the Albayzin market, and then went back to the hotel so Tom could rest
before our 4:30pm Alhambra tickets.
The Alhambra is one of the last (and best preserved) remaining Moorish palaces left in Spain. It reached it's peak of grandeur in the 13th and 14th century, and was the last Moorish stronghold before it was overtaken by Christians.
The building is designed for functionality, yet the many courtyards were peaceful and isolated within the walls. We explored the palace (Palazios Nazaries) and the fort (Alcazaba) within the Alhambra walls, as well as the Generalife (say it, hen-er-al-lee-fay) gardens outside the walls.
A courtyard in the Palacios Nazaries.
The ceramic tiles and plaster work were a sight to behold. The intricacy of the designs were like nothing I've ever seen before!
Colourful tiles over an arching doorway.
Detailed plaster work on a column.
Amazing plaster ceiling in the Palacios Nazaries.
The Alcazaba was the fortified portion of the site. There is not much left but crumbled walls and a few towers, but the towers offered excellent vantage points for sweeping views of Granada.
Remains of walls within the Alcazaba.
A view of the Granada cathedral from the Alcazaba.
A view of San Nicolas Plaza from the Alcazaba.
The Generalife gardens took up a huge portion of the grounds, and we spent our last hour winding our way through the paths of every flower you can imagine. I've only included a couple photos from the gardens, but there are probably 50 of them on our camera. Tom photo-documented the gardens very thoroughly!
Roses in the Generalife gardens.
More flowers in the Generalife gardens.
It's too bad we only had one full day in Granada. I think we would have been content with a couple more days to hike in the Sierra Nevadas, or wander in and out of the streets of the city. Oh well, it only gives us a reason to come back again!
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