Granada

November 11, 2021

The Alhambra

When I was a teenager, I liberated a book from my high school library. I justified this by (1) it was an old book that somebody had donated, and (2) nobody other than me had ever checked it out in the decades it had been in the school library. The book was Richard Halliburton: His Story of His Life's Adventures and I still have it, along with other books he wrote, acquired legally at used-book stores. It may have been this book that caused my travel bug to really flare up back then.

In it, Richard describes visiting the Alhambra and I've wanted to visit for myself ever since. Unlike him, I doubt I'll have it to myself as I'm about 100 years later. I doubt also that I'd be able to get away with a nighttime dip in the fountains.

But a visit to the Alhambra was the plan for today. I took many many photos and will only include a few here.

Image not found :( — View of Granada from Torre del Cubo. Our hotel is in the centre left, an ideal location.

It looks like a mosque...but I'm not sure. Seem from Torre de la Vela.

According to the guidebook I bought, this encloses the dome over the Sala de los Abencerrajes, part of the Nasrid Palace. The domes of the Alhambra aren't structural domes but are dome-shaped ceilings suspended from trusses.

and walked through the Jardines del Portal. That's the Santa Maria church in the background.

There's a nice line through the centre of the Jardines Nuevos; you can line up several fountains. There was a queue to take the shot but I liked the story better.

When you buy your ticket to visit the Alhambra, you can enter each site (Alcazaba, Generalife, etc.) once, anytime during the day. But you have a specified time to visit the Nasrid Palace and need to queue up to enter. Our time was 3:30 and we were told to get in the line 5 minutes before. We lined up at 3:15 and got in at 4.

Every surface in the Nasrid Palace was decorated.

There was so much Arabic decoration I really didn't expect to see a ceiling like this in the Nasrid Palace

Imagine our surprise on discovering that the interior of the giant square Carlos V Palace looked like this!

We were overloaded with architecture so that was plenty--we'd even taken a break to walk back down the hill into the old town for a tapas lunch before returning to see the Nasrid Palace. One more walk up to the Mirador de San Nicolas and down through the Arab Quarter and even I was done with sightseeing. On our bikes again tomorrow!

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David MathersWell done you guys…looks like a lot of climbing to get to Granada! Nice to see the blue skies, unlike here where it’s been raining a lot! Thanks for including some food pics.
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3 years ago

Margie AndersonAll caught up again Jacquie. What fabulous touring. Thanks for your blog. Margie
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3 years ago

Rachael AndersonThe Alhambra is one of my favorite places anywhere along with Monreale Cathedral in Sicily. You should keep Sicily in mind for a future trip in the Spring. The flowers are amazing.
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3 years ago

Jacquie GaudetTo Rachael AndersonI created a Sicily itinerary last year, after we had to cancel our 2020 Italy trip. We were hoping to be able to travel again in early 2021 but knew we'd have to be home in May-June to sell our townhouse. Spring 2023 perhaps?
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3 years ago