Alhambra

15 April - Day 31

The drive from Madrid to Granada took us through the Andalusian mountains where we experienced sunshine, rain, hail and even a sprinkling of snow. The scenery was nice especially through the mountain passes and multiple viaducts. Surprisingly, there was only one photostop on the route which I missed. So no pics of the drive.

We stopped at an autostop for gas and coffee. I got a bit confused at the pump because they had two varieties of diesel. The attendent confirmed either one would be fine for the car, one of them being premium diesel.

Autostops are pretty elaborate here. They have a souvenir shop, olive oil shop, restaurant, buffet cafe and a coffee bar. The car park takes hundreds and tens of buses. Some of them have hotels even and they are about 15 to 30 kms apart.

Phillip asked what was the most exciting part of the trip, and from an adrenaline point of view it must be taking directions from the GPS in the city. The software sometimes directs us to non-existing locations, verbal directions conflict with visuals out the window and on the map, and the location of our city centre hotels are not usually easy to detect. On this occasion in Granada, the car park is an underground public park some distance away from the hotel as well.

Once checked in, we are ready for action. The host spoke no English at all, so we spoke in Spanish and English. Amazingly, we not only found the distant car park after dropping our bags off, but managed to get him to book us the elusive Alhambra tickets (elusive because Apple iPad does not support flash and Alhambra needs flash).

April must be a slow time because we managed to get tickets for a 9 am entry the next morning (time is relevent because the Nasrid Palace part has restrictions on numbers per half hour).

With nothing planned, we took a walk to Alhambra for a recce and to pick up our reserved tickets for the next morning. It was a 30 mins walk up-hill (if you were building a palace, it would be wise to take the high ground and the Moors are pretty canny).

Pedestrian crossings have lights in the footpath.

Being a Sunday, there was not too much to distract us, and we got there directly. The gardens were pretty and the many water features we going full bore, having rained recently.

There were two queues for ticket pick-up. One normal one and a shorter one for bookings through travel agents. I reckon we got our tickets from a travel agent and queued there with my print out and Marcus queued at the regular line. So Marcus got to the front of the right queue with no print out and I to the front in the wrong queue at the same time.

We had dinner at a nearby Italian restaurant at 8 pm, and we were the only ones there as it is too early for the Spaniards. Three guys joined at about 9 just as we were finishing.

16 April - Day 32

Alhambra is why most tourists come to Granada. It sits on a hill over looking Granada and is a sprawling area. There are four parts to the site: Nasrid Palace, Alcazaba, Generalife and Partal.

I can do no justice with words about this place, so here is a very brief and poor attempt.

Nasrid Palace in a work of art. The walls are carved with intricate incantations from the Koran, the wood ceilings depict the Koranic paradise (I can't figure out the 72 virgin part) and the water features emulate the four rivers that flow through the Muslim paradise.

Alcabaza is a fort and watch tower overlooking the city and I guess to defend the castle.

The views are pretty cool over the city......

and towards the Sierra Nevada mountains.

The gardens and water features in Generalife are a pleasent walk through.

This tour took us till 12.30pm about 3.5 hours and we were hungry, but none of the local (non-tourist) restaurants were serving lunch till 2, so back to the hotel to check emails and organise our Barcelona accomodation.

It was a seafood lunch, fried baby cuttlefish and anchovy size sardines. We were half way through before remembering to take a shot of the food.

We went for a walk to digest lunch, and as it is siesta, everything was closed till 4 or 5 pm. A very pleasent day indeed.