Granada - THE ALHAMBRA!

After looking up at it for a day, we finally got to see the Alhambra in all its glory.  It took some climbing (I mean serious hill and stair climbing, that it turned out we didn't have to do because Google Maps is not as good as you think it is, and Steve didn't think we should spoil the experience by taking one of the MANY taxis and buses that go directly to the Alhambra front door.  Okay, end of rant.)  But, I digress.  The Alhambra palaces were amazing, as so many have told me.  I loved the Arab portion the best: the design, the gardens, the rushing water, the artistry, and the obvious science and math that went into creating this thing of beauty and demonstration of power.

Our guide, Jose, took the opportunity to explain the connections to Islam of many of the decorations and architectural features.  The square is important the Islamic faith and the numbers 7 and 8.  The intricate decorations are literally writing of the name Allah in two different scripts and the few symbols that Islam allows - natural things like trees, plants, and stars (especially the 8 pointed star).

The Generalife Gardens were just gorgeous and this is the end of the season; the gardens in summer must have been extremely lush.  I loved it all - the views from the gardens, the irrigation design, the garden rooms, the myrtle and oleander and every other flower (or tree) you can think of, the varying designs from garden room to garden room, the use of architectural design to make gardens inside the building create a much cooler environment, and the musical sound of splashing water.

The later wall decoration was carved, but originally it was cast in strips and glued to the wall.

The mosaics were just beautiful.

Our guide pointed out that the writing on the wall is predominantly Allah written over and other in two kinds of script.  Notice the green tree edging at the bottom and the inverted trees in white.

This fountain is in the Christian palace that was built for the King of Spain.  Personally, I didn't care for the staid decorations of the Spanish palace.  The Moors did a much better job of decorating, but they were definitely into power and the gaining the upper hand.

[Btw, if anyone is interested, according to my iPhone Health app I climbed 17 floors, took 15,023 steps and walked 6.9 miles today.  And, yes, I think my caboose is a little bit narrower now.]

Our tour started at 5pm and took 3 hours.  So, after the tour, we walked back down to Plaza de la Nueva and strolled back to the cafes at the bottom of our barrio, the Albaicin Quarter, at the foot of the Alhambra.  As we sat and ate our tapas dinner, a small band of musicians serenaded us for the second night in a row with gypsy jazz guitar music, the kind Django Reinhardt used to play (not as good as Django, but these were very talented young men and tonight they included what looked like a tenor saxophone, trumpet, trombone, great guitar, and a very unusual bass made of a long stick and a string with a washtub at the bottom - and he was amazing).


All in all, a wonderful day, even though I fumed at Steve for that incredible death march up hill and never-ending stairways to get to the Alhambra.

Tomorrow, we hop on the knee-crushing bus (with a plan to protect our knees this time) and head for Seville.  We could only get one night in Seville, but our AirBnb is inside the old city.  We will arrive around 3pm, settle in our apartment, and wander the streets of Seville among all the other tourists until the tours leave for the night and we have Seville to ourselves for the evening.  The only rub is that we have not set up any arrangements for the next leg of our travels.  So, it could get sticky soon.

I'll keep you posted, but I think we are headed to Malaga next.

We arrived in Granada!

It was a bit awkward, switching from a train to a bus for the last leg of the trip, and the bus, dear ones, was very tight - I mean, I'm above average in height for a woman and my knees may be bruised.  It got exciting when the lady in front of me reclined her seat a few inches.  So, after 1 1/2 hours on a tight bus, it was a relief to finally arrive in Granada, which by the way is a full size small city with bus service, tram service, traffic, industry, the works.

Thank goodness Steve had his transit app (MoovIt).  He didn't get frustrated, just opened the app and found out how to get to our AirBnb.  Because we had 1 1/2 hours to wait until our apartment was available for check-in, we found a great little cafe called Cafeteria le Duce (using Trip Advisor app) and had our first actual meal of the day since rushing for the train and then the bus. At that point, we walked looking for the bus stop and finally said "oh, heck, let's take a taxi".  This is what we saw when we exited the taxi.

Actually taken from our entryway, looking up hill.

Down hill is a large outdoor cafe and a wall next to the small river.  This is the view from that wall.  The Alhambra in all it's glory.

As much as I like this apartment, the wifi is not very strong, maybe not enough bandwidth.  So, more photos will probably be uploaded from our next stop, Seville.  (Now I owe you the Thyssen museum/Botanical Gardens and the Alhambra.) Wednesday, we take possibly the last tour available of the Alhambra and the Generalife Gardens at 5pm for 3 hours with an actual human guide! Yes, apparently you have to book a month in advance for tickets and we booked from the Bus Station in Granada for tomorrow; we were SO lucky.  (Our host was going to book the tickets and then emailed that we would have to physically go to the Alhambra to get them.  We weren't feeling lucky.  They only allow a certain number per day.)  The price for these tickets was our punishment for not booking a month ahead.  Oh, well.  You only live once and this might be our last time here in Granada. Carpe diem!

Two nights in Granada in our apartment in the historic district.  Then, on to Seville just for one night to see the city by day and night before going on to wherever we decide to go.  Hmmm...  We have some thinking to do.