28 December ’05, Wednesday.
Every travel book we have read and every person we have been talking to since arriving in Granada have said the same thing…”if you want to visit the Alhambra, and you must, you MUST have an appointment”. Well, I went to the office at the campground and asked if they would call for us. “You want it for today???” Fortunately she made the call for us and we were able to get a time for 3:30 this afternoon. That gave us plenty of time to see some of the other sites we wanted to fit into the morning. From the center of Granada you look to the right, and on top of the hill you find the Alhambra…you look to the left, and you find at the top of hill the Albayzin neighborhood. We will see the Alhambra later, so we took off hiking the narrow streets of the Albayzin neighborhood and to making our goal of the St Nicolas viewpoint. The Albayzin area is the oldest and best Moorish quarter in all of Spain, and we really enjoyed walking through it. We walked past many colorful corners, courtyards, flowery window boxes, shady lanes, and a small plaza market. At the top, we visited a Muslim school and Mosque and then walked across the plaza to the St Nicolas church and viewpoint. The views over the city and across the valley to the Alhambra were wonderful. Fact is, in 1997, President Clinton and his family made this one of their stops as well. Further up the hill is another area we had interest in, but with our time getting short all we could do was just look from a distance. That is the Sacromonte, the area of the Gypsy caves. There are many caves dug into the mountainside that have now been fronted with windows and a doorway. This is their home and in some cases, their businesses. Finding our way back down, we had a quick tapas lunch along side the river and then caught the bus that runs to up to the Alhambra. We were to tour the Alhambra in 4 different parts…Charles V’s Palace, Alcazaba Fort, Palacios Nazaries, and the Generalife (hen-ne-raw-LEEF-ay) gardens. We saw so many things we could write about, but I will just have to give the highlights. First, all of this sits high on a hill overlooking Granada and the valleys below. The snow topped mountains of the Sierra Nevada sit high above the Alhambra, and almost totally surround Granada…a beautiful setting. The Generalife was used as a summer home of the Moorish Kings. The Palacios Nazaries was the Moorish Palace that was built in the 14th century. The rooms that we visited were decorated from top to bottom with carved wood ceilings, stucco “stalactites”, ceramic tiles, molded plaster walls, and filigree windows and passages. Now it wasn’t just in the palace, it was the same throughout every building we saw today. The work that was done by the artists is absolutely unbelievable. All of the designs are taken from the Koran’s symbol of Heaven. In the designs that the Moorish used, there were no images of “man” anywhere. The open air areas always have a water feature, a fountain, elongated and square pools, flowing water troughs along the walkways, and more. The vegetation is always sculptured, and the pathways are inlaid bricks or stone. One of the most photographed parts of the Alhambra is the Court of the Lions which features 12 lions holding a large fountain on their back. Each of the lions used to spout water from its mouth. It was a way for the Moorish King and court to tell time by which lion was spouting the water. 4 hours later, we boarded the same bus that took us to the Alhambra and rode it down the hill and into town. When we got there, we decided to stay put and see just where this bus would go. It ended up taking us back up to the Albayzin area through some of the narrowest streets you could ever imagine. There were places that were so close to each side that the mirror would all most touch on each side at once. Don’t rock the bus !!! Then it was down the hill on the other side… What a wizard… One more bus to catch and we had to get on our way. Tomorrow, check-out and head across country to Benadorm
Every travel book we have read and every person we have been talking to since arriving in Granada have said the same thing…”if you want to visit the Alhambra, and you must, you MUST have an appointment”. Well, I went to the office at the campground and asked if they would call for us. “You want it for today???” Fortunately she made the call for us and we were able to get a time for 3:30 this afternoon. That gave us plenty of time to see some of the other sites we wanted to fit into the morning. From the center of Granada you look to the right, and on top of the hill you find the Alhambra…you look to the left, and you find at the top of hill the Albayzin neighborhood. We will see the Alhambra later, so we took off hiking the narrow streets of the Albayzin neighborhood and to making our goal of the St Nicolas viewpoint. The Albayzin area is the oldest and best Moorish quarter in all of Spain, and we really enjoyed walking through it. We walked past many colorful corners, courtyards, flowery window boxes, shady lanes, and a small plaza market. At the top, we visited a Muslim school and Mosque and then walked across the plaza to the St Nicolas church and viewpoint. The views over the city and across the valley to the Alhambra were wonderful. Fact is, in 1997, President Clinton and his family made this one of their stops as well. Further up the hill is another area we had interest in, but with our time getting short all we could do was just look from a distance. That is the Sacromonte, the area of the Gypsy caves. There are many caves dug into the mountainside that have now been fronted with windows and a doorway. This is their home and in some cases, their businesses. Finding our way back down, we had a quick tapas lunch along side the river and then caught the bus that runs to up to the Alhambra. We were to tour the Alhambra in 4 different parts…Charles V’s Palace, Alcazaba Fort, Palacios Nazaries, and the Generalife (hen-ne-raw-LEEF-ay) gardens. We saw so many things we could write about, but I will just have to give the highlights. First, all of this sits high on a hill overlooking Granada and the valleys below. The snow topped mountains of the Sierra Nevada sit high above the Alhambra, and almost totally surround Granada…a beautiful setting. The Generalife was used as a summer home of the Moorish Kings. The Palacios Nazaries was the Moorish Palace that was built in the 14th century. The rooms that we visited were decorated from top to bottom with carved wood ceilings, stucco “stalactites”, ceramic tiles, molded plaster walls, and filigree windows and passages. Now it wasn’t just in the palace, it was the same throughout every building we saw today. The work that was done by the artists is absolutely unbelievable. All of the designs are taken from the Koran’s symbol of Heaven. In the designs that the Moorish used, there were no images of “man” anywhere. The open air areas always have a water feature, a fountain, elongated and square pools, flowing water troughs along the walkways, and more. The vegetation is always sculptured, and the pathways are inlaid bricks or stone. One of the most photographed parts of the Alhambra is the Court of the Lions which features 12 lions holding a large fountain on their back. Each of the lions used to spout water from its mouth. It was a way for the Moorish King and court to tell time by which lion was spouting the water. 4 hours later, we boarded the same bus that took us to the Alhambra and rode it down the hill and into town. When we got there, we decided to stay put and see just where this bus would go. It ended up taking us back up to the Albayzin area through some of the narrowest streets you could ever imagine. There were places that were so close to each side that the mirror would all most touch on each side at once. Don’t rock the bus !!! Then it was down the hill on the other side… What a wizard… One more bus to catch and we had to get on our way. Tomorrow, check-out and head across country to Benadorm