Tuesday 25 Feb 2014

It gets quite cold here at night, but we suppose being at over 2500ft at the base of the Sierra Nevada has something to do with it!

Today we became tourists. One of the sights Granada is famous for is the Alhambra, a 13th century palace constructed when the area was a Muslim enclave. In fact it is a series of palaces and gardens that were constructed for the various kings and the complex is now a World Heritage Site. Indeed they are in remarkably good condition, although there is of course an ongoing restoration programme. But, apart from a complete lack of furnishings - they're all in the museums of which there are plenty around the city - it is quite easy to see the lavish way of life enjoyed by the ruling classes of the day.

We travelled into the city by local bus from right outside the campsite and were advised to connect with the no. 13 bus to the Alhambra, which we couldn't find. But it didn't look far on the map so we "strolled" to Plaza Nuevo along the main shopping street and then up the hill to the Alhambra. Big mistake and we later learned we could have taken a minibus, but it was not clear that the no. 30, destination The Cathedral, was the one to take. We regretted it later.

We had been told you needed to book your ticket in advance and indeed most touristy places can do this for you. This is because they only let a certain number of people at a time into the main palaces, however the campsite manager said it wasn't really necessary at this time of year. In the end we queued for 25mins for tickets and got a timed entry which allowed us plenty of time to see the rest. Suspect "in season" it would be quite different and pre-booking would be essential.

But the views were fantastic; once again we took over 100 photos and here are just a few. First off, some of the views from the top:

Looking out over the city

The Cathedral

Palacios Nazaries from Generalife

Towards the mountains to the west

Some of the internal photographs in no particular order - we'll try and identify them where we can:

Decorated pathways

Palacio del Panal

Ceramic decoration

Sala de Abencerrages

Patio de Arrayanes

Ceiling decoration

Intricate wall decoration perfectly preserved everywhere

Patio de Los Leones

An internal garden

Another internal garden

A water basin - bath?

Los Leones

And then finally some of the external views:

Santa Maria de La Alhambra

Alcazabar - Military Fort

Palacio de Carlos V - now a museum

The forested hillside

There are very few places to get anything to eat or drink, though we did find some rather expensive sandwiches in one of the gift shops. Advice - take your own. So of course by mid-afternoon we were both somewhat fatigued! And still we walked back down and through the town to the bus stop!

We didn't see absolutely everything as there are many steep steps to negotiate and we were simply not up to it - our mistake was not taking the bus up the hill. But we would come back again.

Sorry the photos are a bit higgledy piggeldy - re-sizing mixed landscape and portrait views seems to be a bit hit and miss. I'll get the hang of it eventually!